Abraham Mondry - June 15, 22, 29 & July 13, 1992
Auschwitz--Smuggling in the Camp V
Can you explain to me more how that... how that started? You... How did you begin to...
Organize?
... organize?
I was hungry. I wanted to eat something else. I got tired of the same thing. They had no foods, you know. Their food was like... like... like potato peels, you know.
Uh-huh.
You're lucky if you get in your soup a potato... potato peel.
This was before you were in the hospital, before you worked in the hospital?
No, near hospital, the same area.
Hm.
So you could build your strength to keep from going down.
Yeah.
You get weaker and weaker and...
So what did you do?
I started to organize. A bunch of guys, they used to go in...out work with civilians, you know. And they asked me, "Can you give me a suit, a sport jacket, pants, shirts... anything you can get." And I... I know... see, I know, see. I know that all the guys ??? the Kapos, when...when they...when they...these effects, you know. I went one time into the effects and he was a German, no Jewish. He was a Kapo. And I touch a coat. I touch a coat, I ??? this coat. And something here, I touch the lapel, I see something hard. So I ask him, "Can you give me the coat?" He said, "Yeah. What do you... what do you find in it?" I find nothing yet. Well, he said, "If you find something, don't forget me." You know, there were two ten... ten gold pieces, Russian rubles. Right here, see.
Yeah, sewn in.
Two Russian rubles. It's like... a ten-piece is like... a little over a quarter, like a quarter, this size. A Russian ruble worth five... five tens. American they have, seven and a half, ten and twenty. Twenty was a big piece, twenty dollars in gold.
So, did you give it to him?
I give him something. I don't know... I don't know what I gave him. I think, I think a bottle of schnapps I gave him.
Where did you get the schnapps?
They used to bring it in, these organizers. Civilians used to bring them in... bring in with the work.
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