Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Abraham Holcman - September 14, 1983

How... Back to the time period of March or April of 1945, what happened that resulted in your being liberated, freed from the camp. How did that come about?

Uh, that, um...

Do you remember the day?

It was the last day uh, May the 7th, I think. The last day. Uh, we heard that the Russians in, in Berlin already and uh, and here we still in camp. The uh, the last day that, that uh, the Obersturmführer which is uh, came riding in on a horse and he had a speech uh, made an Appell on the... which we were, we were counted everyday, but this time special announcement to make. So, he came on his horse and he, and he was, and he tell us uh, that uh, we should follow him. We going to the American side in Germany. Here the Russian will come in. And uh, we never heard any good, any good thing from the Russian as you know, he was telling us. So uh, so the uh, only, the only guys who left with him are the Kapos and uh, and the uh, Blockälteste and those, those guys who were, helped him out uh, I don't say they help him out, they were scared to stay, so they went along with him.

But you stayed.

I stayed.

And your brother stayed?

My brother stayed. And in two days uh, nobody was around.

There were no guards.

No guards, no guards, no guns, no nothing. Uh, two days.

So, what did you do those two days?

Nothing. We were, we were scared stiff. Uh, in the third day the Germans were back. Then, uh...

The SS?

Different SS. Not the same ones. Different Germans came back and they stood one day and disappeared.

And then what happened?

We walked out, we walked in the street and we saw white flags all over the place.

And then what happened?

Well, first we uh, we grabbed some food.

Where'd you get the food?

Uh, from German. Uh, we went in, me and my brother we had another friend of ours, he was a barber. We stuck together and uh, we went in and uh, there was a German injured from flying glass or something uh, little area. And uh, this, this barber uh, he says uh, he knows a little bit about it and he gonna fix him up. So, but he fix him up, he says, you'll see, I already touched German blood.

Mhm.

And uh, he bandaged up and uh, and then those Germans asked if he wanted food and they brought us up. They didn't invite us in. Uh, we were... It was a big apartment building and we were in the hall and they brought some food out.