Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Nathan Nothman - November 30, 1982

Memories

Do you read much on the Holocaust? Do you read books?

Yes, I just finish ??? Brandenburg, a book, just finished it about two days ago. About the Jewish--what happened with Hungary. From 1944 there was I don't know how many Jews--a million there. That's terrible, terrible. ??? them. I'm reading, you know, but uh, it's disappointing, very disappointing.

Was there anything else that you'd like to add that we haven't covered?

You're supposed to stay here for five hours. And you know things coming in. I remember in Kraków-Płaszów my sister and she need milk or she need some bread or butter, so she can--she must eat and we have some shoes or, or something to sell. So we went out so the Polish farmers brought potatoes into the camp, but uh, with the horses were that small, so we trade. And somehow I brought my sister milk. I don't know how I begged the Germans this was life and death, I don't know, and my sister survived. Because this is--she was--she is now--my sister now--she's 1929--she's fifty-three years old. Now fifty-three years old. We're thinking now from 1942, she was eleven years old, eleven years old, 1942, not, not even that, '42, '40. Eleven, twelve years old. You should see my sister. She was nice, kind. So that was temperature, temperature, temperature. My sister survived. My mother, my mother--there was nothing she could do to help her. And she was a youngster in that--in the barracks, I remember. So the block--the woman who take care of the block--she helped. Didn't send her to work. She was in the barracks. She was alone. My, my, my, my--a lot of times, you know, I was--I, I came to camp and I got potatoes in my pants. We worked--we unloading potatoes for the Germans. And everybody worked on some potatoes, so we can--we couldn't eat any potato. Some ate it that we got. So when the German came in and they saw we got potatoes in our pants, they tied it, put it in the bottom ??? They said ???


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