Hannah Fisk - January 24, 1983
Relationship With Lagerführer
Hm. Wow. Um, what was the name of the cotton factory? Do you remember the name of the...
Barthel.
Barthel.
Barthel...
Huh.
...Barthel Spinnerei Fabrik. German. Barthel Fabrik. Fabrik is factory. See? I don't remember what I ate yesterday; I remember the factory and that go back thirty-seven years.
Yeah. Where there any medical facilities there?
No way. No way. I remember when uh, one time, the--like I say the German, the German woman was nicer than the Jewish woman. We were more afraid for the Jewish--for the, for the Jewish uh, oldest one, than, than for the German, you know? So if a girl had a really bad headache or something, she used to sneak in a pill--an aspirin or I don't know what. I don't think there was aspirin at that time--the name was--but she wasn't this bad. She used to love my singing, so Sunday she, she had a little room there that was beautiful, ???, you know, and she called me in when she was in a bad mood. She was a girl yet, you know. And she liked uh, from factory, the, the big shots, you know, but he didn't pay attention to her, he has a wife. And so she was sometimes in a bad mood and she used to call me and she used to say, "Call in the Hanka." They know already. So I went in and I says, "What is it, honey? What is it?" She says, "I want you to sing me something in German." She says, "I'm so down." I says, "Why, honey? Why are you down?" And I went over and she kissed me. And she gave me a piece of cake some day, you know? And she says, "Eat here, sweetheart, eat here. Don't go out, 'cause I don't want the girls to know that I'm giving you." And I used to sit down two, three hours with her and sing her German songs. And she loved it, and she loved it. And she says, "Whenever you survive, you think that you guys going to kill me?" I says, "No." And we didn't. We didn't touch her. And the Ger...when the Russians came in, first, you know, they go for the SS. I said--I know a few words in Russian, you know, and I said, "Don't touch her. Don't touch her. She was good to us." And I let her go. I says, "You go home, wherever you live." Like I say, I have a small prayer for the Jewish woman and now she happen to be my sister-in-law.
This is after the war?
[interruption in interview]
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