Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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

And you traded something for it?

Yeah, everything traded. You couldn't exist any other way. You...

Uh-huh.

You live, you was dead anyway, the minute you woke up, if you woked up in the morning. You know, I had one time... a Russian ??? Czechoslovakia, he was no Jew. He was always talking about Jesus, about God, about these things, you know. In the night, he was going to stealing the people ??? the ration, the bread from old age ??? night. Some used to save a little piece in the ration of bread for the morning, you know, for their... for their coffee, ??? for their coffee. And they're complaining, you know, in my... in my room, they... they're steal... they... The bread is missing, you know. And bread was like life and death, you know. And some, they eat them all up at one time. But some of them, you know, like older people, they save a little piece for the morning. And he was walking around in the night, somebody tell me... Used to bring food... Check on the Russian. And we see it was him. So I said... I told him, Oh, Jesus, Jesus told you to go steal from the people, their life? I hit... I hit him ??? two, two bulls , I hit him right in the head. And now you can go see Jesus. Tell him what you did.

Did he die?

Yeah, I cut his head open. Blood was running and they took him away. I don't know. I didn't see him again. After we went to look at... Went to check his mattress, we find, about twelve... ten twelve rations bread, stocked up with bread, you know, little pieces like this... He took the whole ration. The whole ration was about 200 milligram. 200 milligram, let me see, how many ounces? About seven ounces, seven or eight ounces. And the bread, you know what it was made? Chestnuts. The bread was mixed with chestnuts, flour, you know. Used to have an iron stomach to digest it. That's like clay, clay. Well, you see, your stomach help... Your stomach is your worst enemy in your life. Your stomach is hungry, you'll do anything. You don't care. You'll take any chance, you know.