Henry Konstam - October 25, 1991
Gronow
Did you hear from them? Did you correspond?
When I was in camp I used to write to them. I used to write to my parents, you know, 'til one day and it was the end of it. I used to write to them all the time. See in the first, when we, at the labor camp you had certain freedoms uh, that you could write a letter, you could receive letters, you know. You could receive package of food or clothes or whatever it was. Uh, but uh, when we got to the uh, the concentration camp it was a different story.
What was the camp?
The labor camp? Well, we um...
What was the name of that camp?
The uh, the Reichsautobahn actually, it was all under Reichsautobahn. Uh, the first camp I was in was in uh, as I say, Gronow, this is on Frankfurt-on-the-Oder.
And you corresponded from there with...
Yeah, my...
Did they correspond back? Did you get any letters from them?
Yeah, they did.
And what did they say?
Not much. Well, at first, I don't think they uh, there was too bad. Because in a small town you could get um, uh, provisions uh, easier than in a big city, you know. Then later on they also made a ghetto in Ozorkow. As I understand, people, there were decent people before the war and they became like the police or, or, or in the Judenrat, whatever it was, and they just... It is uh... The only thing I still cannot understand how a person can change so much. A person that you know all your life, they were a decent people, and all of sudden they just change and become monsters. Desperation, how people can change. The one that's got it uh, the one that has a little bit of a, of a uh, authority, how little, how small an authority, take advantage of this.
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