The very beginning sends a shock through one.
"In 1933, former General Erich Ludendorff sent a telegram to President Hindenburg regarding the appointment of his new chancellor, Adolf Hitler.
""By appointing Adolf Hitler Chancellor of the Reich, you have handed over our sacred German fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time. I prophesy to you this evil man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and will inflict immeasurable woe on our nation. Future generations will curse you in your grave for this action."
"Although Hans Frank, who served as Reichsminister and general governor of Poland during the Nazi era, claimed to have read it, an original copy of the telegram has never been found. Hans Frank wrote about the document in his memoirs just before his execution as a war criminal. Another source, which was considered to be more reliable, was Captain Wilhelm Breuker, a close associate of Ludendorff. When Breuker wrote his memoirs in 1953, like Hans Frank, he also attested to the existence of the telegram."
It probably hasn't been publicised not just because the original text is missing, but because it would be highly inconvenient to acknowledge the possibility that the account is true, and that not only the leader wasnt elected by the people, but there were those that could see truth far ahead. And they weren't across the channel or the pond, either, not necessarily, not every one of them.
................................................................................................
From introduction:-
"Known as the Angel of Death, Mengele conducted business at Auschwitz like a wolf in sheep’s clothing as he personally met and sent more than four hundred thousand people to their deaths."
From introduction:-
"Known as the Angel of Death, Mengele conducted business at Auschwitz like a wolf in sheep’s clothing as he personally met and sent more than four hundred thousand people to their deaths."
................................................................................................
The author paints an amazingly beautiful, gentle happy life of Klara and her family, in her words, in the small town of Sighet in Northern Romania at the point where borders of Hungary, Ukraine and Poland meet - or did, in her time; Ukraine has since been given the land that belonged then to Poland.
It was serene and gentle and beautiful, despite the rumblings in West they were all aware of.
"I am still asked today how we were unaware that people were being murdered or how could we have been so naïve. Sometimes, that question almost feels more accusatory rather than a real need-to-know of the facts. The truth isn’t that simple. .... I ask myself if it was us, if we were we the ones who needed to wake up. The inhumanity and crimes that were being committed, along with the massive complicity that was running out of control across Europe, could have all been stopped instantly with one act of courage from any one of the ruling political powers. But waking up wasn’t something we needed to do. The decision to support Hitler in whatever capacity would be something that millions would later realize and for most, I must say, disgracefully regret."
How very true.
Antisemitism still prevails, now in multiple faces. One denies holocaust, another assumes thst if nazis did so they had good reason to do so, and still others turn and ask why Jews didn't react, as if the victims are to be blamed for the murders!
The author paints an amazingly beautiful, gentle happy life of Klara and her family, in her words, in the small town of Sighet in Northern Romania at the point where borders of Hungary, Ukraine and Poland meet - or did, in her time; Ukraine has since been given the land that belonged then to Poland.
It was serene and gentle and beautiful, despite the rumblings in West they were all aware of.
"I am still asked today how we were unaware that people were being murdered or how could we have been so naïve. Sometimes, that question almost feels more accusatory rather than a real need-to-know of the facts. The truth isn’t that simple. .... I ask myself if it was us, if we were we the ones who needed to wake up. The inhumanity and crimes that were being committed, along with the massive complicity that was running out of control across Europe, could have all been stopped instantly with one act of courage from any one of the ruling political powers. But waking up wasn’t something we needed to do. The decision to support Hitler in whatever capacity would be something that millions would later realize and for most, I must say, disgracefully regret."
How very true.
Antisemitism still prevails, now in multiple faces. One denies holocaust, another assumes thst if nazis did so they had good reason to do so, and still others turn and ask why Jews didn't react, as if the victims are to be blamed for the murders!
................................................................................................
"Although we felt safe in Sighet, we were well aware of the Jewish stores in Germany that were picketed, and shop owners of these stores were beaten and harassed. It was not something that was often discussed openly in our community. Although, being Jewish, we felt the intimidation all the way from Germany but kept quiet and went about our daily lives.
"Hitler, however fanatical, did have opposition. In March of 1933, in New York City, ten thousand Jewish former soldiers marched to city hall to hold protest demonstrations against the treatment of Jews in Germany. Comparable protests were held at Madison Square Garden, where fifty-five thousand people attended. In Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, and many other locations in the United States, consumers boycotted the sale of German goods. The protests were broadcast worldwide. Concurrently, the headline “Judea Declares War on Germany, Jews of All the World Unite” appeared on the front page of London’s Daily Express.
"As some feared, the Nazis threatened to retaliate if these protests continued. Jews were trapped in Germany, unarmed and unable to fight back against Hitler’s club-wielding Brown Shirt police. Their stores were picketed by thugs. Shoppers at these stores were intimidated and harassed with no recourse. Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s notorious propaganda minister, and Hermann Göring, head of the German state police, held a one-day boycott of Jewish business. Goebbels claimed the German boycott would destroy Germany’s economy.
"In addition, Goebbels would claim the Nazis’ stance. He let everybody know, “If worldwide Jewish attacks on the Nazi regime continue, the boycott will be resumed until German Jewry has been annihilated.”"
"All Jews were now considered subversive enemy agents by the Nazi regime. The leaders of the Jewish protest took a vote and called off any further demonstration. They feared the rallying would cause much more serious treatment of the Jews of Germany; little did they know it was too late. It would pale in comparison with what was about to come, and the Nazis’ enormous atrocities aimed at the Jews in Europe would not be exposed for twelve long years."
"Conspiring to step up the emigration of the Jews in 1938, the Nazis created Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass,” a government persecution of Jews in Germany, Austria, and Sudeten, a region of Czechoslovakia. ... During Kristallnacht, more than 7,500 Jewish shops were destroyed, and four hundred synagogues were burned. Ninety-one Jews were killed. Hitler had already established camps for political prisoners. Now, and for the first time, an estimated twenty thousand Jews were sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht was the catalyst that caused Jews throughout all of Europe to want to flee and escape the Nazi suppression and go anywhere that was considered safe. After Kristallnacht, between 1935 and 1939, approximately half the Jewish population of Germany fled the country."
"Kristallnacht was a big turning point for our town and for all of the Jews in Europe. Although we lived in Transylvania, people fled from the Nazis through Czechoslovakia and came to our town, Sighet, for help. Men, women, and children were crying. People were very upset because they had lost their homes and possessions. Our family helped with food, shelter, and clothing; everybody pitched in and gave something. I was so young, but we realized very quickly that Hitler’s plan, his conspiracy, was creeping our way. His objective was to make it so uncomfortable for the Jews in Germany that the people would leave their homes and migrate elsewhere. Of course, little did we know that it was his plan for us and the rest of Europe, and that plan was only what you could see on the surface. Underneath was something waiting for us that no human being could ever imagine. We just never thought it would arrive in Romania. You just don’t think that way. We should have, but we just didn’t. In 1939, when I was thirteen years old, Hitler’s master plan for the world would be unwrapped for everyone to see. From that point on, the world as we knew it would be changed forever."
"On Sunday, August 27, 1939, Poland played Hungary in an international soccer match at Wojska Polskiego Stadium in Warsaw, Poland. Considered one of the best teams in the world, Hungary was expected to easily win and had beaten Poland nine times; the Poles had never won against Hungary before. The largest Polish national newspaper sports headline read, “Without Chance but Ready to Fight.”
"The game started out with Hungary pulling ahead 2–0 in the first thirty minutes. Shortly after, Poland’s best player, a forward named Ernest Wilimowski, scored the team’s first goal. In the second half, Poland attacked with focus and fierceness and scored its second goal, which sent the crowd into an uproar. From that point on, it seemed that the whole game shifted in Poland’s favor. When the game ended, Poland had beaten the heavily favored Hungary 4–2.
