Sam Seltzer - November 29, 1982
Faulbrück
Okay...
The work I did at Telefunken was outside of the uh, the factory uh, itself. They, in fact, they, they had a few Russian uh, prisoners working there. And they were painting the ceiling so high up. And I was working on pipes on the uh, outside. Digging holes and uh, fitting pipes for--I don't know what it was for but it must have been maybe water pipes or whatever it was. Whatever they need outside, the dirty work, we did. And we worked there in Telefunken for a few months. And from Graeditz we were sent over to Faulbrück on trucks, it wasn't far.
[interruption in interview]
Faulbrück was uh, another one of those redone factories, the uh, textile factory, redone. Also, third bunks, big bunks. Uh, I always took, picked the top bunk, wherever. I always like to be on top. There's more room to stand up and--Faulbrück was another story. Also from Faulbrück I used to go to Telefunken to work there. And while we were working at Telefunken from Faulbrück , it was a big camp. It was two Judenältesters. That's two Jewish Lagerführer. There was Abrahamchek and Vilevmeister, they called him, Vilevmeister. And those two were taking care of the home and they had some uh, foremen helpers. And which--I been around already for a couple years, so I knew a lot of those foremen and everything. I worked for them and they knew me. And Faulbrück uh, was a, a large camp. They were given--putting in a potato in the soup, let's put it that way. You saw a potato in the soup. And uh, they gave you like a, a bread for three days. A small, a very small little bread for three days and I ate up in one day, as usual. Because you couldn't hide it, cause they'll steal it from you. So you might as well ate it. So we ate up the whole thing. And all you did is, is wait. After work you came home uh, I call it home--well, you came back from work and uh, and you had that bowl of soup and whatever. Sometimes they had uh, a boiled potato with the peel and everything. So I worked there for a while, also working for Telefunken, going to the tr...uh, train station, going into a box car, unload it at Telefunken where every day where I don't remember the, the town they were in. Worked for Telefunken for a while. Until I felt something is wrong with me. I start shivering, shaking, sweating uh, and getting kind of dizzy. So I felt there was something wrong with me. Uh, well I finished up the day and I came back to the camp and I couldn't do nothing anymore. And there was the typhoid. It worked on me and--I was very strong, I fought it, I fought it until it, it got me. The typhoid--I came back, put up--came up on the third bunk. Next day everybody was going to work. I couldn't go to work. I wasn't--I couldn't remember. All I remember is a man coming up on that third bunk there say "What's the matter with you, you know, uh, you sick?" They were looking for the people, every day it was so many people. "What's the matter with you?" So I said I was sick. They took--picked up all the guys who were sick, put them on a truck. Took 'em back to Graeditz. And Graeditz was made a quarantine. Graeditz camp was made quarantine. Back to Graeditz for quarantine was twelve hundred men, only four hundred survived. At uh, when I came in I had--there was three brothers--I don't remember their name--but they had typhoid before. See, once you had typhoid you'll last about ten years at least until you can get--be--you're immune to it. They--I worked with them in the Eisenlager before in, in Klettendorf. And they knew me as a good worker and I was friends with them--I made friends. So they were taking care of those rooms. Each one took care of a room of people. Whoever came in with the typhoid.
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