Nathan Weiselman - January 1, 1985
Second Soviet Camp II
So I covered with one blanket and we tried to cover us four, but it was a big blanket and we barely made it. But the people who didn't have the blanket um, they get up to work, I see close, you know, so many, three, four in one barrack and in the other barrack next, dead, frozen.
Were these all Jews?
Some were Jews and some were Poles.
Mm-hm.
And some were Russian, too. Because in that concentra...concentration camp it was a lots of Russians from before that they brought for, some for criminals and some for political violations. So it was a mixture of all, of all kinds. So, but they didn't take too long, they was sensitive about this dead people, the, the guards, and the authority over there, and after they start to have-put in from the inside and from the outside, to wood, with the cement. Uh, how you call this? And they, you know, it's like pieces of wood like that. Yeah, plaster.
Plaster?
Connected in plaster. And after when the plaster walls, and the coalmine start to work, you know, in the beginning was not enough coal, barely, barely to, to last. And when they had the coal and they had plaster from the outside, every barrack, never happened there anymore. Nobody was, was frozen. And after they came in transport with all kinds of clothing and they gave us clothing. On the top of your own shoes what you have, they gave us felt boots. Call them Polish, or Russian, they call them valenkis, boots. Then they gave us a, a pair of pants, ??? pair of pants, treated with heavy cotton. They gave us a jacket, treated with cotton. Then they gave us an overcoat, treated with cotton. Then they gave us gloves, and they gave us um caps, for protection for the ears, and some got even fur caps. And the once condition start to improve, and the only thing you have to won't have, then you could survive, they told you, when we start to work. In Russian language, "???". That means in Yiddish, or in English, "Who is not going to work is not supposed to eat."
Mm-hm.
???. So, I worked in my construction...
[interruption in interview]
I think we finished already with the German concentration camp.
[interruption in interview]
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