"Polish Colonel Kazimierz Glabisz mentioned during the after-game banquet that this may be the last game before another war.
"Little did he know how prophetic his statement would be. Four days before the game, Germany and the Soviet Union had finalized a plan and secretly put into motion an organized invasion into Poland. Five days later, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and started World War II. Sixteen days later, the Soviet Union attacked Eastern Poland. Stalin and Hitler decided to divide up Poland between the two countries."
"Although we felt safe in Sighet, we were well aware of the Jewish stores in Germany that were picketed, and shop owners of these stores were beaten and harassed. It was not something that was often discussed openly in our community. Although, being Jewish, we felt the intimidation all the way from Germany but kept quiet and went about our daily lives.
"Hitler, however fanatical, did have opposition. In March of 1933, in New York City, ten thousand Jewish former soldiers marched to city hall to hold protest demonstrations against the treatment of Jews in Germany. Comparable protests were held at Madison Square Garden, where fifty-five thousand people attended. In Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, and many other locations in the United States, consumers boycotted the sale of German goods. The protests were broadcast worldwide. Concurrently, the headline “Judea Declares War on Germany, Jews of All the World Unite” appeared on the front page of London’s Daily Express.
"As some feared, the Nazis threatened to retaliate if these protests continued. Jews were trapped in Germany, unarmed and unable to fight back against Hitler’s club-wielding Brown Shirt police. Their stores were picketed by thugs. Shoppers at these stores were intimidated and harassed with no recourse. Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s notorious propaganda minister, and Hermann Göring, head of the German state police, held a one-day boycott of Jewish business. Goebbels claimed the German boycott would destroy Germany’s economy.
"In addition, Goebbels would claim the Nazis’ stance. He let everybody know, “If worldwide Jewish attacks on the Nazi regime continue, the boycott will be resumed until German Jewry has been annihilated.”"
"All Jews were now considered subversive enemy agents by the Nazi regime. The leaders of the Jewish protest took a vote and called off any further demonstration. They feared the rallying would cause much more serious treatment of the Jews of Germany; little did they know it was too late. It would pale in comparison with what was about to come, and the Nazis’ enormous atrocities aimed at the Jews in Europe would not be exposed for twelve long years."
"Conspiring to step up the emigration of the Jews in 1938, the Nazis created Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass,” a government persecution of Jews in Germany, Austria, and Sudeten, a region of Czechoslovakia. ... During Kristallnacht, more than 7,500 Jewish shops were destroyed, and four hundred synagogues were burned. Ninety-one Jews were killed. Hitler had already established camps for political prisoners. Now, and for the first time, an estimated twenty thousand Jews were sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht was the catalyst that caused Jews throughout all of Europe to want to flee and escape the Nazi suppression and go anywhere that was considered safe. After Kristallnacht, between 1935 and 1939, approximately half the Jewish population of Germany fled the country."
"Kristallnacht was a big turning point for our town and for all of the Jews in Europe. Although we lived in Transylvania, people fled from the Nazis through Czechoslovakia and came to our town, Sighet, for help. Men, women, and children were crying. People were very upset because they had lost their homes and possessions. Our family helped with food, shelter, and clothing; everybody pitched in and gave something. I was so young, but we realized very quickly that Hitler’s plan, his conspiracy, was creeping our way. His objective was to make it so uncomfortable for the Jews in Germany that the people would leave their homes and migrate elsewhere. Of course, little did we know that it was his plan for us and the rest of Europe, and that plan was only what you could see on the surface. Underneath was something waiting for us that no human being could ever imagine. We just never thought it would arrive in Romania. You just don’t think that way. We should have, but we just didn’t. In 1939, when I was thirteen years old, Hitler’s master plan for the world would be unwrapped for everyone to see. From that point on, the world as we knew it would be changed forever."
................................................................................................
"On Sunday, August 27, 1939, Poland played Hungary in an international soccer match at Wojska Polskiego Stadium in Warsaw, Poland. Considered one of the best teams in the world, Hungary was expected to easily win and had beaten Poland nine times; the Poles had never won against Hungary before. The largest Polish national newspaper sports headline read, “Without Chance but Ready to Fight.”
"The game started out with Hungary pulling ahead 2–0 in the first thirty minutes. Shortly after, Poland’s best player, a forward named Ernest Wilimowski, scored the team’s first goal. In the second half, Poland attacked with focus and fierceness and scored its second goal, which sent the crowd into an uproar. From that point on, it seemed that the whole game shifted in Poland’s favor. When the game ended, Poland had beaten the heavily favored Hungary 4–2.
"Polish Colonel Kazimierz Glabisz mentioned during the after-game banquet that this may be the last game before another war.
"Little did he know how prophetic his statement would be. Four days before the game, Germany and the Soviet Union had finalized a plan and secretly put into motion an organized invasion into Poland. Five days later, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and started World War II. Sixteen days later, the Soviet Union attacked Eastern Poland. Stalin and Hitler decided to divide up Poland between the two countries."
................................................................................................
"In November, the first Jewish ghetto was established in Piotrków, Poland. In 1942, the infamous Wannsee Conference was held and set in motion the Final Solution. The Wannsee Conference was a highly secure meeting that was attended by fourteen high-ranking German officers. There, the fate of the European Jew would be decided.
"The Jewish ghettos came first and were proudly referred to as “kill boxes” by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. The Jewish ghetto was an extremely sophisticated plot, developed and implemented by Hitler’s top SS leaders. Jewish ghettos were created and designed to expand across Europe, and over a period of time, they were perfected. The operation was an ongoing roundup and detention of Jews across Europe. By law, Jews were forced to leave their homes and all their possessions and were forced to live in isolated areas away from the main population, restricted by high walls and wire fences. Ghettos emerged all over Poland, and Jews were forced at gunpoint to live in crowded, unsanitary conditions. They were not allowed to leave except in special situations. Any Jew caught outside the ghetto without permission could be executed on sight.
"The Warsaw ghetto was the largest in Poland, with a population of 380,000 people. The highly classified, cryptic complexities developed at the Wannsee Conference would grow and advance, taking on new life with an almost supernatural momentum. This Jewish ghetto would inevitably cross an invisible line of no return and plunge Jews, the German people, and the world into an abyss so dark that when it was all over, the world would be forced to live with this mortal wound for generations to come. In May 1940, the Auschwitz concentration camp was established near the Polish city of Oświęcim."
"In 1940, the Hungarian king signed a treaty that gave the Nazis the right to make and enforce their own authority within Hungarian borders. The northern half of Transylvania was annexed to Hungary during the Second World War. Sighet would now be occupied and controlled by the Nazis. We looked at it the way a rail views an oncoming train. There was a trembling at the thought of what was to come, a certain shiver of fear, but there was nothing to be done about it. You could only wish that the train would stay far away, because when it came closer, it would be at full force."
"Their presence was menacing enough; they were the powerful German army—the occupiers. They commanded the anti-Semitic Hungarian army and police to carry out their orders. The Hungarians were happy to do it. The SS, the ones dressed in black, were a different story. I observed a few of them walking around, but more would follow. I rarely saw them.
"Fortunately, this time, the officer who came to live with us was a captain in the German army. My family came to enjoy his company. My mother spoke very good German, and the officer was impressed. He spent time with us, and upon hearing that he was leaving, my father invited him to our family dinner. This was a great honor. He sat beside my father as a welcomed guest. He kissed my mother’s hand. It was the last civilized gesture I would see from a man in uniform for quite some time."
