Regina Cohen - April 18, 1982
Religion in Camp
What did you do? Go back to the barrack?
Was—went back to the barrack. They were very happy to see, and she'd say, "???, she's here again, ???." It was just—you know how fate sometimes has it? You've got nobody with you and you wonder if you try to survive—there's—they've got to be somewhere, but you can't see them right now. It was just as if I had made up my mind to take my chances—I don't want to go and die in a gas chamber because I realized already what's, what's happening. I knew the stench, I knew where they're going, I've seen bodies. And uh, on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah of 1944, I really didn't believe that there was a God. A transport of children—I mean just children, from three to whatever age—were taken and the screams were so pathetic. And I didn't really come out and say, "If there is a God, where in the hell are you?"
How did you know it was Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah?
Because we were obs...we were fasting.
You were fasting.
Mm-hm. Yeah, we were fasting. And they were laughing at us and what they gave us to break the fast was something very salty, and it was so hot we couldn't find water.
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