Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Edward Linson - November 10, 1981

So I went uh, to a basement. I saw barrels with, with herrings a lot, the same color like ???. I never ate in my life this. This was each barrel was three hundred and sixty pounds. And we got to take out this, so I got have a engineering head. We found over there big uh, chains, two chains. We push the barrel, the barrel like this and then they push the, the chains up. And the SS give us, uh, I mean the, the guys give us one barrel and we ate. We got the dysentery. We almost died.

Were you sick with--during the camp, were you, at all?

A few times I was uh, I was uh, very sick.

Also dysentery?

Yeah.

Was there anybody who you knew who didn't have dysentery?

Oh no, they would, they would send you to, to the crematorium. And I, I tell you why. I, I was saying I was in this labor working in this Kommando 98. So we got over there lots of these. So I stole--I organized buttons, little buttons I brought to this camp--in, in the camp. And the doctor knows me--he was a Polish doctor, with the name ???. I remember his name. And he was always so like death. It was so scary. I says, "???" this means uh, "Monsieur Doctor," something like this. "Don't worry what the hell is--we, we going to get out anyway. So what, what is worrying? Made up your mind. Every minute, every minute you got to, to be killed, so what, what is?" So this was the, the truth. It's a true story. In Magdeburg we come back and the, the camp was--the--they, they run away. I open up the magazines and it was hundred fifty women and about thirty boys. I said, "Take everything goddamn it, what's the matter with you?" I took him--I give 'em everything. And they took. So I, I, I--the one what I took--you, you wouldn't believe it, I took a uniform from an SS man. So I--we went out. It was no, it was no more uh, the--what you call 'em? The Wehrmacht was no more. Was just the, the Jugend, the Hitler-Jugend. Boys--the son of a bitches, they--one guy come in, ???. What I had. A uniform of Oberscharführer. So he took away from me. And at this time I was already punch him in the nose and take away the gun too. Was everything goodbye, you know. Just take out for the, for the little towns.