"In November, the first Jewish ghetto was established in Piotrków, Poland. In 1942, the infamous Wannsee Conference was held and set in motion the Final Solution. The Wannsee Conference was a highly secure meeting that was attended by fourteen high-ranking German officers. There, the fate of the European Jew would be decided.
"The Jewish ghettos came first and were proudly referred to as “kill boxes” by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. The Jewish ghetto was an extremely sophisticated plot, developed and implemented by Hitler’s top SS leaders. Jewish ghettos were created and designed to expand across Europe, and over a period of time, they were perfected. The operation was an ongoing roundup and detention of Jews across Europe. By law, Jews were forced to leave their homes and all their possessions and were forced to live in isolated areas away from the main population, restricted by high walls and wire fences. Ghettos emerged all over Poland, and Jews were forced at gunpoint to live in crowded, unsanitary conditions. They were not allowed to leave except in special situations. Any Jew caught outside the ghetto without permission could be executed on sight.
"The Warsaw ghetto was the largest in Poland, with a population of 380,000 people. The highly classified, cryptic complexities developed at the Wannsee Conference would grow and advance, taking on new life with an almost supernatural momentum. This Jewish ghetto would inevitably cross an invisible line of no return and plunge Jews, the German people, and the world into an abyss so dark that when it was all over, the world would be forced to live with this mortal wound for generations to come. In May 1940, the Auschwitz concentration camp was established near the Polish city of Oświęcim."
................................................................................................
"In 1940, the Hungarian king signed a treaty that gave the Nazis the right to make and enforce their own authority within Hungarian borders. The northern half of Transylvania was annexed to Hungary during the Second World War. Sighet would now be occupied and controlled by the Nazis. We looked at it the way a rail views an oncoming train. There was a trembling at the thought of what was to come, a certain shiver of fear, but there was nothing to be done about it. You could only wish that the train would stay far away, because when it came closer, it would be at full force."
"Their presence was menacing enough; they were the powerful German army—the occupiers. They commanded the anti-Semitic Hungarian army and police to carry out their orders. The Hungarians were happy to do it. The SS, the ones dressed in black, were a different story. I observed a few of them walking around, but more would follow. I rarely saw them.
"Fortunately, this time, the officer who came to live with us was a captain in the German army. My family came to enjoy his company. My mother spoke very good German, and the officer was impressed. He spent time with us, and upon hearing that he was leaving, my father invited him to our family dinner. This was a great honor. He sat beside my father as a welcomed guest. He kissed my mother’s hand. It was the last civilized gesture I would see from a man in uniform for quite some time."
................................................................................................
Their valuables were taken away.
"This brings me to one of those strange moments in the middle of chaos. It was especially absurd. The Hungarian police made my father open the store on the Sabbath. They said there was no reason for keeping the store closed, and since our customs and practices meant nothing anymore, this would be an example to the community that their course of action would prevail. Our store would be open even if it were at gunpoint. My father followed command, but nobody came. Our store was usually a very busy place, but on the Sabbath, it was completely empty. Non-Jews wouldn’t come into a Jewish neighborhood and enter a Jewish store. And the Jews stayed home. I think, even though my father was a very religious man, the fact that nobody showed up on those days made him smile."
The store was taken away too.
"At the end of 1942, the Hungarian government had made a law to deport to Poland all Jews who could not prove Hungarian citizenship. Any foreigners who were not from Sighet were taken from their homes to the train station, where they were loaded into boxcars for the trip. Some families had been living in Sighet for generations. It was very heartbreaking for us to watch people forced into leaving their homes. People we had known for years were crying as they were escorted to the trains. It was a sad and terribly difficult time. We were powerless to help or to intercede at any level; there was nothing you could do. People were confused. Even after the deportation and with all the acts of anti-Semitism that were accruing in Sighet, we were still refusing to believe that it could become any worse than this."
"I’ll give an example of how the truth was a casualty of war in Sighet. Elie Wiesel writes about it in his book Night. Elie Wiesel and I were friends and neighbors when we were young, and his sister Beatrice and I became lifelong friends. This is an event that had extreme significance for him, and all of us who were there, and is worthy of taking a moment to repeat.
"Another widely known resident, the caretaker of a synagogue, Moshe, who is the heart of this story, was taken away along with other Jews. I remember, two months after the people were taken, Moshe returned and created a ripple in our lives. He meant to sound an alarm, one that might wake us up and put us on a different road, but we did not listen. We did not recognize the truth when it hammered at our door.
"Moshe spoke to the Jewish Council. He talked to his neighbors. He ran from one Jewish household to the next shouting, “Jews, listen to me! It’s all I ask of you. No money, no pity, just listen to me!”
"His story was impossible. It couldn’t be true. The townspeople thought he was crazed or looking for sympathy, and we thought, What an imagination he has! Or sometimes, they pitied him and said, “Poor fellow, he’s gone mad.”
"And as for Moshe, he wept. He knew the truth, and this was his warning to them: When the group of refugees crossed the border into Poland, the Gestapo, the German secret police, took charge of all of the Jews in the group of refugees. They were transferred onto trucks and driven to the forest in Galicia, near Kolomyya. There they were forced to dig pits. The pits were supposed to be deep enough to be latrines, but that was not the point. I’m sure you understand.
"The job was finished. The Germans had each person approach the hole. The prisoner presented his neck to the soldier and was shot. Babies were thrown into the air and used as targets for machine gunners.
"Moshe told them about a young man, Tobias, who begged to be shot before his sons. Another story was about a young girl named Malka, who took three days to die. Moshe told them how the German gunners had gotten impatient and started firing into the crowd. He had been hit in the leg, and they’d left him for dead.
"This story sticks in my head not because of what it meant at the time. It was what it could have meant or maybe what it was supposed to have meant. It was one of those moments that passed so quickly. The simple and sad truth is that we didn’t heed the message that was delivered to us.
"Despite Moshe’s plea, and all of the intimidating and corrupt conditions in Sighet, life went on for my family and friends. We still socialized. We were a family of twelve, so there was always a birthday to celebrate. Children played, couples got married, and we celebrated the Jewish holidays. I think we were all desperate for life to return to normal. Socializing gave us a temporary sense of security and hope. We made the best out of it."
They began to turn Jewish parts of Sighet into a ghetto, with barbed wire and fences, and as many as thirty people living in a house, with Jews from countryside sent into Sighet. The people managed.
"We did our best to organize ourselves under the conditions we were given. Our leaders organized a Jewish Council, which was led by Rabbi Samu Danzig. They created a whole humanitarian system, upon which we all agreed, and it operated like a tiny city. I really think it was a testament to my family and to the Jews of Sighet. It was a testament to our determination. We refused to betray our principal beliefs and high standards in how we conducted ourselves toward one another and the rest of humanity. We were good, decent people, not the manipulated propaganda and untruths that Hitler and his followers had spread so disgustingly across Europe."
Their valuables were taken away.
"This brings me to one of those strange moments in the middle of chaos. It was especially absurd. The Hungarian police made my father open the store on the Sabbath. They said there was no reason for keeping the store closed, and since our customs and practices meant nothing anymore, this would be an example to the community that their course of action would prevail. Our store would be open even if it were at gunpoint. My father followed command, but nobody came. Our store was usually a very busy place, but on the Sabbath, it was completely empty. Non-Jews wouldn’t come into a Jewish neighborhood and enter a Jewish store. And the Jews stayed home. I think, even though my father was a very religious man, the fact that nobody showed up on those days made him smile."
The store was taken away too.
