Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Aaron Salzburg - July 24, 1984

I remember a guy at one time, they--that was uh, daytime, they brought a guy back from Radom. It was a very unusual thing--I don't know why they did it. A few of these SS people came with them from Radom, and uh, they did it--they took us out on the, on the tall wall, rounded us up, and they brought out this person and they declared that this man was a saboteur. He stole ammunition. And therefore, he's gonna be hung. And uh, they picked up a young fellow somewhere from the crowd, they had everything prepared for him--hung a rope and put him on the gallow and this kid kicked the chair and the man was instantly dead. Before they put the rope on him, he couldn't talk, I don't know whether they didn't allow him to talk--but he shook his head. When, when the German read, read the verdict he shook his head that it wasn't true that he stole ammunition. What could he do with these bullets? They were laying around all over there. We had no connection with, with anyone. But they were just to scare us--to scare the people. And for them to kill a person was nothing but just uh, a pleasure. This is how finished up his life, and the man was hanging twenty-four hours. The night shift came home and had to look at it, too, not only the day shift. But that was this episode, and uh, that was Skarżysko. I uh, I got injured on my right wrist at work. It was bleeding terribly. I had a Vorarbeiter--a lady, young lady, she said, "Come with me. I will assist you to the first aid." I said, "All right." As I walked into the first aid--as I walked into first aid there was this young, Polish blonde girl. She start to scream and yell. She said, "Can't you read out there on the outside? It says that entrance for Juden--for Jews is permitted." I said, "I need some help. I'm injured." "Can't get any help here." She gave me a piece of cotton which was very kind of her, and this was the only help I had. She did tell me one thing. You go to the, to the main doctor, which is at the sentry--at the entrance of the factory maybe he can help you. I walked out of there. I told my lady fore--foreman--you go back to the, to the shop, and I, I go myself there. I wasn't marked. We didn't have any marks to be uh, to be recognized as Jews in this, in the factory, at least in the factory. So I walked over by myself to this doctor. Now I don't know if this doctor knew who I was, but I told him, "Look, I, I need, need some help." He said, "I can't do that. You got to be stitched together, and I can't do that. You got to go to the city. You go to the city, and they will do the job." I knew I can't go to the city because when you reported to the guard that you want to go to the city sometimes they would take you, but they killed the person as soon as they got him out of, of the factory, they killed the person, and they reported on the way home that the guy tried to escape--they had to kill them. And we knew all these tricks, so I said, "Why don't you give me something--just..." and he gave me a piece--something to wrap it around, and it healed by itself. As a matter of fact, that same lady who helped me in Sandomierz when I was sick in typhus, she helped me to heal my--my wri...wrist, wrist, and uh, without any stitches. And uh, I stayed in Skarżysko.