Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Nancy Fordonski - July 29, 1982

Knowledge of Camps

Let me ask that a different way. Were you aware of what was going on when you went onto these transport trains or when you were being moved from one place to another? When the men were going.

I--somehow I always have faith, if God will give me years to live, I will survive. And if there came some crisis that I really was so down that I said to myself or is it worth it to get up in the morning or is it worth it to struggle or is it worth it to go and to stay in line, because every time you reached out to get something you could get over your head and drop dead on the spot. So uh, but in my mind was that I had faith and I loved my parents so dearly and the thought of them was all the time like, if I really get into some trouble or if I get really in something that they will try--by they I mean if the Germans, the Gestapo, SS--if they will try to kill me, somehow my parents' hand, they will protect me, they will shield me. And this what kept me many times going. And even sometime it came to my mind or maybe we should escape, maybe we should run away. So I thought maybe we will endanger ourselves more by running away and by trying to be on our own then we are with the crowd.


© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn