Alexander Karp - June 22, 1983
Life in Dachau
Where were you taken then from the baths?
From the baths we went into uh, we went into barracks. And we stayed there--it was sometimes the early part of uh, April, no? We went into barracks and--mind you, I spent all those months now with my uncle--and I was looking for the--for that group that left by foot. And that group came in and he wasn't among them. And I, I, I must tell you I was very, very much upset. There were some people who knew him and asked them but ??? they said, "Well, we saw him, he was still coming, he was still coming." But they said, the way--if somebody fell off that had no strength of walking they just shot him. If they felt he's still alive, you know, they would shoot him. If they, if they felt that he is dead, they may have left him. A few days went by and by the grace of God, you know, he arrived. Hmm? How did he arrive? Well, because this is a story by itself. He says when it got dark, you know, he just snuck out from the group and he wandered into a farm house. And because it was so close already to the end of the war--apparently the Germans--for one night he was sleeping in hay in the barn, you know. And next morning they found him. They gave him a little food, they helped him somewhat, you know. They didn't report him, even though they knew because didn't take any--didn't need any explanation now who he was. He was there for about two days--two or three days. Another transport came by and he joined the other transport. So that couple of days was enough for him to get enough strength and to come in. So we were reunited in Dachau itself. So we were there 'til about uh, the last week of April. And at that point Dachau was also evacuated. And this is again--this was the climax of the whole thing 'cause a big percentage of the people died again. The ones who have survived the, the camps--the ones who have survived, but they were not taken to a um, to crematoriums lost their lives in the last ten days.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn