Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Ella Baker - May 11, 2011

Alright, so tell me about when the, when the Holocaust happened--began for you? When the uh, the um, the, you know, when--your history, your history, in other words.

So the hardest, you know, the home, my home is my castle...

Yeah.

And ??? they drag you out without, with, without your permission. You, you must go, but uh, it is uh, it is um, sort of a denial and you space out. You didn't think of anything. I remember it was a, a schochet.

Yeah.

And his mother was asking me ??? uh, they gave you some kind of a, some kind of a receipt or whatever paper. And his mother asking, this is the Jewish hum, or, uh, asking uh, what, what, ???, what is that. He says this is a certificate to ???.

[laughs]

So he decided reality, you know.

Yeah, oh okay.

Yeah.

Alright, so you were, you, your family was taken to a ghetto?

Yeah, we went together.

Which, which ghetto were...

Uzhgorod.

Uzhgorod, okay.

Yeah. And this wasn't really a ghetto there was a very temporary things. It was a lumber yard, open sides and it was, it was still March and very cold.

Mm-hm.

And uh, we lived with it.

Mm-hm. How long were you--when, when was this? When were you taken to the ghetto in Uzhgorod?

It was in '44 springtime.

Okay. And who was taken, your, your, your parents and you?

Uh, parents, that's all.

Mm-hm.

Yeah.

And um, how many people were in the ghetto, were taken?

Oh this I don't know ??? and that's all.

So that, so all the, all the, all the Jews from your, home...from your hometown in, in Cop...

Yeah.

Were taken to...

Uzhgorod.

Uzhgorod, okay, in spring 1944?

Yes.

And you were there for a short time?

Uh, a couple months or so.

A couple months. Okay, what happened after that?

Then, then we went straight to the uh, to um, Auschwitz.

Auschwitz.

Yeah.

Mm-hm.

Um, Birkenau.

Birkenau.

Yeah. And that was about 1,000 people in 1 barrack and you were like sardines. And 1 had to turn at night everybody had to turn.

Uh-huh.

You know, it was just like that.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

So you went from the uh, what...

And this was called Vernichtungslager, that was "the destruction lager" I wasn't even tattooed, because I was prepared to, to go in a, in a, in a gas chamber.

Wow.

But what happened is a company came out, needed workers.

Huh.

And they lined us up. And they took about, from the 1,000, about 200 of us and I was 1 of them.

Wow.

And that was another behind the electric wires and so on, but um, it was a, an advantage to go and work and walk the miles to work.

Mm-hm.

Uh, in the snow, but again the guards was walking with you on that same snow, you know.

Mm-hm.

You have to see there is a balance to everything.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.