"At the end of 1942, the Hungarian government had made a law to deport to Poland all Jews who could not prove Hungarian citizenship. Any foreigners who were not from Sighet were taken from their homes to the train station, where they were loaded into boxcars for the trip. Some families had been living in Sighet for generations. It was very heartbreaking for us to watch people forced into leaving their homes. People we had known for years were crying as they were escorted to the trains. It was a sad and terribly difficult time. We were powerless to help or to intercede at any level; there was nothing you could do. People were confused. Even after the deportation and with all the acts of anti-Semitism that were accruing in Sighet, we were still refusing to believe that it could become any worse than this."
"I’ll give an example of how the truth was a casualty of war in Sighet. Elie Wiesel writes about it in his book Night. Elie Wiesel and I were friends and neighbors when we were young, and his sister Beatrice and I became lifelong friends. This is an event that had extreme significance for him, and all of us who were there, and is worthy of taking a moment to repeat.
"Another widely known resident, the caretaker of a synagogue, Moshe, who is the heart of this story, was taken away along with other Jews. I remember, two months after the people were taken, Moshe returned and created a ripple in our lives. He meant to sound an alarm, one that might wake us up and put us on a different road, but we did not listen. We did not recognize the truth when it hammered at our door.
"Moshe spoke to the Jewish Council. He talked to his neighbors. He ran from one Jewish household to the next shouting, “Jews, listen to me! It’s all I ask of you. No money, no pity, just listen to me!”
"His story was impossible. It couldn’t be true. The townspeople thought he was crazed or looking for sympathy, and we thought, What an imagination he has! Or sometimes, they pitied him and said, “Poor fellow, he’s gone mad.”
"And as for Moshe, he wept. He knew the truth, and this was his warning to them: When the group of refugees crossed the border into Poland, the Gestapo, the German secret police, took charge of all of the Jews in the group of refugees. They were transferred onto trucks and driven to the forest in Galicia, near Kolomyya. There they were forced to dig pits. The pits were supposed to be deep enough to be latrines, but that was not the point. I’m sure you understand.
"The job was finished. The Germans had each person approach the hole. The prisoner presented his neck to the soldier and was shot. Babies were thrown into the air and used as targets for machine gunners.
"Moshe told them about a young man, Tobias, who begged to be shot before his sons. Another story was about a young girl named Malka, who took three days to die. Moshe told them how the German gunners had gotten impatient and started firing into the crowd. He had been hit in the leg, and they’d left him for dead.
"This story sticks in my head not because of what it meant at the time. It was what it could have meant or maybe what it was supposed to have meant. It was one of those moments that passed so quickly. The simple and sad truth is that we didn’t heed the message that was delivered to us.
"Despite Moshe’s plea, and all of the intimidating and corrupt conditions in Sighet, life went on for my family and friends. We still socialized. We were a family of twelve, so there was always a birthday to celebrate. Children played, couples got married, and we celebrated the Jewish holidays. I think we were all desperate for life to return to normal. Socializing gave us a temporary sense of security and hope. We made the best out of it."
................................................................................................
They began to turn Jewish parts of Sighet into a ghetto, with barbed wire and fences, and as many as thirty people living in a house, with Jews from countryside sent into Sighet. The people managed.
"We did our best to organize ourselves under the conditions we were given. Our leaders organized a Jewish Council, which was led by Rabbi Samu Danzig. They created a whole humanitarian system, upon which we all agreed, and it operated like a tiny city. I really think it was a testament to my family and to the Jews of Sighet. It was a testament to our determination. We refused to betray our principal beliefs and high standards in how we conducted ourselves toward one another and the rest of humanity. We were good, decent people, not the manipulated propaganda and untruths that Hitler and his followers had spread so disgustingly across Europe."
................................................................................................
"In March 1944, Adolf Eichmann arrived in Hungary to oversee the deportation of the Jews to Auschwitz. He was assigned by General Reinhard Heydrich, chairman of the Wannsee Conference, to set in motion and implement the Final Solution, the extermination of the Eastern European Jew. He was the commander of the Nazis’ Sondereinsatzkommando (the special response unit of the German state police forces). It was a long and grand title for an organization of men who were essentially killers.
"In May 1944, in a weeklong deportation process, 15,500 Jews were deported from Sighet to the Auschwitz concentration camp by the German SS and the Hungarian authorities."
"It was very hot that day when the Hungarian government sent a representative to tell us the ghettos would be closed immediately. They said that a speedy deportation was being put into effect and that we should pack a few clothes and some food because we wouldn’t be coming back. We were told we would be going to a work camp, but we weren’t told our destination. We weren’t allowed to ask questions. Asking where we were going or how long it would take to get there could get us beaten or even killed. And somehow, we were still under the illusion that all would be okay and this would pass.
"I am still asked today how we were unaware that people were being murdered or how could we have been so naïve. Sometimes, that question almost feels more accusatory rather than a real need-to-know of the facts. The truth isn’t that simple. I wish it was, but what is not understood is that if we thought for a second that within three days’ travel time, our families and friends would be going to their deaths, or that most of the people I grew up with would be dead, of course we would have reacted in some way. However, that’s how secret the murdering was. And sometimes, I ask myself if it was us, if we were we the ones who needed to wake up. The inhumanity and crimes that were being committed, along with the massive complicity that was running out of control across Europe, could have all been stopped instantly with one act of courage from any one of the ruling political powers. But waking up wasn’t something we needed to do. The decision to support Hitler in whatever capacity would be something that millions would later realize and for most, I must say, disgracefully regret."
How very true.
Antisemitism still prevails, now in multiple faces. One denies holocaust, another assumes thst if nazis did so they had good reason to do so, and still others turn and ask why Jews didn't react, as if the victims are to be blamed for the murders.
"In March 1944, Adolf Eichmann arrived in Hungary to oversee the deportation of the Jews to Auschwitz. He was assigned by General Reinhard Heydrich, chairman of the Wannsee Conference, to set in motion and implement the Final Solution, the extermination of the Eastern European Jew. He was the commander of the Nazis’ Sondereinsatzkommando (the special response unit of the German state police forces). It was a long and grand title for an organization of men who were essentially killers.
"In May 1944, in a weeklong deportation process, 15,500 Jews were deported from Sighet to the Auschwitz concentration camp by the German SS and the Hungarian authorities."
................................................................................................
"It was very hot that day when the Hungarian government sent a representative to tell us the ghettos would be closed immediately. They said that a speedy deportation was being put into effect and that we should pack a few clothes and some food because we wouldn’t be coming back. We were told we would be going to a work camp, but we weren’t told our destination. We weren’t allowed to ask questions. Asking where we were going or how long it would take to get there could get us beaten or even killed. And somehow, we were still under the illusion that all would be okay and this would pass.
"I am still asked today how we were unaware that people were being murdered or how could we have been so naïve. Sometimes, that question almost feels more accusatory rather than a real need-to-know of the facts. The truth isn’t that simple. I wish it was, but what is not understood is that if we thought for a second that within three days’ travel time, our families and friends would be going to their deaths, or that most of the people I grew up with would be dead, of course we would have reacted in some way. However, that’s how secret the murdering was. And sometimes, I ask myself if it was us, if we were we the ones who needed to wake up. The inhumanity and crimes that were being committed, along with the massive complicity that was running out of control across Europe, could have all been stopped instantly with one act of courage from any one of the ruling political powers. But waking up wasn’t something we needed to do. The decision to support Hitler in whatever capacity would be something that millions would later realize and for most, I must say, disgracefully regret."
How very true.
