Freda Magnus - July 22, 1982
Life in Concentration Camp
Before the DP camp, was there any resistance in any of the other camps you were in?
Not in, not in Łódź, no.
Was there any resistance in any--in Auschwitz or in Bergen-Belsen?
No, no...
No resistance at all?
You couldn't do. They took us in that--yeah the first thing when we came, you know, they used to say, "You see, you see the clouds up there of..." um, you know, from fire...
Yeah, smoke.
The smoke. "You see the clouds of smokestack? There they are burning your parents. Tomorrow you go there."
They told you that?
Oh yeah. "Tomorrow you go there." And then they took us in to um, to um, you know, to give a bath, you know, where all the people but I don't know maybe because I was a young people, you know, there was young group and older group. The older groups they let right away gown down the gas, you know, and we took a bath there and went out.
When did they tell you this about this smoke?
You see, there was--how you tell--people were um, taking care of the blocks you know, you know, what they beat us, they...
Mm-hm.
...and they did warn us that we should listen to them and do everything, you know, or give them away a good things. Like they said, "You have diamonds there, give it, give it to us because tomorrow you'll go there, you see?" And we saw it, you know. They took transport of people every day, every day.
This was in Auschwitz.
In Auschwitz, yeah, in Auschwitz and in Bergen-Belsen, you know. In Auschwitz--but mostly in Auschwitz, you know, they said, "Nobody from here will get out." And they took and there was smoke going and then in Bergen-Belsen you could see millions of, of bones from people lying, you know, a whole hill and they took out men to carry and to bury the dead people, you see. Dead people was lying on the street all over, you know, and people was walking and putting them in, in the grave, you know. And beside the grave there was thousands, you know, just bones lying, like a whole hill of bones in Bergen-Belsen and in Auschwitz. Can't even--you can't even tell.
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