Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Cyla Wiener - July 13, 1992

When did your parents go to Auschwitz, the same time you did? Did they go to Auschwitz?

No, who?

Your parents.

My parents. No. My parents were in Płaszów.

Did they die in Płaszów?

No, my mother died in Płaszów, my mother died in Płaszów. It was a terrible day. My mother, you know, they were hanging three people on the telat, you know what is, the place everybody has to be, they called it teleetee, you know, that's right, everybody had to be out, you know. And my mother, she was not able to survive something like this to see, you know. So she was hiding in building, inside in the barrack. She said she couldn't go out. She was afraid to go out.

These were three people who...

And I stayed in the barrack too, but I was taking care of the children. I was afraid to go. I keep the children up hiding. All of the children, you know. We worked in this barrack. I didn't go out. My mother hides too, you know.

They were hanging people who tried to escape?

Three Jewish people. Ya. Three, one, a young guy who was singing "Marseilles", you know this song "Marseilles, Marseilles"? This is the song in the, the French anthem, "Marseilles".

The French national anthem.

Anthem...he was singing this, and a German catch him, and he took him, and they...one and two more people they were hanging, and when this happened, my mother died.

She wouldn't go out.

She wouldn't go out. She was hiding in the barrack. She was hiding and covered herself, and then after this, the people were coming, and she came to me. She said she doesn't feel so good, you know. I said well, I took her and grabbed her. She said ?? bunch, and I said to her, and I said to her, I couldn't run out. They would see me in the dress. They would kill me that I didn't go out, you know. And then I know I wouldn't, would I catch a doctor then. [crying] And I hid on the floor. I give her water, and covered her, and she said to me that I was, "You were the best child in the whole world". [crying] She told me before she died. I'm better this way. She died, and it was terrible for me. Really terrible. My brothers came too, running, and everybody [crying]. There was nothing we could do, nothing. I come home myself, lie dead that my mother wouldn't die. They would take her to Auschwitz later on, you know. They took the children and all old people. Better this way, you see. Have left, God help you, you were a good child. [crying] But she was a wonderful mother. You can't even imagine. A really Yiddish mother. A really Yiddish mother.