Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Mrs. Roemerfeld - 1982?

Transport to Auschwitz

Okay, and you were standing in the lines in the center of the ghetto, lines of five.

Yes, we were lined up to march to the station.

Were you near your mother and brother?

Oh yes, yes.

And then what happened?

And then we were on the train together. It was not a passenger train, it was, uh...

Cattle cars.

...cattle cars, right.

You all marched to the cattle cars.

Yes.

The entire ghetto...

Yes.

at one time.

Yes. And then there were German soldiers and they told us to go in here and they pushed us in and there were boards on the, on the train uh, reaching to the f...uh, to the ground so we can go up on the boards, because those were not passenger.

Planks.

Yes.

Planks.

It was not passenger trains. There were not any stairs.

How many uh, do you recall if the Judenrat was going at the same time that you went?

I can't tell you that, I really don't know. I know that this uh, uh, cousin of my father's, his brother was in Auschwitz. And uh, from what I hear, he did survive. But whether his brother survived, whether he was shot by the Germans, I don't know. But that was usually the Germans' procedure. Once you served your term, we had enough of you even if you were devoted or not. I mean, it was just like the Sonderkommando. They worked for a month and then they were eliminated.

You were--the three of you went into a cattle car together.

Yes.


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