Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Mala Weintraub Dorfman - September 15, 2005

Do you remember anything specific that happened in Częstochowa? Good, bad? I assume Mrs. Hoffman still watched out for you.

Oh yeah, she still was with us, yeah. She was with us. And when the end came, she said to me, no matter what, don't move out of here. Hide and stay in the camp, because whoever going to go out, going to be shot. That's exactly what happened. And she was the one to tell me not to go. Whoever listened to me and stayed with me, we lived through the war.

Had you stayed in the barracks?

Stayed in the barracks. Didn't want to go out.

And, and did the Germans call for people to come out?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

And some people did. They were on the road. When, the, when we were liberated and when we got out of camp, we saw them laying on the road dead.

So, the conditions at Częstochowa were slightly better.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or they knew already it's the end of them, who knows. I don't know.

Did you ever talk to any of the German guards?

No, no.

It's verboten.

At one time I was, I was out for work-why did I go out to work outside of the camp, I don't remember-and, so somebody gave me some butter to take into camp. I put it on my body. And the guard noticed it, but he was very nice. He said, next time, don't do it. And I went by with it. That's the only time I ever took into camp. That I'm on, no more, nothing would happen. I wouldn't do it. He was very nice and he said, don't do it again. I said, okay I won't. And that's it. I don't know why I went out to work outside from camp, I don't remember anymore.

Somebody gave you butter.

Yeah, to take it in. And I took it. We were so hungry for butter or sugar. When we got out of camp, we went into a warehouse. It was whisky. We could take whisky and sell it. So, we took a sack of sugar because we didn't have it for years, we didn't have any sugar. That's what we wanted.

So, do you have a sweet tooth now?

Not really, no, not really, no. I like a piece of chocolate, but very seldom I will take.