Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Marvin Kozlowski - August 28, 2002

They put you to work right away?

Well, I tell you what. In a way I was lucky to go to work. I had a Karte-- Arbeitskarte.

Arbeitskarte

I went, I was working in a ??? lager. They had a ??? It was a big building. They took in, they made a big warehouse. It had three, three floors. There was no elevator.

Wife: ???

They didn't need them. They had the slaves as elevators. And uh, was coming in liquor from France, from Norway. Stuff you would never believe. Breads--luxury things that you never thought in your life. These things the SS, they were the first one to be treated those things. They got a hold of everything.

So you worked in a warehouse, is that what it was?

I was working in a warehouse with several you know, maybe fifty other people.

All Jews?

Oh yeah. And uh, I never worked hard. I had obligations in the house, like I just mentioned, to bring water--coffee. But I'm just a little guy, so they took us to the railroad station, tracks, where the rails, the cars, those box cars where there. And we were supposed to unload some wheat. That was the first time. And now the bags was taller than I. And uh, I remember I couldn't pick--they told--all they told me, the guys I worked with, pick it up high, pick it up high. Anyway, I fell down. And I wasn't--I, I dropped the back and I kicked my groin. I was laying there for quite a few minutes. And stood up and since that time, I was carrying the wheat, not length wide, but the width, on my neck. With this, then later, when we came with the trucks we had to go upstairs, carry it upstairs. Second, third floor. That was a tough life. On top of it, they were beating you too for any little thing. So one day I decided, I don't care what they're going to do to me. I'm not going back. They came back, they were looking for me. They did not know the basement was under the back, they did not find that place.