Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Isaac Engel - June 16 & 25, 1992

Celle

Then they took you to Celle.

Yes, they took us to Celle. We didn't know it. All of a sudden they took us to Celle. There was a ??? Kaserne place. And then, this was also a place where German soldiers were there before. Barracks with, where German soldiers. And what they did, they closed off that camp. When we were in Bergen-Belsen, the ones, the uh, the uh, German soldiers were there before. And they put--made a hospital, one pla...because there were a lotta sick people. And they put 'em in, in a hospital. And they closed all. Like with the, with the barbed wire around there. And then uh--and all the, the ones they could move or they can, took us to Celle.

And what did they do in Celle?

Nothing. In Celle we had food and you could go out and organize some stuff, you know. Went out in villages and some stuff they used to give us some food.

What did you do when you went to the German villages?

Nothing. We just went into the Burgermeister, like to the mayor.

Mm-hm.

There was, everything was rationing. And we asked them for ration cards. They were afraid in the beginning. They gave us ration card. Gave us a little money to buy for the ration cards and you go into the bakery and you bought whatever you wanted, bread. Went into the grocery store, you bought water.

Did any of the prisoners do other things? I mean, did they look for women, did they, were they angry, were they...

Not the Jewish one. The Jews didn't do it. The Russians did. They took revenge. Some others did. They took revenge. They killed some of these..

Mm-hm.

Germans. Some of the Kapos and stuff like that, they did. The Jews didn't take revenge. First of all, they were weak.


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