“When we were released, we burst into tears of joy”: a former prisoner of Auschwitz - about life in a concentration camp and distortion of history

- Please tell us how you ended up at Auschwitz?

- Captured in 1943 during the next reconnaissance. We were all loaded into wagons. They choked and drove at night for a long time. They brought to Poland, the Auschwitz station. We ask: "What kind of city is this?" Auschwitz. “What is this Auschwitz?” "This is a concentration camp." But we had no idea what a concentration camp was.

- What happened after you were brought to the camp?

- They drove us out of the wagons: women, small children one way. I was already 14 years old - the other way. The column was lined with dogs, SS men with machine guns. They drove us to the sanitary inspection room - such a big hut. Drove there, there all were stripped naked. They did the sanitation for us: they cut everyone, doused them, greased them with some substances. And the shower is cold. At the exit, they made a tattoo with a number on the arm. This number was sewn on a jacket so striped. The number and letter R, and the back is a red cross.

- What was the daily routine in the camp?

- Every morning we measured the temperature. And there were our prisoners of war. They said: “Guys, you look at the temperature. Everyone is burned in the crematorium. ” “What is a crematorium?” “A tour of people there.” Like temperature, there is no person. And we were left there about 150 people, maybe about 200. There were probably about 700 people. They burned.

I ended up in block 32, a large hut. There was a Canada team that unloaded vehicles. Here the prisoners come from Russia, from Hungary, and this team unloaded everything, undressed them and drove them to the crematorium. Of course, I was not there. They said that they also did sanitation and drove them into a cell. Then it will be closed around and gas will be released. Within 5-7 minutes, people all died. And there was a Sonderkommando, consisting of Jews. They worked there - burned and cleaned the ashes. They pulled out all the ash. They were taken to the field and to the Vistula River. And jewelry, teeth, crowns - all this was already selected by another team.

- What made you do?

- I got into the team, we made a vegetable store at Auschwitz station. Digging basements, laying walls. Poured the foundation. Long time.

• Prisoners near the gates of Auschwitz
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• © Scherl

- What was the daily regimen like?

- Every day a team was formed in which there were a kapo (a privileged prisoner in the concentration camps of the Third Reich, who collaborated with the Nazi administration. - RT ), a crap, everything was distributed. There were leaders - Volksdeutsche, Reichsdeutsche, Fuhrerbeiter, who commanded us, they were also prisoners, but they had privileges. They just supervised us and that’s it. And this command was displayed through the gate. There was a guard at the gate. And even an orchestra was sitting, playing, can you imagine? A brass band, there are three: perhaps Jews. They knocked on drums and hit the plates when we went out. And these were counted. You come in - they’ll calculate, and you come out - they’ll calculate.

We get up at six o’clock as usual. And hang up after work, come, wash yourself - at ten o’clock. But then everything was already closed, you had no right to go anywhere.

- Judging by the descriptions, the Nazis did everything possible to make as few strangers as possible aware of the massacres. But still, other prisoners found out about them?

- Nearby was a gypsy camp. They lived there as families. For some reason, they were not chased. They did not work. And then one night there was a terrible cry. We woke up. And the next morning at 6 o’clock we got up and looked - there were no gypsies. All were burned overnight in a crematorium.

• Gas chamber in Auschwitz main camp immediately after release. Poland, January 1945.
• © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

“How did the Nazis intimidate prisoners, try to break their will?”

- The Sonderkommando revolted. They were killed. And all the dead were brought to the exit, to the gate. The corpses were put on chairs, propped up with stakes, sticks. On days 3-4 they sat there for intimidation. And when we were driven to work, we walked past this all.

“But there was a feeling that everything could change?”

- They began to fly airplanes. The bombing was very strong. They will drive me into the hut - fragments, I feel, bang-bang-bang on the roof. That's right, they said, ours will come.

- How did the Nazis select those prisoners whom they planned to kill?

- Every week there was a selection. There were such stoves - one firebox there, and the second there. And then there is such a ridge of brick. Everyone was put on this hill, before we were stripped naked. The chief physician Mengele conducted the selection. Three times I went out whole.

After breeding, we were lined up and driven into a gypsy camp. It seemed, well, that’s all, we’ll probably be burned or shot there. Day two. Nothing, no one. And there, too, there were many of these barracks - 32, as in our field. They opened one, and there are bales of hair. Clothing, footwear for children. That is, people were killed, burned, and all this was stored there.

- Food in the camp was barely enough to survive?

- In the morning - tea. And nothing else. At lunch - a baland. Mug half a liter. And in the evening - bread. A loaf for four, maybe 150 grams, a small one, in sawdust. Eat a piece of tea, and leave another piece in the morning under the pillow. You get up in the morning, when they bring tea, eat this and go to work before lunch.

- How did you manage to survive in such conditions?

- We were young, the body is still somehow used to it. Others were like walking skeletons. All skin sagged, it was just scary to watch.

“Did someone help you?”

- There were Poles who received good packages. And they shared it - balanda, they gave bread, their pieces. Parcels came only to the Poles, the Germans themselves. Russian - no. Allegedly, the agreement should have been for the Red Cross to support us, but none of this existed.

• Auschwitz prisoners near train
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• © Keystone Pictures USA / ZUMAPRESS

- Did something support fortitude?

“We were waiting for release.”

“And when did you realize that liberation was coming?”

- Previously, Majdanek was released, he was transferred here to Auschwitz. They said: Russians are coming. Hope was, no matter how they were shot, not burnt in Auschwitz.

- What did the prisoners feel when they saw the Soviet troops?

- Among us were those who could no longer walk. And they were dragged out of the barracks by force. And, of course, they were immensely pleased. Imagine, when we were released, we were all filled with tears of joy there.

- What were the brightest and most terrible memories of the period of captivity?

- The most striking thing is when the Soviet troops arrived and freed us. It was ... I don’t know how to say it, very touching. Everyone was crying, can you imagine? We never thought that we would survive.

Horrible memories - when they drove us to death either ... We didn’t know where we were going. And when they took me to the gypsy camp. Where are they going from there? In the crematorium and all. There were six crematoria. And plus pits were dug. They shot, threw into pits, burned.

• Auschwitz survivors leave camp
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• © imago stock & people

- Now often in the media and political speeches there is a distortion of history, for example, rumors are circulating that it was not the Soviet troops that liberated Auschwitz. Why do you think this happens?

- It’s purposefully someone is working on this issue, is campaigning. Some garbage is engaged in this. After all, all the people were against this whole war. I think this should be stopped in the bud. When I was at a forum in Krakow, in Auschwitz, they also spoke there that they say that American troops were liberated, that they were not Russians.