Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Mrs. Roemerfeld - 1982?

Uh, can you describe the selection process for me when you came to the camp?

The selection process for, uh...

Going to the right and going to the left. Were you dressed at that time? Were you selected as you came off of the train?

Yes, as I came off the train. It was left or right. And I don't have to tell you, it's known. The left went to the ca...uh, to the gas chamber and the right went to work. They needed labor. That's what they said. And uh, uh, we uh, came into the camp and uh, we were de-liced, what they call it. Uh, sterilized to be clean enough for the German hand to touch us and to make the tattoo. And uh, we were uh, sent out to uh, into the street and uh, put into a block only for a short time. There was no water in Auschwitz. I remember getting a small slice of bread, oh, it couldn't be bigger than a quarter of an ounce. And uh, I had to give that up for a drink of water because some people were standing where the drips were falling. There was some pipes and they were holding their cups. And if I wanted a drink I had to give up my ration of bread for that one sip of water which--it was supposed to last me twenty-four hours.

I see. You were sent into a block in Auschwitz after you received your number and a dress?

Right. And the dress was a striped. It was in a blue--beige blue and uh, with light gray. And uh, I had my uh, tattoo number on the dress and they also gave me a jacket. No underwear. And I had a pair of wooden shoes. But uh, it didn't take long that they took a hundred girls from our hometown and sent us away to Budy, which it was I can't recall maybe ten miles from uh, Birkenau. As you probably know by now, Auschwitz was forty miles long and square, strictly based on concentration camps. And it was in vicinity of forty miles long and wide and in all this vicinity there were different kind of uh, little camps. And this camp was Krepierenslager, which it was if you go there, you die. There was no coming out. As a matter of fact, when I arrived there in Budy I had to drag out a body out of a bunk bed in order to have a place where to sleep.