Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Edith Roth - March 28, 1982

Life in Auschwitz Part III

When you were in Auschwitz, do you remember hearing any stories about what was going on in uh, uh, Block 11 or in, in medical experiments or things like that?

Very much so. Mengele made sure that he uh, burned sixty...6000 a day and 6000 a night. He was walking around up and down in the camps with dogs, with a horse, whoever came front of him, he didn't mind running over with a horse, the people.

Did you see him do that?

Yeah, one night. One I saw-I could've, I could've recognized him any place. One night, it was Friday night and we had, we had to stay Zahlappell, we had to stay in fours and then they count us, you know every night, every morning, you had to.

Roll call.

Roll call. That was still in Auschwitz, okay. And Friday night we had this woman who was a rabbi's wife, okay. One person was missing, somebody fell asleep in the camp and one person was missing, so for punishment, they made us kneel down and um, this woman was front of me and she wouldn't kneel down because it was Friday night, and uh, and she wouldn't, she just wouldn't, and the SS came and stepped on her with his boots, her whole thing come up, he killed her.

This was Mengele, or just an SS guard?

An SS guard who was with Mengele making the rounds.

Do you remember the names of any of the SS guards besides him?

Mm, I remember the womans, her name was Greise. I remember the womans who were horrible. This one woman Greise who was with Mengele all the time, used to be a movie actress and she accompanied him on his rounds all the time. I think she was worse than he was.

Do you remember any incidents with her?

A lot. She also came with horses, and you had to stay out of her way, really out of her way because she didn't mind to kill you or to run over you with her horse or to farshiltn yiden, she always called the Jews, you know and um, verfluchte Juden, verfluchte Juden.

Do you remember any specific incidents when she...

Yes, I do.

Can you tell me some?

Yes, I do. A girl was standing in front of her and, and she and she, she run, she ran over her with her horse, which I saw.


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