Anne Eisenberg - May 11, 1982
Transport to Auschwitz
I tell you, we were like, like little sheep going to the slaughter. No questions asked. We were just going up on the train. Fear in our heart. And being very quiet. Just going.
Does the name Somer Stern mean anything to you?
No.
No. Do you know why Transylvania was one of the first areas to be deported?
I didn't even know that.
Oh you weren't aware of that? It was one of the first two areas.
I know they cleaned Sighet first and then they got in the people from the villages to make them in Sighet. I think that's how it must have happened.
How do you remember dates?
I don't. Not at all.
Oh.
I don't remember them. Like the day I got married because when we became citizen I uh, they asked my husband if my oldest son was our illegit because I told them the wrong day. [laughs]
Do you remember any specific actions of persecution against the Jews by the non-Jews.
Specific action.
By someone other than a German, but like just...
Like I say, the Hungarians...
No, I mean...
Our own people in my neighborhood when I went to school, I still was going to school and I used to see those poor people being beaten up and by the beard actually tore out from their faces. And I was a youngster, eleven--twelve years old. What could I do? I was just like being frozen and, and couldn't do much and being, felt so helpless. It, it never leaves you.
Would you consider the German actions as organized terror?
It definitely was organized.
Can you give some examples of it?
Well, how can it be not organized? They built the crematoriums. They, they, they had all those things. It has to be organized. If it's not, otherwise couldn't be done so punctual. They couldn't have killed six million.
Do you recall any special events or sounds or smells during the transport to the concentration camp?
The stench of human waste in the wagons. People being sick to their stomachs. It was enough to--and in the wagons, if that's what you mean.
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