Edith Kozlowski - August 19, 2010
Liberation
Yeah. So you were in Bergen-Belsen then--you were liberated there?
Yeah, April 15th.
Can you tell me a little bit about--is there anything else you really remember about the camp? I mean--obviously it was...
No, we knew something is coming. We heard...
Airplanes?
Airplanes, yeah. But, we used to put spices in the food, when we cooked in the kitchen.
Mm-hm.
And like a week before that, the Meister said, we shouldn't touch it, he's gonna do it. He was putting poison in the food.
Poison in the food.
Yeah. So, a week later the English liberated us. A lot of people died.
Right.
A lot of people died before.
What did you think--tell me about the liberation? Did--did they just roll into the camp? Did the SS run away? Do you remember?
Yeah they run away probably the night before.
The night before. And what did you guys think--what did you think?
I know we didn't believe what we see--I don't know. I don't remember really.
Yeah.
How we went to the other displace, places. How they took us to Lingen, I don't remember that. Where we should live in the mean time. After the war the ???.
Did you see people die in Bergen-Belsen after the liberation, from overeating?
No, didn't see that, no.
Yeah.
Didn't see that. No I didn't see it. Because they were dead from the poison...
The poison already, yeah.
They didn't have food.
Daughter: Couldn't you warn them?
No I couldn't warn them. My--later on we found out what happened.
Daughter: Oh, you didn't know.
Yeah.
How could I warn them? Put up a note somewhere. [laughs]
The Meister would have loved that.
Daughter: You're lucky you didn't eat it.
Yeah.
Daughter: Must have known something.
Well...
I don't know, I don't believe it--that's it. I don't believe I'm here, I don't believe what we did, that's all. What we accomplished, that's it.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn