Ilya Martha Kessler - November 1, 1982
Relatives in Auschwitz
Was there anyone else with you from your, your town or any relatives with you?
Yeah, yeah, was there. It was because uh, all the girls came there together because we went together, so we was together. Yeah, my father took us ??? and was a couple girlfriends mine. Yeah.
And did you stay together? Were you in the same, uh...
Yeah, we tried to stay together, we care for each other. Because when I, uh... So, my cousin didn't want me to have the lice, you know, because you get sick from this. And I was very young, I want better not to move around, not to go to wash myself. So, so mine uh, that's two cousins, my two co... I mean, my father two cousins they pushed me, they and they washed me there. Because they said, "You have to, nobody..." They thought I just going to be alone. "You have to be clean, if not then you going to die from this." So then, if I sometime cried, I am hungry, the other girl, my, my father's cousin, she used to go to help for me uh, brought to us some food there, a little bit and she gave me a little more soup, you know. So, she was very nice. There usually they steal from each other and she was... They was nice to me, they gave me sometime. Even it was in the camp where we was working, they used to... You get a dress, so they used to wash for me, because I never washed before, I didn't know how to wash it, my mother never let me to wash it. So, she used to uh, my cousin uh, used to wash for me. Used to wash my hair because I don't know. So, they was nice to me. Maybe that's one reason I came home, I don't know, because they washed me. Usually they was stealing each other... from each other.
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