Antisemitism still prevails, now in multiple faces. One denies holocaust, another assumes thst if nazis did so they had good reason to do so, and still others turn and ask why Jews didn't react, as if the victims are to be blamed for the murders.
................................................................................................
"The next day, we were told we had to walk to the location of where the transport was. I’m not sure, but I believe it was about four miles. There were thousands of people walking as we left Serpent Street, and I wondered what they all must have been thinking. There were friends I had played with as a child, groups of people who fought to stay together, and families who hid away in the buildings as they waited for their turn to be sent to the transports. As I walked through this marvelous town in which I had grown up, I realized for the first time that it was all built with a divine purpose. For me, Sighet had an irresistible charm and a family intimacy. I had inhaled it all—the different shops and stores that were all snuggled together and which I had visited all my life and loved so much—and all of it lived deeply in my heart. As we all walked through town, people I recognized held hands and embraced each other, and there didn’t appear to be any particular etiquette to it; it was spontaneous. Family social barriers broke down. People that were normally distant held hands; men clutched their children, sisters paired with brothers, and the old supported the young. I held hands with my mother for the first time since I was a little girl. My father and my younger brother, Mortho, held hands. And then, it would seem for no reason, we were holding someone else’s hand, which is why touching seemed more important than ever. It was like everyone was saying what they always wanted to say to each other but never did, and it was all through touch and very few words."
" ... We were forced promptly along by the eager and always threatening Hungarian army and police. When we reached the border of the ghetto, it became almost like some kind of horrible parade. The people from town, the non-Jews, people we had known since childhood, watched as we deserted our homes, dragged our packs—our lives—out of town. People we had shared our lives with were now shouting out hateful anti-Semitic comments. They watched us through their windows, studying our misery. Some poked fun at us and scornfully smiled. Some looked away. Bless those who did.
"The Hungarian gendarmes and police carried rifles and batons. I know there is no way to explain what drives a man to push around women and children, treat them like cattle, but there were definitely two types of policemen in Hungary. The first was the kind that would look at us and instantly despise us. A person who can look directly into the eyes of misery and see a target for more punishment is a terrible person to meet. I tried not to see these people, even though they saw me (today, I find peace by letting go of their faces in my memories). The other type of policeman would look away if I looked at him. These were the ones I pitied. It seems strange that I would be in the position to pity even when everything was being taken away from me, but I pitied them regardless. In these brief moments, my observation of these policemen who wouldn’t look at me appeared as a sign and a microcosm of Hitler’s evil agenda, which I had never experienced before. This was a new experience for me to see the betrayal of one’s own self, and I was beginning to recognize a suffering in some underneath it. Peer pressure, fear, murder, and intimidation by a few were causing millions of people to act in ways that they might not normally behave."
They were crammed into boxcars, exactly seventy in each, and not even given water to drink until their control was taken over by Germans at the border, but not before the Hungarians had taken away whatever valuables they still had. They arrived and marched into the death camp in dark.
"An SS guard spoke out to us. He said, “Stay calm. There is no need to be alarmed. You are going to be showered and disinfected, and then you will rejoin your families.” Then we were put into lines. There were five women and five men in each. I don’t know how, but my sister, Rose, found us and lined up with us. She was terrified. I could tell she had been crying. Next they separated the men from us, and they were ordered to move and reform their lines just on the other side of the yard. That was the last time I saw my brother Mendal, who was moved with the other men.
"I couldn’t help but notice people being helped inside the Red Cross vans. That seemed to give me a small bit of comfort. Of course, I learned later anyone who was taken by the Red Cross vans was taken straight to the gas chambers. I saw just a glimpse of my youngest brother, Mortho’s, coat disappearing along the same path forward to the gates in the dark. His face was in shadow. I knew my father must have been on the other side of him, because he was looking away from me. Mortho looked like a fully grown man. Even though he was only fourteen, he was taller than most of the guards. He had developed his mind and spirit into those of an adult. Mortho, to me, was the face of the tragedy of Auschwitz, even long after the fires had stopped burning. The sense, the beauty, and the loss were there in his eyes at that moment. I would have seen them if only he’d turned his face. I should have called out. What would I have said to him? I might have teased him for being so tall, or I might have told him to be careful. Hopefully, I would have been able to say something meaningful or worthy of our final words on Earth. We all must make an effort when we know it is the last time we’ll ever see a loved one. I know, because when he slipped away into the crowd, I felt like I had let him down. As we made our way to the gates, I fell on the gravel. I wanted to stop for a minute, but the pain immediately brought me back to my task, which was to move forward. My mother helped me to stand up. I said nothing to her. This turned out to be another silent good-bye."
There were Jewish prisoners who warned the new arrivals to not stick to the children, because that was sure to send them to death, but mothers of young children held their children close.
"There were a few grandmothers in the group who spoke Polish and heard the warnings. They took the children from their daughters and saved their daughters’ lives. This might have seemed like a form of defiance; however, I met some of these mothers in the camp. I didn’t meet a single one who felt like their lives had truly been saved."
"There was a point where flashlights were grouped around an intimidating figure. This is when I first met Josef Mengele. There in the dark, it felt like I was back in the movie theater in Sighet. He was the most handsome man I’d ever seen in person. To this day, I remember him as a matinee idol who had stepped off of the screen and into a real-life horror story. This was the most feared man in Auschwitz. You had to have a special relationship with evil to be called that here. Camp survivors gave Mengele a suitable title: the Angel of Death. I was told that he met every train arrival, but all I know is that he met ours and made his selection. He stood tall, was very neat and superior, and had complete self-confidence. Nobody doubted that he was in charge. His uniform was impeccable, right down to the white cotton gloves and shiny black boots. The gloves were impossibly white for the times. Nothing around him was so clean. He also carried a riding stick in his right hand, which he used to direct us where to go. He would point and send someone either left or right. Why left? Why right? No one knew how or why he chose as he did. To us, it seemed as though he was merely separating people. He pushed all of the old and young into the track to our right."
"He pointed his riding stick at my sister Rose. “You are sisters?” Although he asked, it was more of a statement than a question.
"“Yes, sir,” Rose answered.
"“Someone should take care of your mother. You to the left, go with her.” He pointed at Ancy. She was the beauty of our family. She was twenty-six years old and had long blond hair. Her smile was known all over Sighet. There was something about it that caught the attention of everyone, not just the boys. Maybe it was that potential that caught the attention of Mengele. Ancy was relieved to go with our mother. She always wanted to go where she might be of the most help. I can’t remember her last smile because I still kept my eyes focused straight ahead of me. And with that, Mengele separated us. I went with two of my sisters, Hedy and Rose, and went to the left, while Ancy and my mother went to the right. I never saw them again except in my dreams.
"But there was no comfort in that for a long time. Where we were headed, even dreams were not much of a place for solace. That night, within hours of our arrival, my father and mother, my younger brother, Mortho, and my sister Ancy had been selected by Mengele to die in the gas chamber simply because they were Jews and served no purpose to the SS agenda. There was nothing that could be done. Their death sentence may well have been decided three days prior, the day we boarded the train. At the time, we had no idea. Mengele smiled and reassured us that we would be taken by bus and that we would see them tomorrow. That’s what he said. Why, at this point, I listened and believed, I don’t know."
They were sent to bathhouse and told to step while German guards watched, and were showered by them holding nozzles with water scalding or cold, and shorn of their hair.
