Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Helen Lang - February 23, 1982

Duties as a Blockältester

To another train?

To another train. We were traveling. I don't even remember how long. We went to Praust. It's by Danzig, you know Danzig in Poland. They had a brand new concentration camp, we were the first one there. But I went with a ribbon already, you know, I didn't take off my ribbon. I went with the ribbon.

Can I stop--what, what did some of the other prisoners say to you? Did they--were they angry because you had the ribbon? Did they, did they...

No.

...appreciate the help you were giving.

I didn't do nothing. You know what I was doing? I was helping them to line up. I didn't do anything.

Okay.

I didn't do anything, nothing. Nothing. I just had the ribbon, you know. That means that I could walk around, I could tell 'em, "You go in the line. Stay in the line." I mean, I wasn't mean to them, you know. Would it matter if somebody else, but somehow I, I got so ambitious. I, I wanted to do something, you know, to help--maybe to help for the people there. I couldn't do anything. I was happy. They give me two plates of soup because I had that ribbon. I didn't do actually anything. So anyway we went away to, to Praust. Brand new concentration camp. It wasn't wired, electric, you know, with electricity.


© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn