Hannah Fisk - January 24, 1983
Life in Gabersdorf III
Can you tell me what Appell is like? The Appell, can you describe those?
The, the star, you mean?
The Appell when--you told me that they had Appell every day.
Oh, the Appell.
Yeah.
When we were staying on Appell.
Yeah.
Uh, were mostly were the Jewish. The Jewish uh, Judenälteste there was with us, you know, and she was counting how many girls. Like I say, we were always the same, we were 360 girls. So, was counting every day the girls. And then the SS came, you know, about three, four of them, because was a little group. And took us to the factory, opened the gate. The gate was always uh, uh, what you call it. You know, we were always, uh...
Locked in? Or...
Yeah, but we were with uh, wires.
Yeah.
Wires. You know. So they opened the gate and they took us to the factory and then I don't know where they went. But when it got time--that was seven in the morning--and two o'clock they came back and again they--we had to stay in line. And ??? they were counting us, if we were there, and took us back. It was going on for five long year.
So you worked about how many hours a day?
Sometimes ten and sometimes twelve.
Mm-hm. Did you have a day off at all? Any?
Saturday--Sunday.
Sunday?
Sunday, we didn't work. Sunday. Saturday we worked a half a day 'til twelve. But uh, then we came home and we have to wash the floor first of all, you know, to be clean for Sunday 'cause Sunday was an inspection. The Lagerführerin came in and she really inspected really everything, the beds, everything. And then Sunday we went downstairs, we had like a basement with the uh, boards, you know. We didn't have no washing machine. Take our little board, you know, it's how get dressed and everything. We were going around naked all Sunday. And then we put it by the uh, the heat to dry. Winter was terrible. Summer was, you know, you put it outside, it was not too bad. But winter was terrible. Many times I come down Monday morning and it was still wet. What can I do? But for some reason, we were strong. I don't remember having a cold for five years. I don't remember having a toothache for five years. I don't know why.
Were many people sick there or were...
Not, not unusual, like I say, not unusual. In this kind condition? My God, I wouldn't last--sometimes I sit down with my husband and I says, "I can't believe it, it's me. That I am in my own body, that I went through." It's, it's, it's really undescribable. Whatever I tell you, I tell you a quarter. It's unbelievable.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn