Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Abraham Holcman - September 14, 1983

Factory in Görlitz

How did, how did it finally catch up with you in the German camp and you were finally selected for work?

Because everybody had to work and uh, so I was the last, the last twelve, twelve Jews. Became, became five hundred Jews through, through this camp. So uh, I was the last twelve. And I was lucky I guess because uh, those twelve had the best job in the factory, really.

Where, where was the factory?

In Görlitz. We walked uh, either twenty, twenty-five minutes in the morning to the factory.

And what was the job that you had in the factory?

I had uh, all those twelve galvanize, which is a comb. We, we combed uh, metals.

Do you know what they were making?

Airplanes.

Do you know who, what German company was making the airplanes?

Yeah, Wumag. The name of the company was Wumag.

Did their people supervise you or SS people?

No, really uh, German, German civilians.

How did they treat you?

Uh, we were working twelve hours uh, different shifts. One week uh, day shift and the next week the night shift. The, the day shift foreman was a bastard, no good for nothing killer. The, uh...

Do you remember anything specific that he did?

Uh, anything specific uh, no. I'll give you example. Uh, he was getting lunch and he noticed that uh, that uh, that I picked some out of the garbage basket he threw away. So, the next time he put the foot in and squashed it out together with the dirt.

What was his name, do you remember?

No, no, no, no.

No.

And, and the afternoon foreman uh, he uh, he brought some potatoes once in a while, some goodies once in a while. That's the difference between day and night uh, ??? the foreman. And the one during the day, he had a, he had a store, a milk store, a milk, cheese and stuff like that. But he had to work during the war, so this is uh, the job they gave him.


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