Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Nathan Weiselman - January 1, 1985

From where?

???, in Russia.

???

???

Yeah.

Then he noticed that I give this guy every day comes in, different guys, and I give him the ration card. I didn't ask any exchange for it, I did it uh, I just helped, it was the satisfaction that I can help. But one time when he saw that I give to two people ration cards for food, and for supplies ???, he, when he came in and took the ration cards and tore them to pieces. I really was so mad that time, I didn't even understand that. And after he, when they left, he said the reason I tore this ration card into pieces because you going to be the cause of the murder of them. And he gave me many comments. He said, listen, if you give them one time the ration card, the other time, time the ration card, they're going to go more to work now, and if you stop for some reason, you're not going to have this cooks that going to give you the extra ration cards, you know, they're going to starve to death, because they are not used to the more, to go to work, the Russians are not going to kill them, they going to kill themself, themselves. And act-actually, you demoralize them. Look at how many people that they don't go to work. Who dies, he said. The people who not going to work and sitting in the barrack and they going in like scavengers ah, ah, close to the garbage to, for, for pieces. This is the people who die, but the people who work, even they get very little for their work but they can still survive. So actually, you going to be a friend of them, you end up to be an enemy of them. You demoralize. It was, took me quite a bit time to understand and then to agree, but after I while I come, I came to the conclusion that he was right. That you can, say, demoralize people by the way that they got used not to go to work. And, and if they don't have the food, if they don't have to the food, somebody will donate, give to him, and work, they don't want, and they are already weak, they have to die. So, I understand well now much more but, uh, uh, the foreman, his name was ???, by the way ???, he's uh, very smart man.

Yes.

He's ???. He was a political prisoner about ten years because he was opposed to the system.