Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Clara Dan - July 1, 1982

So you, do you remember the date you were taken from Auschwitz to, to leave there when the Russians were coming?

I don't remember exactly, but uh, I know that for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we were still there because we got candles. And uh, of course none of us ate the food on Yom Kippur, but they had to go and bring the food so the Polish people, the Polish girls ate the food because they were already so hungry. And they had those wooden shoes and they put the food in those wooden shoes, in those ??? and they ate it. And you had to--you couldn't take the food back. So you had it.

So you fasted on Yom Kippur...

Oh absolute...

even though...

Oh, oh absolutely, oh absolutely. But we had to take the bread portion. Oh absolutely. In fact, I have to tell you an incident because this happens once in a million. We were in C Lager and uh, a couple of my friends from back home were in B Lager. And B Lager was a working Lager. Girls went to work there. A Lager was a working Lager. B was a, a working Lager and C was a Vernichtungslager where they took from the selection, where they took you and you knew that you are going to go to the crematorium from there. So one day these girls worked in the kitchen. And these two girls' mother was in our... Let me remember exactly. The mother was with us, okay, in the C Lager. And the two girls were in B Lager, which was a working Lager. The girls were taken for work more than in, in C Lager, okay? And that they had checked people, oh all sorts of people in that. It was known as a ??? Lager, for Czechoslovakian. And one day these two girls--I grew up with these two girls, okay? And my sister was there as I told you in, in Auschwitz. And uh, by that time I had just one aunt left because the other ones died of diarrhea. They couldn't keep the food. And one day these two girls came, they were bringing the food. How do you call those? ??? in what they brought the food. You know, my mind is so blocked now. I'm in another world.

Like a big kettle or some...

Kettle. Kettle. And they told us that my sister and me, that it's our lives for their mother. They have to do it. They are going after everybody finishes the food, they are going to put their mother in one of the kettle.

And take her out?

And take her out to the C Lager, which was one of the ??? Lager. And we just have to take the consequences. They had to tell somebody because I had my aunt there. She was an elderly lady, a sick person. And being friends from home they said that they can trust us. So they said that they don't know how or when, but when something drastic will happen, we should know that the mother is safe in the other Lager. So and how many times we talk about it now and they all remember this incident. But nobody knew why, what happened. So one day, we went out for Zählappell for the counting. And ho belo the steady excitement. She has one number minus and we had one number plus. And everything was--it was thrown out from the barracks. You know, the barracks had actually ??? and, you know, there were three, uh...