Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Joseph Gringlas - January 14 & 22, March 18, 1993

Conditions in Barracks

What was the barracks like?

The barracks was uh, long barracks. They were put togeth...it was like, between, it was like from wood made out to sleep, to lay down on that barracks. And, and you couldn't--you had to be so close to each other, there was not much room to stretch out. It was like laying next to each other, so.

More than one on each.

It was two levels, you know, one on top of the other one.

Did you sleep next to somebody else?

Yeah, I, I remember one time, it was at night and I don't know, you couldn't sleep because you were hungry. You couldn't sleep. So the SS came in. It was--they didn't put the light on. So he had a flashlight and next to me he was pulling by the legs out of the--from the--from that--where he was laying and pulled him down. And I saw him, him taken out of the barracks. Picked up--like a s...each one, so I was next to him. Who--how, how close can you get? He pulled him out of my--of the line, next to me.

Why did he pull him out?

Pulled him out to take him to the crema...crematoria.

To the crematoria.

Yeah.

Just...

Just like that.

Just like that.

Yeah. Dis...distract me and I never forget.

Um, you, you became a pupil of the Kapo.

Yeah. Mm-hm, pupil, that's right.

This was at Buna?

In Buna.

And...

Kapo.


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