Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Joseph Klaiman - May 4, 1982

Conditions on Death March

You knew what happened, because when I was walking on the--I was walking from uh, Blechhammer--it was another camp. And we, we walk out from, from the camp, and on the other side we saw the Russian, and we saw the Russian--it was--I would say a half a mile away was the Russian by the walking, and we start to run. So they didn't shoot us. They took out the--that and put in a bayonet--you know what a bayonet mean? A knife in the other side and they was killing us--the people not to holler, not to make noise because they were afraid Russians uh, was uh, seeing what they, what they doing. Yeah. ??? It was not strong enough to and it was not organization enough because the people can't--we couldn't uh, we couldn't do it. So they killed a lot of people just about--and I had to go after, after that I saw the Russian was thinking that's going to be already my--the Russian going to come.

The liberation.

The liberation was--and I was still another three months. This was in--three months I was walking to uh, to Buchenwald. And my friend wasn't--didn't went out he was uh, liberated right a couple days later--a day later he was liberated. So.


© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn