Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Eva Cigler - March 17, 1982

Mm-hm.

[interruption in interview]

Then we was thinking we uh, stay in that block because it was a cleaner block. I don't know if I was talking about before.

Yes, you said that.

Uh...

What happened?

then they find out and the SS was counting and they see three people more in that uh, line...

Mm-hm.

which shouldn't be there. So they took us, the SS grab us and the Kapo said, "Now you go to the gas chamber, they going to kill you." And we were sure enough because we was coming--going with the SS and uh, then we see we, he take us to a building, a office building where the o...rest of the SS was. And was so--thought for sure now it's finished. But we didn't uh, care already because we was very disgusted how the whole uh, almost a year gonna go by and uh, the war is still uh, going on and we still in a camp. So when we get to that office, a SS came out and the other SS who was took us stay with my two sister. And I was uh, the first who went in there. And he was talking to me German and I know what he was saying, what kinda chance you uh, take to go in one block uh, without the permission to work. And he said, "Lay down on the table." So I laid down and he took the whip and I get twenty-five whip in my body. I--after the five uh, when he was whipping me five time, I start--I saw screaming and uh, after that I didn't feel already. But he said, you're going to get twenty-five. I didn't count it, how much I uh, got. Maybe he didn't give me all that twenty-five but it's looked like uh, feel like a hundred. And then I came out and then my older sister went in there. And sure enough I heard her screaming and she get whipped. And then she came out. And my youngest one was in there. But I don't think she get more than uh, ten or seven be...because looks like he was too tired to whip us uh, so badly. And then we came back with the SS back to the block. So the Kapo said, "You deserved it because if they couldn't find you they would, I had the responsibility to watch the girls." And he was scared somebody escaped.

Mm-hm.

So we went back in that block and uh, we stay with that uh, work what we was doing with the material.

After the whippings you went right back to work.

Yes. And crying and crying. And we couldn't feel our back or how we were sitting. I don't know how the day went by. Finally we went back to the barrack at night and we was looking each other back and sure enough you could see the...

The whip marks.

the whip marks and it was flesh, which...

Torn.

torn there already. And uh, then finally came the New Year's Eve. And New Year's Eve uh, uh, four hours before New Year's Eve they again uh, blow the whistle, we have to go out to Zählappell. And they said take all the belongings you know, uh, the things like you eat, uh...