"And then the tattoo. Numbers were painfully inked onto our arms. Mine was A-7845. This was the Nazis’ way of permanently dehumanizing us, especially for traditional Jewish families like ours, where tattooing is prohibited. Our father had taught us that our bodies are worthy of respectful treatment by others and ourselves. He taught us that we must not mistreat our bodies and that our bodies were made in tzelem Elokim (in God’s image). In the Jewish tradition, the body should not be marked arbitrarily or foolishly. From that moment on, Klara, the happy young girl from Sighet, was gone. My sisters were also tattooed, and I could see the pain in their eyes. I felt horrible for them. We found out later that before the Jews had been branded with a number, some of them would sneak between the different sections of the camp. Some people were able to reunite with their families or seek out the comfort of a friend through this freedom. The number put an end to that. We heard a story that if one number—one girl—was missing from a barrack, the entire block was sent to the crematorium. The Nazis had perfected the process of nonsense in language, and so they sought to conquer numbers as well. They reminded us of this with the signs on the walls and the numbers on our arms.
"As we were marched away from the bathhouse and into the camp, I knew I had left my old reality forever. Any innocence that I might have had left had been shattered with the tattoo, A-7845. The only real things we would experience, and could possibly experience, from this point on were death, suffering, hunger, and pain. There was a difference between a concentration camp and an extermination camp. The realization slowly crept upon us that we were now in the belly of Auschwitz. From top to bottom, Auschwitz was the Nazis’ supreme extermination camp."
"The next day, we were told we had to walk to the location of where the transport was. I’m not sure, but I believe it was about four miles. There were thousands of people walking as we left Serpent Street, and I wondered what they all must have been thinking. There were friends I had played with as a child, groups of people who fought to stay together, and families who hid away in the buildings as they waited for their turn to be sent to the transports. As I walked through this marvelous town in which I had grown up, I realized for the first time that it was all built with a divine purpose. For me, Sighet had an irresistible charm and a family intimacy. I had inhaled it all—the different shops and stores that were all snuggled together and which I had visited all my life and loved so much—and all of it lived deeply in my heart. As we all walked through town, people I recognized held hands and embraced each other, and there didn’t appear to be any particular etiquette to it; it was spontaneous. Family social barriers broke down. People that were normally distant held hands; men clutched their children, sisters paired with brothers, and the old supported the young. I held hands with my mother for the first time since I was a little girl. My father and my younger brother, Mortho, held hands. And then, it would seem for no reason, we were holding someone else’s hand, which is why touching seemed more important than ever. It was like everyone was saying what they always wanted to say to each other but never did, and it was all through touch and very few words."
" ... We were forced promptly along by the eager and always threatening Hungarian army and police. When we reached the border of the ghetto, it became almost like some kind of horrible parade. The people from town, the non-Jews, people we had known since childhood, watched as we deserted our homes, dragged our packs—our lives—out of town. People we had shared our lives with were now shouting out hateful anti-Semitic comments. They watched us through their windows, studying our misery. Some poked fun at us and scornfully smiled. Some looked away. Bless those who did.
"The Hungarian gendarmes and police carried rifles and batons. I know there is no way to explain what drives a man to push around women and children, treat them like cattle, but there were definitely two types of policemen in Hungary. The first was the kind that would look at us and instantly despise us. A person who can look directly into the eyes of misery and see a target for more punishment is a terrible person to meet. I tried not to see these people, even though they saw me (today, I find peace by letting go of their faces in my memories). The other type of policeman would look away if I looked at him. These were the ones I pitied. It seems strange that I would be in the position to pity even when everything was being taken away from me, but I pitied them regardless. In these brief moments, my observation of these policemen who wouldn’t look at me appeared as a sign and a microcosm of Hitler’s evil agenda, which I had never experienced before. This was a new experience for me to see the betrayal of one’s own self, and I was beginning to recognize a suffering in some underneath it. Peer pressure, fear, murder, and intimidation by a few were causing millions of people to act in ways that they might not normally behave."
They were crammed into boxcars, exactly seventy in each, and not even given water to drink until their control was taken over by Germans at the border, but not before the Hungarians had taken away whatever valuables they still had. They arrived and marched into the death camp in dark.
................................................................................................
"An SS guard spoke out to us. He said, “Stay calm. There is no need to be alarmed. You are going to be showered and disinfected, and then you will rejoin your families.” Then we were put into lines. There were five women and five men in each. I don’t know how, but my sister, Rose, found us and lined up with us. She was terrified. I could tell she had been crying. Next they separated the men from us, and they were ordered to move and reform their lines just on the other side of the yard. That was the last time I saw my brother Mendal, who was moved with the other men.
"I couldn’t help but notice people being helped inside the Red Cross vans. That seemed to give me a small bit of comfort. Of course, I learned later anyone who was taken by the Red Cross vans was taken straight to the gas chambers. I saw just a glimpse of my youngest brother, Mortho’s, coat disappearing along the same path forward to the gates in the dark. His face was in shadow. I knew my father must have been on the other side of him, because he was looking away from me. Mortho looked like a fully grown man. Even though he was only fourteen, he was taller than most of the guards. He had developed his mind and spirit into those of an adult. Mortho, to me, was the face of the tragedy of Auschwitz, even long after the fires had stopped burning. The sense, the beauty, and the loss were there in his eyes at that moment. I would have seen them if only he’d turned his face. I should have called out. What would I have said to him? I might have teased him for being so tall, or I might have told him to be careful. Hopefully, I would have been able to say something meaningful or worthy of our final words on Earth. We all must make an effort when we know it is the last time we’ll ever see a loved one. I know, because when he slipped away into the crowd, I felt like I had let him down. As we made our way to the gates, I fell on the gravel. I wanted to stop for a minute, but the pain immediately brought me back to my task, which was to move forward. My mother helped me to stand up. I said nothing to her. This turned out to be another silent good-bye."
There were Jewish prisoners who warned the new arrivals to not stick to the children, because that was sure to send them to death, but mothers of young children held their children close.
"There were a few grandmothers in the group who spoke Polish and heard the warnings. They took the children from their daughters and saved their daughters’ lives. This might have seemed like a form of defiance; however, I met some of these mothers in the camp. I didn’t meet a single one who felt like their lives had truly been saved."
"There was a point where flashlights were grouped around an intimidating figure. This is when I first met Josef Mengele. There in the dark, it felt like I was back in the movie theater in Sighet. He was the most handsome man I’d ever seen in person. To this day, I remember him as a matinee idol who had stepped off of the screen and into a real-life horror story. This was the most feared man in Auschwitz. You had to have a special relationship with evil to be called that here. Camp survivors gave Mengele a suitable title: the Angel of Death. I was told that he met every train arrival, but all I know is that he met ours and made his selection. He stood tall, was very neat and superior, and had complete self-confidence. Nobody doubted that he was in charge. His uniform was impeccable, right down to the white cotton gloves and shiny black boots. The gloves were impossibly white for the times. Nothing around him was so clean. He also carried a riding stick in his right hand, which he used to direct us where to go. He would point and send someone either left or right. Why left? Why right? No one knew how or why he chose as he did. To us, it seemed as though he was merely separating people. He pushed all of the old and young into the track to our right."
"He pointed his riding stick at my sister Rose. “You are sisters?” Although he asked, it was more of a statement than a question.
"“Yes, sir,” Rose answered.
"“Someone should take care of your mother. You to the left, go with her.” He pointed at Ancy. She was the beauty of our family. She was twenty-six years old and had long blond hair. Her smile was known all over Sighet. There was something about it that caught the attention of everyone, not just the boys. Maybe it was that potential that caught the attention of Mengele. Ancy was relieved to go with our mother. She always wanted to go where she might be of the most help. I can’t remember her last smile because I still kept my eyes focused straight ahead of me. And with that, Mengele separated us. I went with two of my sisters, Hedy and Rose, and went to the left, while Ancy and my mother went to the right. I never saw them again except in my dreams.
