Henry Konstam - October 25, 1991
Auschwitz and Chelmno
Okay, now...
That's where they numbered us and you lost your identity. You were no more...
Tell me about the trip from Posen to Auschwitz. They, they rounded you up one day and said you were going to...
Yeah, they didn't tell us where we're going.
Had you ever heard of Auschwitz?
No.
Before...
Before I went there we didn't know about it, no. We didn't know where we were going.
Before you left had you ever heard of Chelmno?
Of what?
Of Chelmno?
No, there, there was no Chelmno yet, those days. Yeah, I knew the city was, Chelmno was a city, Chelmno. But the camp was not there yet.
In nineteen...
When I was Łódź. There was nothing. There was no camps here. Nothing, Auschwitz was then yet.
No, no. Well, it was a...
It was in the beginning of the war.
prison camp. Right. Prisoner of war camp. But not the concentration camp.
No.
So you hadn't heard. Had you heard by 1942? This is what now, 1942?
Yeah, this was uh, 1943, already.
And you still hadn't heard of Chelmno then.
No, we didn't. No.
Nor of Auschwitz.
No.
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