Nathan Nothman - November 30, 1982
Relations with Germans
Did your family before the war ever talk about leaving? Was there any fear that Germany was going to invade Poland or that...
No.
No.
No, we didn't uh, we didn't uh, we didn't think about it that Germany would be--now who would ever believe that the whole world would allow such a thing like this? That Germany should come in and take children what I took with my hand--children--put them on the sidewalk there and the German took a bottle of whiskey, drank, and shot each child three months, two months, four months--I don't know twenty, thirty of them. Just took and that happened. That happened, I was there. Go to, to, go to the hospital and just killed, killed the nurses and the, and the doctors with the dum dum, you know, that, that, that body exploded. I mean, it's, it's--it was, it was slaughterhouse. The concentration camp in Płaszów there was killing and murder everyday. It never stop.
After the war was over and you were in Germany, how were you treated then by the Germans?
Well...
The...
...this is my expression: they were fake for us. So they, you know uh, say, "I didn't know about it," or, "I didn't know about it, and I didn't know about it and I'm sorry I didn't know about." And everybody know about it. But I like to find out one thing. Where were the millions who raised their hand? Where were the people who raised their hand and say to them, "Well we follow you, like the Nazis, like the SS. We will give the life to you." They, they, they give the life to Hitler. The Nazis give the life, the SS give the life. Anything, they obey the law blindfoldly. But I don't blame the Germans so much, the whole world for that. Where was the whole world? They were sleeping. Where were the whole world, what happened? In 1942-43 if they will go ahead and say "Stop." There were inspection. I remember we were talking about inspections, inspector uh, uh, Sweden or Switzerland came to inspect--not our place. They never came to our place. They inspect in Germany. So sure, naturally the German were too, too clever for them. They give 'em the meat to eat, but they cannot torture. They give 'em meat on that plate and they see everything. You know, and some, some prisoner tried to eat, you know, he got, he got killed. So they couldn't torture. And they see what--they give 'em meat. They were blindfolded. They di...they di...you know, it's--but the whole world didn't act properly. They should put a more force on them. They should not sleep. They were sleeping. So as long it doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't get to me, I don't care. Where was the whole world? What is it? That the whole world was, was--that you're telling me that the United States didn't know about it that Auschwitz exist or Majdanek exist or concentration camp where they're killing thousands of thousand Jews--non-Jews? Where was--I mean, it's impossible. There was, there was underground. There was, you know. I mean, they knew. They, they, they didn't, they didn't act properly. They didn't, they didn't say nothing. They awake in 1944, with the Hungarian Jews, they awake. But it was too late. There was 5 millions gone already, or who knows how many at that time. The whole world didn't act properly. Didn't act and, and I cannot understand this. I cannot understand this.
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