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

Can I ask you, let me ask you a question. When you arrived in Auschwitz...

Was I alive?

When you arrived there.

Yeah?

When, when the doors to the boxcar opened, what do you remember about, about that?

When they opened?

Yeah.

They used to go, they used to have a...with a rubber-hose. He say get out.

Who? Who did?

The SS.

SS jumped in the cars or were other prisoners...

No, they hollered to get out, fast.

Uh huh, raus, raus.

With dogs, with dogs, you know, German shepherds.

Uh huh, was it nighttime?

Yeah, it was night. You couldn't see where you are.

Were you with your mother?

Yeah, there was everybody, my mother, my sister, my brother.

And then what happened?

I disappeared. I went one way. They took me one way. They took them another way.

Except your brother. Did you wonder what was happening to them?

I wondered. Oh, I know. I know what happened to them. They took them to the crematorium. I know.

You knew even then that they were taken to be killed? You knew right then?

I know. I didn't believe in the illusions, you know. I know what's going on. I know right away what's going on.

Had you heard of Auschwitz before?

No.

Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive