Sonia Nothman - January 4, 1983
Conditions in Skarżysko
In the camp, did uh, the first place you were taken to, Skar...Skar...I can't pronounce it, Skarzys...
Very hard--Skarżysko. Yeah.
Skarżysko, what were the actual living conditions like there, the barracks and the food. Did...Can you describe that?
The food? Very poor. Couldn't live. If you don't...People who worked in the ammunition, they tried to make a portion bread or a little soup by washing clothes for somebody or doing certain chores for somebody who had none. There was a, a girl, she was my age, I think, from our hometown and the master--my master from the ??? took her. She should clean his house. Oh, she was like a queen. To clean the house, who wouldn't? She got food and everything, so she used to bring food. Oh people died there. Oh my God. If you were sick, they'd take you out to the forest, shoot you. But I was lucky. I went in Skarżysko there. And I went to wash myself there where a few--not sinks uh, water. And I think that...And they took me to Block A in Skarżysko, I got typhus. My brother was still there, 'cause we say do we wanna...When he was there we would, we have already...But uh, when he was in the ammunition working, we saved one portion bread for both of us and...So I got sick and I took him there. My brother found out, I remember right now. He sold his portion bread and he bought someplace a roll. And he brought me broth. And there, the hospital was something dead people. I would never think that I would survive it. So I couldn't eat. I said--I begged him, please eat. And he said no, please. And they didn't let him in. But he, somehow, he begged the nurse, they let him in.
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