Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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David Burdowski - May 13, 1982

Did you, did you go back to the camps when you were in Germany?

No. Being in, in German...uh, two years ago when I was in Germany, and they asked me to describe the camp from Jaworzno. I said, "No problem. I mean, give me a pencil and a piece of paper," and they said, "Put it on a paper, the camp," and I couldn't remember. I couldn't do it. So the second uh, day that I was in Germany--the first day we had the trial and then two, two days we had off, and then the trial again. So the minute I had uh, the day off, I said to my daughter, I said, "Now I'm going to show you where I spent my time," so I took her to Dachau and that was the first time I went back to Dachau. And I couldn't even remember Dachau and it was funny, this is the last camp I been in and I couldn't remember. So all you, you kind of wanted to forget and uh, but when I went back, everything did come back to me. They demolished the camp, but they left three barracks standing as it was before. And now the SS barracks and where the SS used to live, they made, made a museum out of it. So and there's a lot of people going through there. I was very, very surprised--thousands of people going through. That's the first time I went back to any of the camps.

Did you see any of those markers that--they're supposed to have grave markers and it says five thousand or three thousand?

Where?

Uh, in Germany?

No.

I guess I had heard that uh, there are these markers and originally it said five thousand and that was how many people were buried there and then all of a sudden the grave marker said three thousand.

In Germany?

Yeah.

In the camps?

No--yeah.

No. I would like to go back maybe to uh, Poland where I was born. I guess everybody wants to go back where he was born. I know it would be very, very heartbreaking. Everybody who, who did go back come back saying the same thing, "I will never do it again." Uh, I would like to go and maybe put a stone or something where my parents died. That would be very heartbreaking. But if I had the chance I possibly will go. Other than that--to Auschwitz, probably I would go back to Auschwitz. Only two places I would like to go back but otherwise, Poland didn't do anything for me; nothing but uh, heartbreak. That's about it.