Isaac Engel - June 16 & 25, 1992
Liberation
Now how long before the British came?
The British came on the fourteen of April, they went by. We saw, we saw there were tanks went by with the, with the stars, you know. We knew that this was a different--we didn't know. We knew they're not Russians because the Russians we knew they had red.
Mm-hm.
And then the next day in the morning, a British general drove in there on a jeep with some British uh, soldiers, of course and a few uh, and a follow up with some jeeps with soldiers. They walked in and the SS had left, except for a few of 'em. There was a guy by the name Kramer.
Kommandant.
Yes. And a few, a few more. So they put 'em down in a basement, first they put 'em down in a basement. Then I saw they used to take them out and make with them uh, like push-ups and stuff like this with them. They put 'em down in the basement, back in the basement. And then the--we didn't know nothing what was going on there. Then they start bringing in bread with cans. And the bread was hot and those cans with meat should never be, be given to these people. And everybody got diarrhea. Almost everybody got diarrhea from that food. Hot bread. Black hot bread...
Yeah.
...and those cans, whatever they were. And everybody had diarrhea, including me.
Did some people die?
Oh yes, yes.
Did you see them?
Yes.
With food in their hands.
Huh?
They died with the food in their hand.
No, no. They died from the diarrhea.
Diarrhea. Dehydration?
Yes. If they wouldn't eat, they wouldn't, probably wouldn't happen. But everybody was hungry.
Now what did the British do after that? They gave the food out, but then what else did they do?
Yeah they gave food. Nothing. They really didn't do nothing.
Did they...
They didn't really do nothing. No.
Did they bring all the prisoners out and have them take off your clothes and...
No.
...your disinfected.
No, they didn't.
Nothing like that.
Nothing, nothing at all. They didn't do nothing. They just had some Germans brought in water because there was no water running because there was no electricity. So they brought in water. And then they repaired the electricity and then--and then they took us to Celle.
Wait, wait, wait. There was, there was no running water, so there were no toilets.
Of course there was no, nothing. Right. It was...
And there's all this diarrhea.
Yeah. Yes. They went there anyplace. It was unhumane, let's put it this way, conditions.
Had you ever seen Kramer?
No.
He was in the other camp.
Yes, but they, they hung him. ??? because they made a, when they saw what's happening. They made a--he came from Auschwitz, I understand. They uh, made a first trial that time and uh, he was hung. And if they wouldn't do it, he probably would have been alive later.
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