Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Szymon Binke - June 16, 1997

Departure from Birkenau

Let's go back to uh, there are three thousand of you now on this field.

Right.

And then what?

Well, then they loaded us in, in uh, in cattle cars. Again naturally there, there was no passenger cars. Every time we went, it was cattle cars. And uh, they took us uh, into Germany I think. That was a tough trip. It was hot, no water uh, God, it probably took about three days. And uh, every time we rode over uh, uh, uh, on a bridge there was a uh, river or a lake or something, we're hoping the bridge would cave in and we'd drown. At least you would get some water. Because it's bad. You don't, food you can go without for quite a while. Water you can't. Very tough.

People die in the car?

Yes. A lot of people die in the car. From, thirst I guess. Dehydration.

Do you remember what that was like, having bodies around you?

Nothing. Just tried to stay away from 'em because of the smell. But later on I was, well, that's another story at the end. I'll tell you that one.

All right. Three days on the train...

I think it took about three days.


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