Eva Cigler - March 17, 1982
"Organizing"
Okay, you found the star, what did you do with it?
So I put it on my uh, neck with a string.
Mm-hm.
And we had no underwear, but uh, the Kapo in the barrack she was very nice girl, so she...
Now in the barrack or in the uh, place where you worked?
Where we worked...
Mm-hm.
in there, the nightshift. She said, if you change in new things you have to have a stamp on it, because that's how we get the underwear with the stamp.
Mm-hm.
And she said you find the shoe polish and a thread, I mean, what's on the thread, you know the...
The holder for the thread.
The holder for the thread and we put it in a sh...in a shoe polish
Mm-hm, and then you used...
on it and then we stamp it. The German going to see, it uh, looks like a stamp, and she, she or he gonna let you, uh...
Go through.
go through. So that day when I put the star on my neck with the string and that time came the SS and he said everybody open their dresses. So when he came to mine uh, uh, not bra, when he came to mine, uh...
Robe?
robe and he see something be shiny and he went and just pulled the thread. I was thinking, I--they gonna just break my neck or he gonna kill me.
Mm-hm.
EC So uh, after that we never took anything uh, jewelry on ourself, just always change the shoe because they didn't uh, watch that what kinda shoe you had on.
Did he do anything to you?
No, just I get a slap on my uh, face and then I get so scared. I didn't even look up, I just look down.
Were you able to find food?
Yeah, there was plenty food. That was the most uh, delicattesi...in that uh, place. You find bread, you find chocolate. When the transport was bringing in everything came back to us to uh, see it. And we had plenty uh, food there. Uh...
Toothbrushes.
Toothbrushes uh, but we didn't take the toothbrushes. We know it's a no.
You weren't allowed to take toothbrushes.
No, no way, no way. Nothing what is in--was there it's have to stay there.
Did you get any toothbrushes in the camp?
No, no toothbrushes in the camp. We get a little soap, but after when we find out uh, what the soap was uh, how they made the soap, then they wouldn't uh, want to wash with it.
Who told you what it was?
That Kapo was standing there while he was washing.
And what did she tell you, what was it?
She said uh, that's from the people who get uh, burned in a gas chamber. The fat came out and they made soap out of it.
You said you were able to bring shoes back. Did you walk barefooted or did you have some...
No, we took the other gi...the girls who were--we was giving the shoe, we took their shoe. And sometime it didn't fit or you know, uh, it was small. But uh, somehow we push our uh, feet in there and walk back uh, at nighttime and we went back to our work.
What did you do during the daytime?
The daytime we was sleeping, they treat us very good because we was a special place uh, working.
Who's they?
Uh, the Kapo. They was chasing everybody off from that uh, block at uh, daytime they shouldn't disturb us.
The entire block went to work in the um, special place?
No, not the entire block.
In the Brezinka.
No, not the entire. They stayed out in the afternoon, sitting outside.
What did they do?
Nothing, just uh, walking around and talking.
They just walked around...
Yeah...
that barracks.
barracks. And sitting around and walked around just like zombies.
They had nothing to do.
Nothing to do.
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