Sam Seltzer - November 29, 1982
Annaberg
And you left Faulbrück ?
I was picked out in Faulbrück to send to Annaberg. Annaberg was a camp on hill, hilly camp, with uh, on a hill, you know. It was, it was a camp uh, barracks as the others...
[interruption in interview]
...barracks.
[pause] Well, in Annaberg, I came there, I had a, a few friends from my hometown. And uh, the Jewish Lagerführer--Judenältester, was named Gleickman. He was from Sosnowiec. Gleickman know my family from Sosnowiec. We had a big family. So I came there and there was two Czechoslovakian doctors which--when the Germans were uh, sending the, the Jews from Germany out to Poland, they were in the group. And they came to our town, they knew our town, see? So, those two Czechoslovakian doctors, two brothers, I think. Their name was Traner, Traner. First thing we had to do--there wasn't too many of us you know, picked out to Annaberg. There was a big factory in Annaberg where they were making gas, see? And they wanted good workers. When we came into Annaberg, we had to take showers. Gleickman was with us. He, he, he greeted everybody personally you know, he was a nice guy. Tall, handsome man. And uh, he shook hands with me, and he looked at me in the shower by, before we take showers and he says, "What's the matter with you?" I said, "I just went through the typhoid." "And look at your waist," he says. And so he called on the doctors, the two doctors. And they looked at me and I--asked me where I'm from and everything. And I had already in the camp, there were uh, friends from our hometown. They knew me, knew my family. So they talked to Gleickman and he took ca...especially took care of me. Wait 'til I tell you what I did. The two doctors said to him, "The only thing we can heal this boy is to hide him and put him away for about a week and keep his feet up in the air." He says, "Way up, laying down for a whole week." I was--they, they were, they put me in a room. I was behind a room. There was a bed, one bed there with two bunks. So they put me in there, on the upper bunk again and keep my feet up. And they were giving me food, carrots with potatoes, with food and food and food, which I recuperated. My feet went down, the swelling went down, you know. And I was working in the kitchen a little bit, peeling potatoes. Very light work for a couple weeks. And I recuperated. And then Gleickman comes to me and says well, "It's time to go to work. Can I do anymore?" In fact, he had a guy from nightshifts stand in for me when they're counting, where they're counting people. And I never went out. I heard 'em in the morning, I always heard 'em. Counting people and he had one standing in for me in the night shift, he woke him up and put him out and they were counting so many people, see? So couple weeks like that, eating good and off my feet, the swelling went down. I was okay, I was ready to go again. I was working there--they put me on nightshift. They put me on nightshift and it was about uh, twenty-five people nightshift working with two SS men. And I met, in the nightshift I met one of the SS men I knew from Klettendorf before.
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