Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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George Vine - July 5, 1983

Mm-hm.

But let's say the chances are they could've taken them to, to uh, Dachau because there were a lot of Jews in Dachau and there were non-Jews in that camp, Allach. There were no Jews at all; I was the only Jew there. The fear of my experience--I was liberated and I was for three weeks, after liberation, I was afraid to say that I'm a Jew. Americans were right there, I was a free man. And that camp, of course, maybe you've seen some of the slides. Uh, they did not get a chance to use the crematoria, it was bombed. And they had a pile of bodies probably maybe, twenty feet high. Uh, I was very weak at the time and I know that Americans came in and I, I almost got killed, I was gonna run out from the camp, and I was on the crossfire and somebody grabbed me back in, because the Germans put up a, a good fight and so somebody pulled me in there so I stayed there. And I stayed there for about two, three weeks in that camp and then I realized I got to get out of here. I gotta find out if there are any Jews alive. I didn't even know if there was any Jews alive. I thought I was the only one. And I--and the Americans immediately locked up a, a, a uh, guards right around there because people were dying left and right. Americans meant well, they so starved people, their faces of, of, of, of looking back, so many, so many years ago and I think back of those faces of the soldiers coming in it was a, it was a, they must have think that, that, that uh, we're animals, you know. Terrible feeling of pity they were just, just marvelous they just didn't know what to do for us. But they weren't trained, they gave us food and that killed us. Stomach was shrunk to nothing and a great deal of people died 'til they found out and then they send in Red Cross and they stopped all the food and...

Was it...

They got...

Dysentery or something?

Dysentery, because the stomach couldn't take it, it was rich food, American food and, and, and here, you lived on grass, and what have you. I have uh, decided to find out what's happening. And one day I smuggled myself some dried food from the Americans, you know, got up and I started walking towards Munich and I start asking if there are any Jews. And they said, yeah, there's a UNRRA camp, or something like that, and then I found two Landsmann again, that's how I was liberated. Uh...

You met two Landsmann at what sort of camp?

In, but no, in Munich. The, the...

In Munich?

The, the uh, United Nations, UNRRA, relief organizations set up for people who, who, for some reason, got separated from the camp, escaped camp, so whatever the case temporarily to keep 'em alive, you know, with--you had to go for food and clothing, and I think they set up a school. And there were uh, uh, some inmates there and uh, the Americans took care of them. And I walked up right there and that's how I remained in Munich before I came to this country.