Simon Kalmas - May 25, 1982
Transfer to Coal Mine Sub-camp
Yeah, Mr. Kalmas was just showing me the number on his arm. What is the number there?
It’s seven-seven-three-four-seven. And he had three-four-eight, behind me, all right. So we were in Auschwitz for one night. Next day different eintreten. Was—what’s the matter now—they selected strong men for another camp. See, Auschwitz was the main and the surrounding had all kinds of camps. Every ten kilometer was a, a, a different camp. Strong men for a camp that does the coal mining. So at this point I was separated from my brother. I was the strong one. And that’s it. I was a coal miner from 1942 ‘til 1944. Around October ’44, I believe—either September or October—when the bombardments came a little bit more frequent, you know, than—and they da…damaged another camp site. They damaged the roofs, the gutters, you know, and all that—the other machinery. They had a big plant—that’s with the uh, IG Farben Industry. Maybe you heard of them, I don’t know, but IG Farben Industry they called it. And they produced from the coal—they made all kinds of fuel. Grease, fuel, medicine, what have you, out of the coal. So I was transferred out of the coal mine as a, as a skilled worker. So I was transferred out of the coal mine into that camp. That was for the first time that I saw daylight. I worked twenty-one hours a day in the coal mine. Three hours of sleep.
For how long?
From ’42 ‘til ’44.
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