Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Lola Greenspan - April 25, 1983

Life in Camp

You work in the morning about six--five o'clock. Si...four o'clock you have to get up to clean the barracks before we going to work. Later we clean up the barracks and going to the work--she going with us--we have to go in straight, nice to work--it's not far to the work, we have to walk, not too far. We walk in--we coming to the work and she's staying three--one here, one here and one here and one here--SS. You have to work--you don't have breathe, you don't have to breathe, just work, work. And sometimes I was so tired and here, and I'm hungry and my lips are dry, and I said to the England, "Stay with us." Every girl is got an England to stay working.

You were working together.

Yeah. And this was though a good mans, and I tell you the England was very good. Felt so sorry for us, he said--he don't could talk nothing when she stay. Before he talk to us, later he not could talk. And later on he got something--a piece bread in pocket--little piece of bread he took it from someplace and he said--and I taked and eat it she not gonna see and I went afraid to eat. I keeped in here and I'm gonna go in barrack, I go eat it in barrack. That's all. And then the um, how you say?

Once the SS came in, did, did the food change and did the cleanliness change?

That's right, that's right, what I wanna tell you. Then the, the big complaint of the Lagerfürher--she's not a good, she killed us, she this do, the this--the director of the ??? Lagerfürher she tooked an Appell. She tooked all girls, she talk to us--no, she don't know when, she don't know when the mi...the gir...the ??? she don't know when, just the ???. My--and the director talk to her, she go fired. He send her back someplace, she can't stay with us together. He wanna make nice the girls, the director say, he wanna go with the girls good working, we no wanna ??? the girls. He a good man, no?

Yeah.

A good man.


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