Henry Konstam - October 25, 1991
Jaworzno Work Detail
When you got to Jaworzno, uh, what was it like there? Was it better there than it was in Birkenau? Was it...
Oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
You know, they already had a, your bunk, you know. And you were, you were uh, told to be in, in this and, so, so uh, uh, barrack, you know. And I remember I was number five, I think it was. Um, and uh, the...
And this is where it says you were building a...
You sleep, you sleep in a bed. At least you were in a bed, you were not on a shelf.
And this is where you were building a...
And uh... Yeah.
??? Arbeit.
No, no, no. This was not, this was not... This was Elektrizitätswerk. They built uh, the um, electrical uh, uh,... Electro-supply or something. The power, you know.
What was... But there was a mine there. Right? At Jaworzno, wasn't it a...
Yeah, there was also gold--there, there also was coal mines. I...
Coal mines. So you didn't work in the coal mines.
I did not work in coal mines, no.
Did you know anyone who went into the coal mines?
Oh yeah, yeah. We know a lot of people. A lot of people liked already to be in the coal mines than be on the outside, because in the coal mines it's warmer. You know, we were on the outside, we're working in the out... outdoors. And they were working uh, also there every morning. They uh, they locked 'em up in chains, you know and uh, so they don't walk away, they don't run away. Yeah.
In Jaworzno, what were the working conditions? You had SS guards? Were the guards SS-men?
Always was, yeah.
Always SS. Would...
Not SS, was soldiers. Uh, there were some SS uh, that were on the command. But ones that uh, uh, walked uh, walked us uh, to the, to the work and home, I suppose they were soldiers. Soldiers.
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