Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Nathan Nothman - November 30, 1982

So I do remember once, I don't know how can I--now I know it was my brother. There was a transport of Jews going to Leibernau--from Laufen--three kilometer--a mile and a half, two miles. And there is on the, on the farms there are bathrooms outside. There is no lavatory. MN: Mm-hm.

This is no--it's just a big thing, you know, a big hole in that uh, and I was there with my uniform--with that concentration camp uniform and I see there about fifty, seventy-five people walking on the road going to Leibernau and the Nazi watching them. I said, "What about a Nazi would like to go to the bathroom, and I'm inside in that bathroom?" And I said, "Oh my gosh." I froze. Right away I said, "Never go again."

Mm-hm.

So, so what, so at that time when that somebody, somehow--somebody said that the United States Army--they're in Laufen, they came from border, to the Nazi ??? and they run away. So we walk into the forest. We want to walk to the Leibernau. We went to the Jewish camp. We went to a Nazi--Jewish, uh, there was a--they took the Jews and put in that--there was a prison there but they made a camp for the Jews, you know, so they can sleep. And the Soviet was watching them. They would, they would--they took out of the clothes and washed them and shaved them, you know. They wanted to, to...

This is the Americans?

The Americans. The American Third Army. The women, they came in--the Red Cross and they helped. But too many of them were already too late.

Mm-hm.