Simon Cymerint - June 8, 1982
Transport to Auschwitz
Could I just step back for a minute?
Yeah go ahead.
Tell me about the transport. You said they took you by train in a cattle car. How many...
From, from uh, from Starowicea [Starowice]?
Starowicea [Starowice]. How many were you in a cattle...
This was--the camp was about fifteen thousand people.
And how many per car?
The car got in about more than a hundred people. And when we came to Buna, and the transport came in, half, more the half from the fifteen thousand, more than half was dead in the, in the cattle cars. Because it was hot...
How long were you in the cattle...
I was in the cattle car about--it didn't took long. A night and a day. The next, the next day in the afternoon, I was already in Buna.
What did you do for uh, sanitary facilities?
Nothing. On top.
On top of each other.
It was a little window and who was stronger tried, you know. It was like sardines. It was in July. The heat was unbelievable. We were just burned up, you know, for thirst. And, and who didn't have any uh, strength fell down. This is like a jungle, a jungle. And the other stepped on it that he could reach because the window was high. It was just a little window in that, in that cattle car. And who was short couldn't reach it. But half of the people, some whole tra...whole uh, a whole wagon, cattle were, were, came and they only opened the doors and unloaded dead people. I've never seen in my whole life something like it, you know, how in a day and a half what could happen to people in that heat and no air and no water and no facilities. Like flies. One stepped on each other. Just a miracle. I don't know how I survived. I wasn't that, you know, big of a man. Just pure luck, I don't know.
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