Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Sally Tuchklaper - March 2, 1983

At what point then did they change your routine and remove you from the factory where you had been working for the two years?

You know, then they start already to send out to different camps, you know? They start uh, to liquidated this one, which they transported us out to a camp, like, called Blizyn. We didn't even know where we're going. But it--they never gave us notice of anything. Then one day they came in and they said we should pack your things, whatever we have, you're going away. So uh, the--we went to the train, and we were transported but we never know where we're going. So, we came to the other camp. This was a, a labor camp, too, that was established factories down there, which we worked.

What were conditions like during this transport?

Mixed emotions. I was sitting--they gave us uh, can't recall exactly how many--took us a few days I think. But we're sitting in--it's not luxury apartments. We were sitting in the, in the, in the train--it was not a train, it was the transport uh, wagons which we was sitting close to, I think, you know, a hundred people, you know, one next to each other and we were sitting for a couple of days. It was how they took us to, to transport down to the place.

and what did you do for food or water during the transport?

Whenever they stopped, they opened the doors and gave us, gave us some piece of bread and coffee or something, but nobody came out.

What about uh, sanitation on the train?

There wasn't any. Was nothing.

And what would the um, girls to do then when they needed to uh, use the bathroom facilities?

???

Were there--was there illness on the train?

Oh yes. You know, people were getting weaker.

When you arrived at the destination, the labor camp, did all the girls um, survive the transport?

At that time, yeah. At that time, we can, yeah. Was not as bad as when we finish, that camp, but when we went to Auschwitz, it was worse than that. This camp not but it was very hard, hard camp. Very hard. We worked very hard down there.