Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Simon Kalmas - May 25, 1982

Being Taken Away by Germans II

And they rounded everybody up then and took out the...

Sixteen to forty-five, just men. Sixteen to forty-five. Nobody knew where, what, and where they took us, and--nobody knew. And surrounded us on three sides with machine gun. And uh, we all thought that this is the end of it, uh, that's it. But anyways some order came down that they took us in into a big barn somewheres there. And we wait there. You couldn't sit up or stand up, you have to lay. Took away the matches, knives, you know, anything, you know, you had to throw it out. And uh, we were there without food for about three days. No water, no food. Until somebody finally found out where we are and food start coming in. People brought in baskets of food. So I remember that they were throwing into the crowd. So what could I catch--I, I caught a plum, a plum and I divided it with my brother. That's it. And then after--I believe we were there for about four or five days and they started to release--send everybody home.

You had guards watching you this whole time.

Oh yes, the guards were all--until we were released, I came home is all.


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