Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Aaron Salzburg - July 24, 1984

You said that some of the Polish people who worked in the Camp A--they would help you sometimes?

Uh, they, they weren't, they weren't helpful uh, not very much, but a girl might have had a chance to mooch a soup or buy a soup. And uh, some were willing to do that. Some were hungry and they ate the soup themselves. They received a warm soup daily, just as we, in the middle of the day, whenever I--If I can recall it right. So by twelve o'clock everybody was served their soup, their soup was a little better. So if it was a kind Polack, he might have give--gave away uh, the soup to someone else, he knew the situation. But uh, it wasn't too seldom, but nevertheless we had some communication with the Polish workers, uh, uh, you could buy a piece of bread, or a little bit of milk, which they brought in--they risked their lives too, but they brought it in for, for money. And uh, and that was some, some, some kind of a dialogue; however, I remember a friend of mine worked with a, with a group of Polish people. Uh, he was a very traditional Jewish fellow from a known home, and uh, his foreman, an electrician--a Polish electrician--found out, somehow, that he's going--he's trying to escape to get away this particular day, and he tipped off uh, a guard. And the guard caught him, brought him in the camp, told him, told him to kneel, and he shot him, cold-blooded. And that was this particular elec...electrician--a Polish fellow. And there were a lot of uh, uh actions like that uh, had, had a lot of shootings like that or similar shootings. I had a friend of mine--a mute, young, beautiful little boy, maybe eighteen year of age. I don't, I don't remember his name correct. I think we called him Uma. He was mute, but he might a--he could hear you, but he couldn't talk. Uh, he tried to escape. And a guy by the name ???--a German, tall German, caught him. I remember it like now. When the German told him to kneel down, he pulled, pulled a gun. In despair the guy called out clearly, "???! ???!" meant--??? ???, this was the name of that murder. And the murderer fired the bullet in his head. It was the end of this kid. That uh, that just uh, episodes of which goes through the mind of a person. I lived it too, I have seen it myself.