Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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George Vine - July 5, 1983

Now, your friend who went in uh, who was able to see her um, what, before the day before she was uh, hung, who in, in, the muscle man, was he a, uh...

Also an inmate.

He was?

Also a Jew, yes. But, you know that the Jews had all kinds of different positions in there. He was a strong guy and they needed uh, the, the fittest, the one who survived, you know. So he had a big job and he pretended to be a ruffian killer but he was the most wonderful people that we have. He played a double role.

Mm-hm.

He could hit you in front of the Gestapo and then come over and hug you and, and beg your forgiveness. But at the same time he saved hundreds of people by giving them bread and helping them out. Like, like me that time, when I got all beaten up and I could hardly uh, you know, walk, he helped me to, to, to take me over to my block and he managed to get some bread for me to, to, to, you know, survive. And so, so, true you hear about a lot of Jewish people that have committed terrible crimes against their own people. But I think under the circumstances and when you really analyze it how many there were I think it was very, very few. Very, very few that had been uh, not behaved in a proper manner. But I think most people have been uh, sticking together, helping each other and I think that the proof that these people survived is proof by itself that someone helped them somehow along the line. Because there was no way that you could survive without getting a break someplace. Under the regular routine of the work that you did and the food that you got, was no way in the world that you could survive. It just couldn't. You hear stories where they say, well a miracle happened, I don't know how it happened, how I survived. That they were just simply--someone helped them along the way because the camp was made to destroy you, not to...

Do you recall the name of that, uh...

Yeah Noah ???, he's a very dear, very close, we, we, we, you know, see him all the time when I go to Israel, and uh, and uh, unfortunately he was never the same. Three days before the liberation, three days before the liberation he tried to escape, maybe two days, not even three days, and they caught him, and they beat him up so terribly that uh, he was never the same.

Now, just to make sure, this is the guy who was...

The gentleman that was...

Working in, in...

The underground...

Cell eleven, was it?

No, no, no this is the fellow who went down to see the guy who was in the underground. The fellow who worked in cell eleven, he was not in the underground.

Do you recall his name, though? You're saying he was a very, he was...

Yes, uh, um, uh, I, I don't recall off hand his name, but he was also from our town so...

He was also from your town?

Yes, yes but he was traveling in circus, you know, as the uh, macho man, as the...

Mm-hm.

The circus. Um, I, I know his name I just cannot think of his name at the moment right now.

And did he survive?

