Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Eva Cigler - March 17, 1982

Jealousy Among Inmates

There must have been some jealousy.

Yes, it was very jealousy because we start to tell 'em what we were seeing there and they didn't believe us. They said, "You the same way now like the rest of the Kapos, you're not better than they are." And we was telling them uh, what happening and they said "It's can't be, it's can't be." After awhile we stop talking about it already.

Well, they must have been envious that you had food to eat...

Yes.

more food.

They was very jealous. They was calling all kinda names you know. How you get, get the job what kinda privileges. But we didn't uh, have no privilege. We was--I don't know I should call it lucky or not. Just that thirty or fifty girls they called down and uh, put up...

You and your sisters and your cousin all worked in the Brezinka.

Three sister.

Three.

The oldest one...

Mm-hm.

and I'm the middle and the youngest one.

And your cousin.

And uh, cousins of mine and a friend that's how we stand, uh...

In line.

yeah, in line.

And you all walked together to the Brezinka at night.

At night. We went up in the, in afternoon about three thirty. And then we came home around uh, seven o'clock or eight o'clock. It dep...on, it depended on how the transport. If the transport was coming we couldn't come in the main gate because they didn't—we--they think we didn't want to see the whole thing, the transport, how long is

Oh.

the transport. And they was afraid we shouldn't talk to them, we was very close. They was walking by us and we were standing there and we couldn't open our mouth where they was going. So it doesn't matter because it was so close already the crematorium, just a few uh, step where we were standing. So ??? didn't, uh...

Did you empty clothing off of the trains?

No the trains uh, mans was bringing the clothing for us to uh...

What did this Brezinka look like?

The Brezinka, the main ba...bed was there where they shaved us. I remember the bed there. And the Brezinka is full of uh, I think, crematorium was. And that was a special barrack where the clothes, clothing was uh, on. And warm barrack was there was already 'bout fifty girls who stayed there in that barrack. They couldn't come out or in from the camp. They just stayed in Brezinka.

In other words it was a section of Birkenau?

A section, yeah, a section of uh, Birkenau. So they, they name it Brezinka, I don't know why. But a section of Birkenau.


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