Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Lanka Ilkow - October 12, 1991

You, you mentioned also that when you got to Auschwitz you were disinfected, right? They made you--you went to the right.

Yeah.

And then you had to take your clothes off.

Yeah.

And then...

No, we went to the, they took us to the, to our bath, to take a bath.

First you had to take your clothes off, then they put you in the bath.

And, and they--no, they shaved our heads. They took away all the clothes. I had a handmade sweater, which my brother paid for it. And I put it so nice--together that I come and put it on. But everything was taken. And they give you one dress and you're naked under. No underwear, nothing. And you are naked. And the one dress was too big on me, even that dress. And no shoes--the shoes we could keep. So I kept my shoes. No stockings. Just the shoes put on. Uh, shoes high, higher shoes, was made specially. And--because my father made it for me, those shoes, because he was a shoemaker. That's why all the Goyim worked for us, he was fixing their shoes. So uh, and this I had. And then somebody stole my shoes from me. So I had those shoes and our cousin was in the Czech lager just across from us and I told her they stole my bread so she saved uh, I mean, shoes--so she saved bread and bought me a pair man shoes, you know. So I was going in those man shoes and uh, I don't know what happened. Then uh, I got wooden shoes. I don't remember what happened to those shoes. It's the one thing I don't remember.