Hannah Fisk - January 24, 1983
Being Taken to Gabersdorf
Saturday night for some reason, I had to sleep by my sister. I had a funny feeling, because they were already hunting for girls. Catching--they coming at night and taking her from bed and sending to labor camps. I slept by my sister-in-law, who was living like, across the street. They came in one o'clock at night. They took me out from bed. It was in 1940, before Christmas, in December. I remember when I came to the barracks, they were still the water dripping there. They were new--brand new, and the water was still dripping. I have never seen my people anymore.
You were taken alone, then, without...
I--they took me to the lager and from there, I was there about three days. My sister-in-law brought me a pair of shoes and a coat. And about five days later, they took us on uh, where you put the cattles. The trains, you know. What you call this uh, you put the cattles, you know, with the...
Yeah. Cattle car, with the...
That's right.
Yeah.
And I came to Gabersdorf, to that concentration--to that labor camp. The beginning was not too bad. I worked in a Spinnerei factory--in a cotton factory. I happened to be very handy, and I knew every machine there, everything. And, we didn't have no SS, or nobody, you know, just the Judenälteste. You know, she was getting the Appell--how many we were in--360 girls. And uh, went to work every day and came back. It wasn't too bad. Every second day, we'd get uh, about--say about--not exactly half a pound, a little less--bread, a piece of margarine, sometimes a little jam, soup. It wasn't too bad. But in '42, then when it really started getting bad. The SS came in and they took it over. It was really bad. For a while I was working in the kitchen. And I was really good to my girls. I really helped them. When I see a girl was already, you know, down and everything, I didn't let it. We used to sing for them every night. In summer, they opened the window--the barracks were open. They used to say, "Hanka, sing something," and I did. And I cheer them up, you know. We happen to have a Jewish Judenälteste, they're not going to name nothing because she's my sister-in-law.
Okay.
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