Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Saul Raimi - July 7, 1982

Activities in the Camps II

The foremen, were these other prisoners or, uh...

The foremen--I didn't mean actually the foremen. The foremen you would describe the one who's directing work. I would say the uh, they call it the Stubeältester, Stubeältester. That was a uh, you would say the one who was in charge of the, of the hall, the hall where we...

Mm-hm.

...where our bunk was. This was, was a Polish man. He was a Polish prisoner. That was a beast of a man. That man beat up so badly that I couldn't stretch. And every day, you know, he, he and... They had a routine. Every day after supper you had to take off your shirt and look for lice. And at that time when it was wintertime, they opened all the windows to uh, especially with other punishments or just a--or to, to make you suffer a little more. And they told us if you find a lice and you report it, you will get an extra uh, portion of bread. But if we look and we find it, that means your death. It was true to their word. When they looked and they find the lice that was the end of it.

Mm-hm. And--but if you reported it, uh...

Oh, just, I mean, then they ??? They send directly to give infection, you know.

Mm-hm. Uh, do, do uh, did you know of any medical experiments on any of the prisoners?

I know that uh, while we were in the first day we came in that, that quite a few from our camp, they castrated. I know even a few who survived.

Mm-hm.

They have marriage and everything else. They have children.

Uh, do you have any um, physical uh, problems now that you attribute to being in the camps?

I have trouble with my nose, which was broken. I was beaten up so badly that I--then I have trouble with my nose. It was broken and I had a few operations that...

Nothing right.

Nothing right. And I always have trouble with my back. I was pushed in--I was digging a ditch, a very big one. And I was beaten up by the guards and I fell down into that hole, thrown on my back.


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