Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Mrs. Roemerfeld - 1982?

And the Budy was part of Krepierenslager?

That was Krepierenslager, that was the name. Krepieren means dying in German. It was a mean expression of saying dying. Uh, whoever went there couldn't survive uh, because it was so bitter cold. And uh, we uh, uh, came there and uh, it--we had to go out in the street. There was water from the rain what was settled. Uh, there was some water in the gutter and we had to wash our face there. Uh, there was no facilities whatsoever uh, for anything, for a restroom or anything. I mean, it was just nothing of the sort. It was just a barrack with uh, cages, you know, the... You go up on a bunk and you stay there. And uh, when you're called to get your food, you only got uh, one bowl of tea, which it, they put something into the leaves in order we should not get our period. And that's when my period stopped. So uh, and from there uh, we went uh, walking and uh, and the--believe it or not we were straightening mountains. And we used those -- what do you call it those wheel buggies?

Wheelbarrow?

Uh, it wasn't like a wheelbarrow, it was attached to, one to another and uh, the girls were pushing it between those wheels and uh, when it--we were coming down from mountain some of the girls their feet were cut off because of the speed coming down. And uh, we were there not too long uh, six months. And evidently the rules had changed and uh, we were supposed to ship back to Auschwitz, to Birkenau, to the main camp. And uh, at that point I was in horrible shape. I had sixteen holes in my feet ripped out from below zero walking barefooted.

The holes came because of injury from the buggies?

Injury from the frost.

Frost.

Yes. I was lucky not to be between those buggies. But some of my uh, cousins and my teachers they were killed this way. And uh, uh, from there we came back to Birkenau and we went in on Block 25, which is Barrack 25. That was the barrack that was selected only to keep people on the waiting list to go to the gas chamber. What I witnessed there is beyond belief. I witnessed there people eating their ears, each other's ears. They were violent. It was just that we couldn't wait until the truck came to take us out of there. And how long I was there, I can't recall. But it was, must have been uh, quite a few days.