Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Nathan Nothman - November 30, 1982

Losing a Friend in Camp

...we're supposed to step up here for half hour, hour and called, not called. And they just kill and kill and kill without mercy ??? I do remember once, when I came to Kraków-Płaszów, and then they took me to a different job, or they gave me different work. So, two person--two of them had one bed to sleep in. And next to me was a J...a, a yeshiva bucher. A yeshiva bucher is a person who is very religious and believe in God. So, he told me he doesn't want to live. I said, "How can you not live? You're young." No, he will not live, he want to die. I said, "Tell me," and I sleep with him together in one bunk. I said, "How can that happen?" No, he doesn't want to work, he want to die and he's not a--he was with God, he figured if he died, you know, that's, that's what he believed in. And I was talking to him and I explain to him, "You're young, maybe about seventeen, eighteen, you older than from me. But remember one thing, now save yourself." One day I wake up, and he died just next to me--sleep next to me. I don't know how in the world that can happen? How can that happen? Just terrible.


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