He died in Israel. He survived but he died in Israel. The uh, the problem that I've had after this war was that I wanted to forget about the past. And that's why it took for me so many years to uh, uh, finally to be able to talk about my experiences. It was a part of my life that I felt was taken away from me. I was twelve years old when the war broke out, twelve year old boy. And all of a sudden overnight I find out that I'm eighteen years old, a young adult, in a world that I don't know anything about. In other words, there were six years that I had no time to adjust myself to manhood, or to, to live uh, in a world that--you have to do it yourself. Without your father and mother, especially your mother, running after you and doing everything for you. And I think it was a difficult period to adjust and I resented it. And I think I resented why this happened to me. And I wanted to cut out that whole past out of my life. So when I came to this country I've completely divorced myself of my past--took many, many years that I mentioned to anybody that I came from the old country. Um, took many, many years for me to be able even to for me to talk about a past. Now again I want to emphasize, for a different reason, not because I hurt, not because I had such painful uh, uh, uh, feelings what I recollected but simply because I pushed it out of my mind and I just put a void and a blank out of those years. And I felt I want to come to this country go and start a new life, I'm young enough, you know. And I forget about the past, but of course it doesn't work that way. Got a little older and they haunt you, the memories. And there's a past that you must face and uh, as difficult as it is, and as these feelings come into uh, conscious uh, you do hurt, you do uh, begin to experience, but yet, not the way some other people do. I don't know why, but I do not in, in, in fairness and all honesty uh, I could not tell you that sitting here talking about my experiences uh, with the exception of certain incident that occur to me, that certain feelings come up and uh, uh, it uh, it uh, brings back uh, I believe that what happened to me, personally, I think, is that in order--and of course I can only talk about myself, because I don't know feelings someone else feels. But I think that I survived only because I've taken that everything that happened around me and got it out of my mind. And, and to just lived to survive, to go through the day. Because if I had recounted, maybe uh, uh, the happenings around me, what's happening and maybe I just shut my eyes to all the things--to all that's happening around here. I, I believe that I operated like a rabbit, a robot, a robot in Auschwitz, I think, a great deal of time. Because two incident that happened to me, that I have no recollection of it 'til, 'til just very recently. One of 'em was, very dear friend of mine, again, a Landsmann I'm talking about, mind you, that's why we survived because we were close, we helped each other under the most difficult circumstances. He's telling me, "Do you remember when you had diarrhea?" that meant you're going, that was the one stage after diarrhea that you couldn't eat, even the piece of bread and the water left. And he worked together at the same place that I did, and we just were lucky enough because of our s... uh, uh, uh, seniority, you know so we got a little bit of bread and started working outside for work instead of working inside, you know in one of those factories. He used to take--and he used to, and he was a pretty strong guy and he says, "Anybody touches his bread I'll kill you." because at that time the strong ones uh, took the bread from the uh, weaker one. And I couldn't eat, and the bread, the little piece of bread was sittin' right there. That bread of mine I already ate it; let it burn a little bit and it stopped my diarrhea and indirectly saved my life. Take only two days, that was one incident. We had a Landsmannschaft here, not now, when I first came over to Detroit we had these old timers who had this Ciechanowic which that I come from--Landsmannschaft. And they did a lot of good work uh, send money to Israel, and very different uh, organizations. And we had a meeting and I gave my house and that occurred; that happened about fifteen years ago. We are sittn' around and a gentleman gets up and he says, "Today we are honoring George Vine," me. I figured well, I gave the house so they're honoring me. So he tells the story of what happened. Gets up to the table and he tells the story. He says in 1945 in January when they were liquidating Auschwitz all of us were told that we are leaving Auschwitz--the Russians were coming. We marched somethin' like three days and three nights. The people who could not walk who had come to the end of it, died or mown down with machine guns were killing them; we heard constantly the "chchchch." He says, "George Vine," and he was a big guy of course in Auschwitz maybe I wasn't so big at the time because then he says, "He took me in my arm and he kept on dragging me for mile, after mile, and kept on telling me remember you got to schlep that, you gotta do it, you gotta go, you gotta go, you gotta go, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And for hours he schlepped me 'til the night we stopped, and we took a rest. And this is the man who saved my life." Never recall that incident. So you see, so what I'm telling you is that complete periods of my experiences in Auschwitz are blocked out. And I sincerely believe that it was done on purpose in those days it was pushed down deep and I think it was simply a survival. That I think I couldn't probably face the realities because that I uh, uh, it could very well be that people who are a little bit older, could maybe analyze a situation a little bit better. Either they died because they analyzed too much or maybe they analyze it and they could find a middle of the road to cope with it. Since I was so very young, I believe and it happened so fast to me, that there was just no way that I could cope with it. And I suppose I found a way to bury it within me and I suppose that could be a reason that I survived. What I would like to state at this time is that, about a year ago or so, I have decided that whenever I get an opportunity, and I'll do that as long as I live, to tell all people not only our Jewish people but all people in the world that this can happen to any group of people in the world and to re-emphasize uh, what I'm saying is true, is we seeing it in Iran, we see it in India, and we seeing it right now in front of our eyes. That one group of people think they become strong enough can, a time can come where a repetitious or, or, or a similar kind of tragedy can occur. And unless people are aware of the signs and that people are fair minded and keep in perspective and try to look at facts not as some people like 'em to, to believe but to search and research and be aware of what's happening around them uh, then they have a very good chance of preventing. But any people who would sit back and say to themselves that this cannot happen here or any other place, a great tragedy might happen. Because it happened in the past and it can happen again.