Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Abraham Holcman - September 14, 1983

Yeah. Uh, how, how did this experience in Germany come to an end? What happened?

Uh, before it came to an end uh, we had lots of trouble of uh, being in, in Görlitz which is uh, near Breslau, not far from the Breslau. And the, the Russian was clo... closing in on Breslau, so uh, they took us out to, to march. So, we marched four weeks.

For how long?

Four weeks.

Where did you march to?

Around in circles. One, one day we came back in this, in the same camp. We marched four weeks and, and one day we marched back in the same camp.

How did you uh, were you fed?

We were a little, a little uh, a little. The one farmer, he did us a favor, he gave us some milk and everybody uh, had the diarrhea after that. A little.

Where'd you sleep?

In, in, in barns, yards, barns with horses. The, the lice was uh, terrible.

How many people were on the march to start out with?

The, uh... I think half of it was dead already, was two hundred and fifty, I would say, I would estimate, I wouldn't know exactly. About two hundred and fifty. We were five hundred to start with, at that time was two fifty.

Did you see people die during the march?

Uh, no. I didn't want to stay uh, in the back. Whoever couldn't, whoever couldn't uh, march they, they shot 'em in the back. So, I was uh, running for, you know, to stay the front, try to stay in the front.

Did you see them shoot or just hear the shot?

No, no. I just heard, I just heard that whoever sits down, or whoever can't walk they shoot 'em and there's a wagon going behind and they pick 'em up. And I didn't want to look back and see.

Okay. Then what happened after this march?

Then, then they forced us back in one day from that place we were. One day it was a long march and one day they was rushing us back all day, but, but we got back to, to the camp, for the same camp uh, we started out with. And it was terrible. Everybody was uh, was full of lice. And, and, and lice I never saw or heard in my life as big as lice. They were eating in the skin.