"But there was no comfort in that for a long time. Where we were headed, even dreams were not much of a place for solace. That night, within hours of our arrival, my father and mother, my younger brother, Mortho, and my sister Ancy had been selected by Mengele to die in the gas chamber simply because they were Jews and served no purpose to the SS agenda. There was nothing that could be done. Their death sentence may well have been decided three days prior, the day we boarded the train. At the time, we had no idea. Mengele smiled and reassured us that we would be taken by bus and that we would see them tomorrow. That’s what he said. Why, at this point, I listened and believed, I don’t know."
................................................................................................
They were sent to bathhouse and told to step while German guards watched, and were showered by them holding nozzles with water scalding or cold, and shorn of their hair.
"And then the tattoo. Numbers were painfully inked onto our arms. Mine was A-7845. This was the Nazis’ way of permanently dehumanizing us, especially for traditional Jewish families like ours, where tattooing is prohibited. Our father had taught us that our bodies are worthy of respectful treatment by others and ourselves. He taught us that we must not mistreat our bodies and that our bodies were made in tzelem Elokim (in God’s image). In the Jewish tradition, the body should not be marked arbitrarily or foolishly. From that moment on, Klara, the happy young girl from Sighet, was gone. My sisters were also tattooed, and I could see the pain in their eyes. I felt horrible for them. We found out later that before the Jews had been branded with a number, some of them would sneak between the different sections of the camp. Some people were able to reunite with their families or seek out the comfort of a friend through this freedom. The number put an end to that. We heard a story that if one number—one girl—was missing from a barrack, the entire block was sent to the crematorium. The Nazis had perfected the process of nonsense in language, and so they sought to conquer numbers as well. They reminded us of this with the signs on the walls and the numbers on our arms.
"As we were marched away from the bathhouse and into the camp, I knew I had left my old reality forever. Any innocence that I might have had left had been shattered with the tattoo, A-7845. The only real things we would experience, and could possibly experience, from this point on were death, suffering, hunger, and pain. There was a difference between a concentration camp and an extermination camp. The realization slowly crept upon us that we were now in the belly of Auschwitz. From top to bottom, Auschwitz was the Nazis’ supreme extermination camp."
................................................................................................
"I began to lose weight from that first day. This may not sound important, but it is what eventually led to my selection to be taken to the showers, killed, and cremated. This action was still months away, though, and although I connect it through hunger and suffering, there was no easy way out of Auschwitz.
"That first day in the yard was the hardest. We were ordered outside for morning roll call, where we lined up in rows of ten. Lineup was where the SS really showed off their power and cruelty. They always used the opportunity to reinforce to us their brutal control. We were kept in line, sometimes for hours, and just waited. Some people were too weak to stand, so they were yanked out of line and were taken straight to the gas chamber."
"This seems obvious, but a lot of people were too sick and weak to stand. Red Cross vans were used to take the weak and sick to the gas chambers. A weapon was almost always used to inflict more pain. For some it took many beatings to get their point across."
They were starved and worked to death, and beaten if heard, or for whatever excuse.
"The point is that the SS had to attempt to justify and create what their propaganda declared about us by reducing us to living at the lowest common denominator. When you beat, starve, murder, and dehumanize human beings, how could you expect sanity or common sense? The uglier they could make us, the easier it was for them to continue on with their deadly process. The truth is we were just ordinary people living normal lives. The mistake was those people who decided to listen to Hitler."
"I began to lose weight from that first day. This may not sound important, but it is what eventually led to my selection to be taken to the showers, killed, and cremated. This action was still months away, though, and although I connect it through hunger and suffering, there was no easy way out of Auschwitz.
"That first day in the yard was the hardest. We were ordered outside for morning roll call, where we lined up in rows of ten. Lineup was where the SS really showed off their power and cruelty. They always used the opportunity to reinforce to us their brutal control. We were kept in line, sometimes for hours, and just waited. Some people were too weak to stand, so they were yanked out of line and were taken straight to the gas chamber."
"This seems obvious, but a lot of people were too sick and weak to stand. Red Cross vans were used to take the weak and sick to the gas chambers. A weapon was almost always used to inflict more pain. For some it took many beatings to get their point across."
They were starved and worked to death, and beaten if heard, or for whatever excuse.
"The point is that the SS had to attempt to justify and create what their propaganda declared about us by reducing us to living at the lowest common denominator. When you beat, starve, murder, and dehumanize human beings, how could you expect sanity or common sense? The uglier they could make us, the easier it was for them to continue on with their deadly process. The truth is we were just ordinary people living normal lives. The mistake was those people who decided to listen to Hitler."
................................................................................................
"Once again we were ordered to stand in line. Factory owners from other camps across Europe would send in request orders for women to work slave labor jobs for the German war effort. The SS would do full body inspections on us in the nude and pick women to go to these factories who they felt were the best fit. As one transport would leave, another would arrive. I can remember being fixated on the women going to the bathhouse. From there, they would leave on transports to other camps. At the same time these transports were leaving, the big generators would fire up the crematoriums, which signaled new transports would soon arrive at Auschwitz. I often wondered if the German factory owners had any knowledge of what was happening. Did they know the trains that were bringing them their new workers had been used to transport thousands of people to their deaths? Did they know about the mass murders taking place at Auschwitz?
"We were told to always look down at the floor and never to look in Mengele’s eyes. Mengele looked for any reason to put people to death. He loved the power that came with being able to decide who lived and who died. Mengele made regular visits to our barracks and other women’s barracks He was always accompanied by armed guards along with a phony smile and hidden agenda. By now, all of the women were terrified of him because we never knew when he would appear. If and when he did show up, someone was usually selected for torture or escorted to the gas chambers because they appeared sick or malnourished."
"During my second month in the camp, someone came down with typhoid fever in the neighboring barracks. Mengele’s mission to stop the epidemic was extreme. The next day, the barracks was completely empty. Mengele ordered seven hundred women to the gas chambers that night because of one case of typhoid."
................................................................................................
"Mengele sent whole barracks to the gas chambers over thirty times during his reign at Auschwitz. Sometimes one barracks, sometimes an entire section of the camp was completely emptied overnight."
Klara saw someone at work being beaten, and stopped eating the miserable portions they were fed.
"It was November. A cold gray sky blocked out the sun. Mengele came out of his office and announced that there would be a selection in our barracks. Lilly ordered us to quickly prepare for a lineup. The crematorium had been burning day and night. The Germans knew that the Russian front was advancing and this was not good for them. They continually tried to get rid of the evidence of what they were doing. There was literally a holding block that held a backlog of people waiting for the gas chambers to clear so they could be gassed too. My sisters and I knew people waited sometimes days to be gassed, with no food or water. I think this frustrated Mengele. He couldn’t simply send people directly to the gas chambers anymore, and it changed his routine. There was some slight satisfaction in that. When Mengele came to our barracks that day, we knew people were going to the gas chamber. Mengele marched inside, dressed in his white lab coat, which covered his uniform, with five big German guards in tow.
"We were ordered to hold our dress, coat, or whatever we were wearing in our right hands; our left hands were to be empty. We had to be undressed, completely nude. We were to stay in a single-file line and walk toward him while he looked over our bodies. As the soldiers stood guard, Mengele methodically decided whom he would send to the gas chambers and whom he would send back to work. Mengele’s decision to kill was always justified by a spot-check medical exam. But it wasn’t medical at all; it was just another way he used to torture people. It was a psychological torture he used by holding everyone hostage before he decided whom he would kill."
