Hermina Vlasopolos - April 9, 1984
Food in Auschwitz
Yeah, yeah.
...that killed, you know, the Jews. And this, this went on, I mean, I was in Auschwitz for three months and uh, after two months, all of a sudden, they, they told us to get out of the, of the sheds and we, we came out. And uh, the truth is that they gave us, they gave us, you know, I think great amount of tranquilizers in the food. What happened is that I hated so much the food, it was as badly and, and personally among us there are also people who, who took advantage of the situation, the ones, you know, who served the food they got into the kettle with, took out, there was some meat and anyway, they put out with their hands. I was never able to eat it, no matter how hungry I was. I was never able to take--the smell of it just--they gave us in big, big casserole, you know, the food, and we didn't have a spoon or anything, so you took the casserole from mouth to mouth.
Mm-hm.
And we counted the sips. If there was something left, then so many would be happy then the next day it started from other one who had the next sip or two. So not eating this would be--because they gave us bread, you know, that, I don't know, it was a cold bread, it was not made, I don't know, not made of. But uh, they brought in, I don't know, wagons of uh, of ???, which is the German--they didn't eat--I don't know, they got this cheese, you know.
Mm-hm.
The holes in--you can't imagine how big these things were because we were thirty-two thousand. Even if we were a thousand in a shed, but there were thirty-two thousand women just in this one camp. It was a C-camp.
Mm-hm.
And uh, it's not all over the, all over the camp. The others didn't eat this cheese, you know, but I did eat it. And they, they gave you because it was something where they would have thrown out, so they gave it to us. And uh, when I was in the working camp and I was working, there was a pail with, with snails. Nobody touched them and I ate snails, you know. And these things gave me protein, you know, which really, really saved my life. I didn't eat the, the body. O...of course, in two months I met uh, another one of my students when I was a teacher. And, only when I told her why and she knew who I am because I was so run down that she, she looked at me, "It's not possible, it cannot be, it cannot be you," you know. And uh, they came and they said they, they drove us in a very, a big, big, big empty space and we stayed there until, again, everybody was, was fainting to ??? the hot, the sun was very hot and the heads were shaved, you know, no cover whatsoever. And uh, it was not even ??? she, she was hung, you know, after Nuremberg. It was in the küche and she came and she said "Melden, melden," "report, report," you know. And we didn't know if we should listen or not because they never gave--you know, we didn't trust them, of course. Uh, and uh, anyway, there was a commission of civil men and they kept count. "Sprechen Sie Deutsches? Sprechen Sie Deutsches?" You know, "Do you speak German, do you speak German?" And uh, I said, "Yes," and he talked to me and they pushed me aside. So they--out of twelve hundred I think we were there, they chose about two hundred and fifty. It was my, it was uh, two friends of mine. One spoke German because she was from the Bukovina.
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