Sidy Weiss - January 7, 1987
Life in the Camps
They took out what in Płaszów?
Where?
In Płaszów. You said they took out...
We were working--I was working in a stone mine. I was working in a stone mine for six weeks and after that I came back from the--the how do you call that?
The quarry?
Yeah. Then I uh, [long pause] something happened, I don't know.
At Płaszów you mean?
Mm-hm.
What, what happened? Just--something like what happened last night you mean?
Yeah.
The same feeling? [pause] And were you in, were you in the barracks when this happened?
Yes, I was for a few, few days in the barracks.
And you were sick?
I wasn't uh, that--how you call it? That sick. It was uh, something that they, they...
Was it, was it hospital barracks? An infirmary?
Something was there. They took me someplace. A little bit of dirt fell on me. A lot of dirt fell on me and I was completely buried with the dirt, and they pulled me out from the dirt and uh, how you call it? For three days I was uh, hiding and after three days it healed and then how you call it? We went uh, I went back to work and later we were working over there. Building some more, more barracks, and after the barracks we went back there--how you call it? Were coming--the Russians were coming and they wanted to take us back to, to Auschwitz, and--but they didn't have no--how you call it? Time for that already, so they took us away, they took us back again to Auschwitz. And after Auschwitz, they, after Auschwitz they took us to [pause] oh yeah, they, they took us to an open, an open plains like, like cattles.
Yeah.
And It was winter time and uh, how you call it? It was the whole night we were standing under the rain and all of a sudden it--how you call it? The rain stopped and then they, they put us some kind of a uniform, and after--it looked like gray uniform with numbers on it and they, they, [pause] they put us back in that--it wasn't a closed train, you know, it wasn't a closed train and uh, and uh, when we, when we got to Krakow, the frozen, the frozen--how you call it? The frozen all of--on us but we didn't have nothing but one piece of--how you call it? Clothes. And after that we went how you call it, to Germany, in Augsburg we went. And in Augsburg--you have this on?
Yeah.
We went to Augsburg and uh, they [pause] went to work in a, in a factory.
Do you remember the name of the factory?
Yeah.
What was the name?
KUKA.
You worked for KUKA. What kind of work were you doing?
I was doing--how you call that? Making airplane parts.
Ah. What particular were you doing?
What part?
Yeah, what--I mean, what kind of work were you doing?
I was cleaning some--how you call that? Some parts from the airplane.
And where, where were you--where did you sleep at night? Not in the factory, no?
No.
No.
But I don't remember how, how I went home.
It was a camp.
It was, yes. We, we--how you call it? Doing the daily work, and some...sometimes we had to work daylight and sometimes we work nighttime.
Was anybody from your family with you?
Yes.
Who was with you?
One of my sisters.
Did she survive also?
Yeah she survived and uh, how you call that? She got married and she--how you call that? She [pause] came to Israel after she got married in 1947, and uh, in 1947 and she lived in Israel. She had three children and after that she died. She died of uh, lung cancer.
So, you were in Augsburg for how long? What, what...
About seven months I was over there and then we got--how you call it? Liberated. It--they took us away from there again and uh, the train stopped on the middle of the way and uh, they [pause] it was uh, everything open over there and we didn't have nothing, nothing to, to drink or anything like that and uh, they put us again on a train, and they [pause] took us back.
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