Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Lola Greenspan - April 25, 1983

Liberation

My sister she keeped old pictures from the mother and the father and the sisters the rest--just three sisters I gotted, the older one, no. After the war she said, "Lola you know, I got my mother's picture, everything." And I said, "Oh what the pictures ??? I want to see my mother." Okay. Then, the next, next, next time, we know about this, the war going to be the end and we went by--yeah--??? we went in the, in the La...in the camp, in the barracks. Second day is coming the England he talked to us, and that couldn't come to us in the barracks just to...

In Gabersdorf.

Gabersdorf, everything in Gabersdorf. And he said, "Girls, you know the war gonna be the end." And I said, "Don't, don't say this the end, I don't see the end." Couple days we, the uh, Germans send us working outside. ??? you know the ??? how you say ??? in English? The big um, underground, like underground.

Underground?

Underground.

Yeah.

Big, big. We have to work it.

Like a mine, or like a tunnel?

Tun...just like yeah, yeah. You see, in the old people he said--the Lagerfürher said--the SS said that all girls have to go in this way. We going in by ourselves, nobody go with us. And every girl said, "What's the matter with us? We don't see the Germans. The Germans we know the end--the war going to be the end and everybody is going away." We hide the peoples--the Germans. And the girls said, "We have to go in? I don't think we should go in." Just a one man--is were a good man--a German--he was a good man and this German is show us the place we need to go and said, "Work this." Nobody take care of us. ??? this is the last day before the war--before the end of the war. Then we were in this place, working, working, and the girls said, "Oh, we don't have to work and nobody stay with us, nobody look at us." And then we see the planes coming--the airplanes--??? the Russian, Russian. The put papers, the ups, how you say? The papers from the ups...

Fliers.

Fliers, fliers coming from the up. He say, "Free, everything free." We took it and we so afraid, we don't couldn't believe this. We free? We not free. Everybody's staying the police, the police stay with us. And then the German--in England stay the same place--went the same place, said the England, "Girls, from today we going back to the barracks, we gonna cut the papers, everything going out free." We said, "No, we not can going out free. The Germans can going to come out and shoot. We can going to Auschwitz." We couldn't believe this. Then, this is true, we going back to the barracks and we see the barracks, is everything empty. The Germans not in the camps, everyone's gone away and we see the tanks with the, with the Russians come in. The Russians come into the barracks, he do...he wanna open the doors, he coming inside, he said, "Girls, the war is the end." The Russian. He cut the--cut the, the, the this one the--how you say this in English? The ???. He ??? like um, like this. You see this, this...

Yeah, like the wires.

The wires, the wires. I forgot.

Yeah, yeah.


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