Mrs. Roemerfeld - 1982?
Conditions in Maehrisch-Weisswasser II
You, you don't remember any of the names of any of the people, the heads of the camp or...
No, no.
You remember none of them.
No. Most of their name were on then whatever, on...
First name.
Yeah, it was uh, it was, it was not like uh, on the terms of a first name colleague. It was just like uh, God is coming and you better do what you were supposed to do or else.
When you arrived to the Sudetenland, was life different there than you found in Birkenau?
In what way? Uh, well, it was different in the way that we walked uh, freer to the work. We weren't beaten as much as we were in Auschwitz.
By the Kapos.
Yes. And there weren't so many Kapos. There were a few, but not so many because it was uh, maybe a hundred and fifty people altogether. It was a small camp.
Do you remember, recall any unique incidences there? Any resistance, protests?
No, no, none whatsoever.
Any religious practices?
No.
Any attempts for escape?
No. We were in a strange part of P...the world and we didn't know where we were actually. And uh, uh, we only found out from some farmers when we walked uh, to work. I remember one farmer once threw me a piece of bread and I said, "Oh my God, he's so nice." He was walking with a cow and he threw a piece of bread and whoever caught it--and I happened to catch that day. And it was freer walking to work. Not so much beating. But the starvation was just as bad. And uh, then when we were freed it was just again, just another hysteria. The French came from one side, the Ger...the Americans came from another side, the English from one side. It happened like all four countries, different countries came to save us at the same time. And I remember like, you know, Russian women riding on horses which it was to me that a woman should ride a horse. But uh, uh, we were just running away and uh, the first thing we said we have to organize something. We have to get some things. We don't have anything. So we went into Telefunken, to this factory. And uh, we ran into the basement where those Germans were living. They were gone. And what do I get? Yarn to knit. I was taught as a little girl by the maid we had how to knit. So I get yarn. Instead of get some worthwhile things. So I get yarn and I found a, a ripped up suitcase and I put that yarn in and a few spoons. And uh, we walked to the train in uh, Sudetenland. And finally we walked to the train, we found a train and uh, we went on it and it was disconnected. So we had to get off again. Then the Russians came and took seven girls. And they wanted to have a good time. And the girls said "No, if I lived through so much, I'm not going to do what you want." And they shot them. That was after the war.
You witnessed that.
Yes.
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