Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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

Did you talk to anybody in the train? Did you talk to your mother? Did you talk to your sister?

Yeah, my mother was sitting right by me.

You were sitting down. Was it cold? Hot? Did it smell?

God, hot. It was hot, it was still warm, you know. You see, I had money. I had lots of money, pockets of money all the time. Full pockets. And the German mark was still in Warsaw, you could change for whatever you could buy.

Did you have it on the train too?

Yeah, yeah, I wear a pair of boots, I empty out the big, the big heel. I empty it...It was empty.

Your heels?

Yeah, I just pull it off, you know.

[interruption in interview]

Did the money help on the train?

No, it didn't help on the train. It helped to buy things, you know. Like I told you, it was a whole black market, everything. You couldn't get nothing like this. The little ration that they got was nothing. Not like, not to live, not to die, you know, just to suffer.

Did people die on the train?

Sure, people died on the train.

Do you remember?

Suffocated, you know. Yeah, I remember. You had to, you had to stay with them. You couldn't really move. It was so tight. You were...

You were sitting with your mother and your sisters? How old were your sisters?

My one sister was about three years younger. My brother was one year younger than me.

And the other sisters? Were they small?

One of my sisters, you know, like the middle, she was smuggling too, black market, going back to Warsaw, going back and forth.

With you?

She dye her hair, you know.

She dyed it blonde.

See, we had mostly girls, you know, in the black market, you know. A girl was very easy, easy to get away, you know. A girl could've mixed, could've mixed them up, sort of, with other people. A man, though, they look it, they look it in the face, you know. Right away they know he's Jewish.