Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Abraham Mondry - June 15, 22, 29 & July 13, 1992

Gangrene, yeah.

Same thing, yeah? Everything black, you know, no, no function. You see, what the biggest trouble was in Auschwitz, every little touch, scratch, got infection blow up like this. Your head, your leg, you know. Every little scratch. Every little touch. A little blood, you got already infection. Your body couldn't fight it. Your body didn't have enough vitamin to fight it. I personal...I personally have enough food, you know. You know how we have food, you know. We have, we used to called organized.

Organized.

Organized, you know.

Stealing?

I used, used to get from the kitchen, from some Polish guy from Krakow. He was another Jewish Pole. He was head of the kitchen. He used to get...used to come out of our building. He used to get everything from the outside. They used to make white bread diet. People die who couldn't eat. They make like white bread, like tiny loaf bread, sliced. And Farina, you know. You know Farina...cereal? We get some of what he prescribed, you know. You know, we, we had extra bread, extra soup we never, we never reported, uh. In the morning we wait 'til eleven o'clock...Oh, surely and we don't report the dead ones, you know. On the sheet, if somebody left, you know. So we collect. It still went on another day, we collect the rations, you know.

To report them late?

We had extra bread, extra soup, to give it to the other people. They say we was a little privileged and they, they nourish us, you know. In German they call it Pflege, Pflege. We was a little privileged. See, they never, we had it better, we don't have to go up in the morning, staying in the Appell. I had a Czechoslovakian guard you know, soldier. He was pretty good. Whoever didn't come, he might not recommend it, you know. Means they work, you know. So we don't have to stay outside in that field, you know.

Uh-huh.

You know that one time there was, I think January, 1943. Somebody run away, run from the camp, you know, escape. And they had the alarm going for forty-eight hours. There was a cold, a cold night, you know. There was about forty below zero. Everybody had to stay without their hats, you know, 'til, 'til they called off the alarm. We stay all night. We stay outside.

From the Appellplatz?

Simply, I got frozen. I frozen, so, you know. I didn't feel it, til I have the stroke, then I start to feel it. Then, everybody walk around uh, every...every...everybody.