Joseph Gringlas - January 14 & 22, March 18, 1993
Nordhausen
And from that we traveled throughout Nordhausen. We arrived in Nordhausen, we looked black. Faces were black. And I said to my brother, "You know, this..." [pause] it, it was all bread, so it's so dark, that, that felt terrible that. I couldn't see human being looked like. But still I said, "You know Sol, if we went through that we're going to survive." [pause] Okay, in Nordhausen, the barracks were not like barracks in Blizyn or, or in Birkenau. The barracks were soldier. The bricks built, like buildings. And we had a little, more like, I don't know they, I don't know how they treat us that time, I, they would just give us a little bit more like a bed, not a bed, but it looked better than Birkenau, it was a piece of, of wood laying. And the feeding was a little better too. I thought maybe they got the, the, they starting getting a better feeling, I mean the, when they treat us a little bit better. But no, it was just, at that time, I don't know, maybe they saw the way we looked or something, they give, they gave us a little bit better, be....And then in, in Nordhausen we didn't know and we, what, what kind of work was going to be there. They took us, in tho...those called Dora- Nordhausen. That was the big barr...buildings and barracks, probably built for the soldiers and they used it for us. And they took us in a little train again, traveling to where. The guards to--on the ground, coming in and I...
V-2 rockets?
V-2. That's the mountains, called the Hartz mountains and they were building the V-1 and V-2, I guess the--Britain--England. We didn't know what's happening. And with the machine with cement floors, putting them in machines. Actually at that time we didn't know what they doing. But later on we found out it was V-1. But from that place they, they made the missile to hit uh, London. So I worked there in, in that factory in a...a long time. I, I and it was civilian, civilians, engineers from the German. They were, civilians, they were not eh, like ca...in camps, nothing to do with the camps. They were working with the machinery, putting together. And one...
Did you ever see Arthur Rudolph? Is that a familiar name?
Rudolph Hess?
No, Arthur Rudolph.
Art Rudolph? The one which had to do with the missiles?
Yeah.
No. No, I don't think I. He was in the high up of engineering. I don't think he would be close to us. So you only saw...
He was deported a little while ago.
Yeah, I know.
About five years ago.
Mm-hm. One time I was--a German civilian, he looked around, in the factory working with us. He took out a pie...he looked around there was nobody watching him. He took out a bread and he gave it to me. You know this time I see some feelings. And then after you, a month working there in that, in the fact...in the, in the underg...those mountains, underground eh, I don't know I must have gotten so that I couldn't work anymore. So they took us in, in a big, those of the barracks there, a building, that i...those building barrack, not wooden, those bricks barrack. And they put on--I remember there was a table on the, a big table, a civilian doctor sitting on, on the other side. And something was glowing, an instrument, I don't know what it was. And they had stripped it into what, they looked through and see how and I was assigned not to work anymore. That what's happened after a few months being in, N...Nordhausen.
They gave you x-rays, is that right?
It must have been x-rays. Because th...and they looked through, might be dark like a ??? you know...
Mm-hm.
...they can see right away through, it's a machine with. And I was put away on the side not to go, not to go anymore to--on to work on the, on the, the mountains for the, building the V-1, V-2.
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