There, we were taken to a death camp, and greeted by the SS: you vermin, you Jew
horde, why didn’t they drown you in the sea, etc. This was the prevailing tone.
Wakeup was at 4 AM, we dressed in the dark. Then we had to stand for two hours
for the morning muster, often in the driving rain, still stiff from a night spent on a
hard wooden pallet. Then we got two thin slices of bread and a thin brew they
called coffee.
We had to partake all of this standing up, then the detail left for the city. We
cleared rubble from the buildings which had been destroyed by the air attacks.
All day we were driven on mercilessly-move, move, faster, faster! At night we
returned thoroughly wet and tired, and received half-cooked rutabagas, as we were
beaten up with sticks.
Hygienic conditions were atrocious, there was no water at all for washing. If one
got some and it was noticed, one was beaten. The men, too, were brutally beaten.
Two more weeks
and none of us
would have
survived.
Death march and deliverance