She was selected by him, but as they were waiting in a holding cell before the gas chamber, she escaped by moving a few bricks near a window, since the building wasn't made of good bricks. She joined a work transport that was being sent to Czechoslovakia.
"Once again we were ordered to stand in line. Factory owners from other camps across Europe would send in request orders for women to work slave labor jobs for the German war effort. The SS would do full body inspections on us in the nude and pick women to go to these factories who they felt were the best fit. As one transport would leave, another would arrive. I can remember being fixated on the women going to the bathhouse. From there, they would leave on transports to other camps. At the same time these transports were leaving, the big generators would fire up the crematoriums, which signaled new transports would soon arrive at Auschwitz. I often wondered if the German factory owners had any knowledge of what was happening. Did they know the trains that were bringing them their new workers had been used to transport thousands of people to their deaths? Did they know about the mass murders taking place at Auschwitz?
"We were told to always look down at the floor and never to look in Mengele’s eyes. Mengele looked for any reason to put people to death. He loved the power that came with being able to decide who lived and who died. Mengele made regular visits to our barracks and other women’s barracks He was always accompanied by armed guards along with a phony smile and hidden agenda. By now, all of the women were terrified of him because we never knew when he would appear. If and when he did show up, someone was usually selected for torture or escorted to the gas chambers because they appeared sick or malnourished."
"During my second month in the camp, someone came down with typhoid fever in the neighboring barracks. Mengele’s mission to stop the epidemic was extreme. The next day, the barracks was completely empty. Mengele ordered seven hundred women to the gas chambers that night because of one case of typhoid."
................................................................................................
"Mengele sent whole barracks to the gas chambers over thirty times during his reign at Auschwitz. Sometimes one barracks, sometimes an entire section of the camp was completely emptied overnight."
Klara saw someone at work being beaten, and stopped eating the miserable portions they were fed.
"It was November. A cold gray sky blocked out the sun. Mengele came out of his office and announced that there would be a selection in our barracks. Lilly ordered us to quickly prepare for a lineup. The crematorium had been burning day and night. The Germans knew that the Russian front was advancing and this was not good for them. They continually tried to get rid of the evidence of what they were doing. There was literally a holding block that held a backlog of people waiting for the gas chambers to clear so they could be gassed too. My sisters and I knew people waited sometimes days to be gassed, with no food or water. I think this frustrated Mengele. He couldn’t simply send people directly to the gas chambers anymore, and it changed his routine. There was some slight satisfaction in that. When Mengele came to our barracks that day, we knew people were going to the gas chamber. Mengele marched inside, dressed in his white lab coat, which covered his uniform, with five big German guards in tow.
"We were ordered to hold our dress, coat, or whatever we were wearing in our right hands; our left hands were to be empty. We had to be undressed, completely nude. We were to stay in a single-file line and walk toward him while he looked over our bodies. As the soldiers stood guard, Mengele methodically decided whom he would send to the gas chambers and whom he would send back to work. Mengele’s decision to kill was always justified by a spot-check medical exam. But it wasn’t medical at all; it was just another way he used to torture people. It was a psychological torture he used by holding everyone hostage before he decided whom he would kill."
She was selected by him, but as they were waiting in a holding cell before the gas chamber, she escaped by moving a few bricks near a window, since the building wasn't made of good bricks. She joined a work transport that was being sent to Czechoslovakia.
................................................................................................
When they were marched off the train, Klara collapsed. She woke up in an infirmary at Weisswasser in Czechoslovakia on Poland border where the slave labour camp was, tended by a Jewish woman doctor, who helped her get well. After six weeks she was ready, and went to work at the Telefunken factory which used slave labour from the camp. But one day Germans disappeared after escorting them to the factory, and subsequently Russian army arrived. The man in command was Jewish, and he helped the women travel home.
She began searching for her family, and discovered her eldest brother had been killed. She fed a German soldier who knocked on her door, asking for food. She was staying with Beatrice, sister of Elie Wiesel, who suggested they go to Prague. A Russian soldier robbed them of their purses on the train, and Klara lost the family photographs she had recovered from her home.
In Prague, after a few days, she got news that Hedy and Rose, her sisters who'd been at Auschwitz with her, were alive and back in Sighet. They were reunited, and Klara met Ezra Wizel, her future husband. Rose got married, and Beatrice helped Hedy leave for Canada. Rose and her husband Allen went to U.S..
Klara and Ezra were finding it difficult to continue living in Sighet due to antisemitic political atmosphere with Jews not allowed to leave.
"Ezra and I spent the next three years living in Sighet, which was becoming more difficult because of Communist rule. Ezra continued to work buying and selling cattle from surrounding farms in other towns, but the government was clamping down on privately owned businesses. You could be arrested for no reason. Other people disappeared, and we’d never see them again. Ezra and I were growing more and more concerned with Stalin’s anti-Jewish emigration policies. Jews were not allowed to emigrate, and we felt trapped. Relief came when Ana Pauker, who was head of the Communist Party in Romania, became prime minister and decided she would oppose the law. In 1950, she created a law that allowed Jews to immigrate to Israel."
Klara and Ezra went to Canada via London after a year in Israel living in a kibbutz, and were reunited with Hedy and Beatrice. Several years later they found that one brother, Lazar, was alive. He came West and was reunited with them. Rest had perished in the death camps at Auschwitz and Mauthausen.
When they were marched off the train, Klara collapsed. She woke up in an infirmary at Weisswasser in Czechoslovakia on Poland border where the slave labour camp was, tended by a Jewish woman doctor, who helped her get well. After six weeks she was ready, and went to work at the Telefunken factory which used slave labour from the camp. But one day Germans disappeared after escorting them to the factory, and subsequently Russian army arrived. The man in command was Jewish, and he helped the women travel home.
She began searching for her family, and discovered her eldest brother had been killed. She fed a German soldier who knocked on her door, asking for food. She was staying with Beatrice, sister of Elie Wiesel, who suggested they go to Prague. A Russian soldier robbed them of their purses on the train, and Klara lost the family photographs she had recovered from her home.
In Prague, after a few days, she got news that Hedy and Rose, her sisters who'd been at Auschwitz with her, were alive and back in Sighet. They were reunited, and Klara met Ezra Wizel, her future husband. Rose got married, and Beatrice helped Hedy leave for Canada. Rose and her husband Allen went to U.S..
Klara and Ezra were finding it difficult to continue living in Sighet due to antisemitic political atmosphere with Jews not allowed to leave.
"Ezra and I spent the next three years living in Sighet, which was becoming more difficult because of Communist rule. Ezra continued to work buying and selling cattle from surrounding farms in other towns, but the government was clamping down on privately owned businesses. You could be arrested for no reason. Other people disappeared, and we’d never see them again. Ezra and I were growing more and more concerned with Stalin’s anti-Jewish emigration policies. Jews were not allowed to emigrate, and we felt trapped. Relief came when Ana Pauker, who was head of the Communist Party in Romania, became prime minister and decided she would oppose the law. In 1950, she created a law that allowed Jews to immigrate to Israel."
Klara and Ezra went to Canada via London after a year in Israel living in a kibbutz, and were reunited with Hedy and Beatrice. Several years later they found that one brother, Lazar, was alive. He came West and was reunited with them. Rest had perished in the death camps at Auschwitz and Mauthausen.
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February 24, 2020 -
March 31, 2020 - April 03, 2020.
ISBN: 1502416395
ISBN 13: 978-1502416391
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February 24, 2020 -
March 31, 2020 - April 03, 2020.
ISBN: 1502416395
ISBN 13: 978-1502416391
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