Clara Dan - July 1, 1982
Transport to Hundsfeld
In Poland?
In Poland. And I want you in that group of people. So ??? told us. She said, I'm going to go and somehow come and get the two of you. So ??? said "Oh no, we are five." So she give herself the argument that she can't take five people. So ??? said, "Well if you can't do it, then we are not going. I made a promise to myself and I'm going to see these kids through." So Lili said, "All I can do is look sideways and not see and the rest is up to you then, okay?" So sure enough how we made it, but we made it. ??? pushed us through. And we were happy that we are going to a factory and we will get out from there and we... Every group before it got out from Auschwitz had to go through bathing, new clothes, okay? And we say that now we are out from C Lager, we are on the way to A Lager for a bath and clothes to get out. And ho belo, we found ourselves in front of the crematorium. Something happened and we were rerouted from A Lager to the crematorium. And we knew where we are going because uh, you know, we saw the smoke and everything. And we got there. And in front of the crematorium we were to--we were still lined up, we were told to get undressed and go for a bath. And after we take our bath, we come out and get the clothes. Well, we knew where we were, why that is. But everybody was so... We were like a piece of, like a piece of iron. Really. Nobody was hysterical. Nobody. I think we were about 250 people. And everybody started getting undressed and uh, this is it. And ??? said, apologized that she really meant good and ???. And she still doesn't believe, believe it because she was all her life, she was a religious woman and she just can't believe it that after waiting until to Auschwitz and going through so many selections by Mengele that this will be her destination. And all of us were undressed and all of--and getting ready to go in and all of a sudden an SS comes said, "Stop. Everybody get dressed and go back." So we were taken back. And her niece came back and apologized. But it changed, had a change of uh, destiny for the group of people. But there is a saying that in two days Hundsfeld still needs the people. So about a couple or three days after it was uh, through the microphone the people who were in the group three days ago to line up. And we figured, well this is it, we are going to the crematorium and there is nothing to talk about it so. So we got ready and we were taken in the A Lager, and gave us shoes and food and taken to Hundsfeld.
By train?
Uh...
By trucks or something?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think it was by train. I think it was by train. I think so. So in Hundsfeld this was--this was already I think the last or the last before there was another group of people left in Auschwitz. In, in C Lager, let me put it that way, okay? In C Lager. So we got to Hundsfeld. It was winter already and we went to the factory and worked.
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