Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

John Mandel - May 26, 1981

Liberation

On to the liberation.

Pardon me?

On to the liberation.

Okay.

Ebensee? You were in Ebensee when you were liberated?

Yeah, Ebensee. Um, let's see. It should be spelled out here. Here.

Alright. Okay, that's the same way I found it, okay.

See that was a, that was a satellite camp of Mauthausen. Ebensee. Both Melk and Ebensee were satellite camps of Mauthausen.

Hm. Does that mean that they were in the same area, like um, within a kilometer or two?

Uh, well, just like Auschwitz had many satellite camps. You know, there were certain camps that were the main camps and then there were the satellite camps that uh, that actually were under the command of the main camp. And there were, there were, there was Auschwitz, there was Mauthausen, there was Bergen-Belsen. Those were the main camps.

Mm-hm.

And then there were many satellite camps.

Were they in the same area of the...?

Yes, generally they would be in the same geographical area.

Okay. You were liberated by the Americans.

Yes.

Were there any friends or family with you?

No. Uh, there is one man that lives here in, in town that uh, I--he lives in Oak Park, that was liberated with me. Uh, he's the only one that I know from that particular camp.


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