Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Charlotte Firestone - March 11, 1982

And in, and in Praust, you were there until, what, until the...

In Stutthof?

Well, in Stutthof, you were there for three weeks?

Three or four weeks.

So that's June?

April, May, early June.

And in Praust, how long?

Praust, we were end of January.

Do you remember the holidays that year?

We knew when it's Yom Kippur. We didn't eat Yom Kippur.

You didn't eat Yom Kippur.

No.

The whole barrack?

Yep. The whole barrack didn't eat. I think--so nobody ate Yom Kippur, but when we went to work, but we came home and we ate then.

Did, did, uh...

We didn't have anything, you know.

Did Macha know about that?

Yeah. She didn't give you no mind if you don't have food.

You said that, before we go ahead, you said, you remember things from Auschwitz. Do you remember seeing any other kinds of punishment? Did, were you ever punished at Auschwitz?

No. I remember when I arrived to Auschwitz, the same night, they called--when I wanted to--I asked uh, if Rhea--if they know about Rhea Hahns. They called me down and the Stubälteste they, they had a little room that was about, I think from here to there and they had a little table and they gave me postcard. I should write postcards to my friend in Munkacs or wherever I had friends, Jewish friends. I should write to them. I says, I don't know where they are, if they are there or not. "You just write. Write." And they told me what to write. "Write you have it very good and everything is good and you are together with your sister." There they knew I have a sister. "You are together with your friends."

Did your sister also write--did they do it to everyone?

I don't even know if she wrote.

So you weren't punished when Rhea told you the rules, you, you learned already?

Oh. Did she tell me the rules.

Did you ever see any others, anyone else punished in different ways? This woman standing out in the cold was one.

And this woman standing for uh, I saw her one morning to the next morning. And I saw her being released and I was standing out there.

Did they send her back to the barrack?

They came and they took her--where they sent--where they took her, I don't know. It wasn't from my block. It wasn't from my block. I just saw that woman--it was, it was uh, you know, I was just amazed how long--she didn't move there, from there--when they took her back, she way lying on the floor already. I don't know if she died or if she collapsed or whatever it was, but I saw them taking her in, taking her.

Were people beaten?

Not that I saw.