Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Alexander Schleifer - August 1, 1982

Uzhorod

All right, I, I want to talk about that in just a moment. Let's talk about this camp that you are at. What was the name of it?

It was uh, uh, actually I don't remember what uh, it was named. It was just, only one camp it was and it was in Uzhorod. It was in the brick factory. See.

Oh.

...as I said, I can't--I didn't, didn't know exactly.

What, what did you do? First of all, was, was everybody kept together at the camp, your family, everybody from the town, the community?

Yes, yes.

Uh, were there any others in the camp besides Jews?

No, just the Jews.

And, and what did you do during this month that you are at the camp?

Nothing, actually. Actually, nothing.

They didn't put you to work?

No, no.

How about the conditions in the camp?

Well, the conditions in the camp uh, if you sleep in a tent. You know what conditions can be. It was still cold outside, nights.

What part of the year was this?

Uh, I would say around April, or something like that.

Did you have sufficient clothing?

Oh, yes, clothing. With you, you brought your clothing with you.

How about food?

Food, well they, they give us some food and, as I said, the woman who used to work for us, the maid, she used to bring just about every other day she brought some food for us.

Sanitation conditions?

Sanitation was very bad.

Could you expound upon that a little bit?

Well, you know, there weren't uh, latrines and uh, you couldn't take no one. There was no bathroom so you couldn't take a wash or shower. You took a bucket of water and then you would wash yourself the best you could. That was it.

Were there separate facilities for men and women?

Separate latrines for men and women, but that is about the size of it.

Were there any mistreatments in the camp?

Well, as I said, we could have--maybe some--there were mistreatments but I couldn't detect because I was a young kid and I stayed closely always to, to the parents.

All right. So you are able at this time to stay with your family and all?

That is correct.

All right, now you say you were there for a month.

About, approximately a month.


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