Arrival at Auschwitz: by Helen Waterford
Upon arrival, I asked one of the other prisoners on the platform where we were. There was no answer, not even a look. Men and women were separated into two endless columns. There were approximately 160-175 people in each car, and from our vantage point, you could not see the beginning or end of the train.
It could not be Auschwitz, I decided, not the extermination camp, because one could hear voices, dogs barking, and even some distant music. While we were waiting, a large group of men arrived from our train, my husband with them. He and I sat on the ground and talked for quite a long time, tense about what was to come. The women were called into a large one story hall. Not expecting that we never would see each other again, we hardly said goodbye. It was the last time I saw Siegfried. How he died, where, and when are unknown. For Siegfried and many millions more, few death records were found.
Once inside, everyone lined up at long tables to be registered in a book. Each of us was given a number, which was tattooed on our left forearm, mine being A 25254. The number was soon imprinted on one's brain, too, because it was used instead of a name whenever one was wanted.
Edited extract from Commitment to the Dead by Helen Waterford (Renaissance House)
The fate of Roma
In Dachau, there was this Gypsy kid from Nyirbátor; his name was Sanyi. He escaped from the camp but he was caught. I saw with my own two eyes what they had done to him. They tied him to a cross, like Jesus. In the night. When they tied him to the cross, they drove all of us out into the square to watch him being crucified. We had such colds in the winter of '44 like never before. It was cold and snowing and the Gypsy kid froze on the cross. When the sun came up, he was blue like a plum, frozen. That is how they killed him. Three weeks later, that doctor, Mengele, came to the camp and examined us. It was all over for the ones he sent to the left. There was a crematorium and they burned them. Many times we said to each other, "Oh there is smoke coming out of the chimney and so many human lives in that smoke!" Those who had been there longer told us the Germans were making soap out of people
… Every week they drove us to the medical examination.
From Pharrajimos: The Fate of the Roma During the Holocaust © 2008 Romédia Alapítvány/ Romedia Foundation
One boy's lucky escape: by Abraham Cykiert
A "selection" took place. We were all ordered to "parade", and Dr Mengele, an SS doctor, picked out all those who looked lean and exhausted for gassing. About 1,800 souls were selected for this purpose, most of them youngsters between 14 and 19. I was fortunate – I was "rejected", probably because I was not yet ripe for the gas chamber.
The 1,800 chosen victims were marched off to the so-called "closed blocks", which no one was allowed to leave. As I did not suspect that the victims would be collected before next morning, I walked out of my hut and was strolling across the yard towards one of the blocks, when suddenly the "stay put" signal was given for all the camp. I saw the selected being led out under a strong SS guard. I realised what was going on and made an attempted to run back to my hut, but it was too late. An SS man noticed me and shouted: "Yes, yes, you too, come along."
I was driven with the others to the gas chamber. Here I saw the crematorium before my eyes. I felt like losing consciousness. Suddenly the order was given to undress. Together with the others I obeyed automatically. There was no will and no realisation of what I was doing. We all stood completely naked in the corridor leading to the gas chamber, waiting for the order to march in, when suddenly a high-ranking SS officer of the crematorium personnel arrived. He appeared in my eyes as the chief emissary of death, and, strangely, on looking at him I regained my consciousness: "I am going to die, I am going to die."
It appears that this "expert of death" came for a last-minute inspection. The naked victims were again marched past him. Here and there he pushed one out of the line. My turn came; he looked at me and pushed me out as well. There were about 50 of us and we were standing aside wondering what would be the end of this terrible game. Suddenly he turned to us and shouted: "Get dressed in two minutes." We ran like mad back to where we had undressed. When I returned to camp I realised that I had four shirts on me instead of a jacket, a left shoe on my right foot and no shoe at all on my left one.
Three hours later the furnaces of the crematorium were already burning. We watched its thick smoke and knew its terrible meaning.
Manchester Guardian, 14 May 1945
Victims of the camps
6 million Jews
3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war
1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians
1.4 million non-Jewish Belorussians
330,000-390,000 ethnic Serbs
220,000 Roma (Gypsies)
200,000 with mental or physical disabilities
5,000-12,000 ethnic Croats and Muslims
8,300 British and American prisoners of war
1,650 Jehovah's witnesses
Unknown number of gay men and political dissidents
Sources: Holocaust Museum, Washington; Ministry of Culture of Belarus