Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Pauline Kleinberg - October 28, 1982

Visiting Yad Vashem

Okay.

Have you been there in Jerusalem?

No.

Yeah, you can see those lights burning from each major concentration camp. When I see Płaszów, I know my brother was there, when I see Auschwitz I know my sister is there. But for this other sister, there is no grave, no place--somewhere on the road, a mass grave. And you know when I was there, I walked in but out I had to be carried. I thought I'll never make it out. No, no matter how much somebody will tell you and, I mean, not just three hours or eight hours, they'll never tell you everything, it's impossible. Because every day before the concentration camp, every day was a day of history. Like this Gestapo said, he can't have breakfast if he doesn't have you Jews for breakfast. And they have to have him sacri...give him sacrifices. And then they went out Jew hunting. Who knows when it was. And then they have to take you--I see one time the Torah. They grabbed some of the Torahs with the very religious Jew to dance, dance in the street and all this and kick. You know what, this I did not see, but I heard. What, what I seen--I forgot a very important part. When we had that first raid, they called it a punkt where they were selecting people

Husband: Point, punkt.

Punkt--they uh, uh, from the street children infants whoever had 'em was a disaster. So one young mother--I don't know whether dropped the baby or she just threw it away--they were taking the babies like football on the trucks. So she dropped that infant and a, and a young girl which was--I was going with her to school. She seen it, she--and she knew the baby. She seen it and she picked it up, she thought that she lost her. She picked it up. Because she held the baby she was shot on the spot. One time a woman had just given birth to a baby, so she put on a case and threw in a case to hold the baby until the, the attack will be over. By the time she opened this--I don't know, the baby must have been dead--an infant. You seen such tragedies, I mean, such--I, I can't understand how they, how tho...those soldiers--they were not all Hitler's, they were just ordered to kill. But if, if they would just shoot with bullets would be nothing. But what they did to those infants--with, with those children--I remember on the trucks like they were just throwing them like the balls. How in the world can anyone believe this? If we're going to die it won't be on the tape. They will say--you know, I, I many times asked--and I asked my father about this--I said I saw such sad stories in the Jewish history. But I really, basically I don't believe they were true. So I don't believe my children to believe this. They know their grandparents were killed young. I was in concentration camp, I probably had to work hard and all this. But I don't know if they would believe to all that degree.


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