Nathan Roth - February 4, 1983
Helping Fellow Prisoners
Did you ever help anybody?
Oh yeah, there was a Chusti Rabbi.
That was the name of the town?
A Rabbi from Chust. Yeah. I helped other people. There was always somebody who could get something from me when I had it uh, but this rabbi uh, he was from Chust I forgot his name, but I remember his face. He had a short beard all the time. I don't know how he managed to have it, but he had it. Sometimes they didn't shave him every week, they shaved him maybe every two weeks. But he lived in the same barracks that I did and every time I brought something in, I went over to his bunk and gave him either a piece of bread or some vegetable or something when I had it. Don't, don't, don't forget, I d...didn't always have it either, because you couldn't risk it all the time, because they were watching you. Another thing I remember about coming back through the gate into the camp were the young boys. There were a few of them around the camp. Young boys. By young boys, I mean, at that time I was what, eighteen, nineteen. By young boys, I'm talking about thirteen, fourteen or younger and they were usually the, the, the, the pets of some SS men or some kapos or whatever and uh, they were standing there like mocking with the big guy, they were counting, helping count with the SS men, whoever was counting, but they were signaling to us, because we were getting a bread every day. It wasn't a big bread, but it was a bread and uh, sometimes, the bread was for two, it was sometimes for three, so we knew what bread there was going to be when they were watching their fingers. When they were doing like this, it was a bread for two. When they were doing like this, it was a bread for three. So we knew that we were going to get more bread if there was like this. That I remember, I just remembered now.
What determined how much you would get?
I have no idea. Supply, I guess. Supply. On Sunday or uh, every second Sunday, there was always a bread for two, but sometimes it was during the week also.
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