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5-Tattoo

Would you mind showing us your tattoo?

Sure. Oh this is what I wanted to tell about the tattoo. I tell the students, if we have time we'll explain to you what is it.At this point I am really glad I have a tattoo because students are very excited. And when I want to make a joke [i say] I will tattoo every young man who comes for a book. Ok this is my tatoo [shows tatoo] now let me explain something about the tatoo. First of all look at the number, [A-7603]. 7000, I was tatooed exactly 6 weeks after we arrived to the camp. The A is as you see it started with the Hungarian Jews. Which means by six weeks later, seven thousand people were tattooed.

Well to understand more what the tatoo means, let me tell you this.You probably heard about the Auschwitz Archive,you probably know about it, how the archive has been in Auschwitz and from Auschwitz after the revolution against communism the archive got to Germany. How they had very few people to help out, to answer the ink wearies, but i was told by someone ten years ago that if you write a letter to the Red Cross, who has the archive in Germany, Aurussan. They might tell you where your father or mother died, or which camp they were. Some people got good results. I found these days I was looking for the letter I got from them, I couldn't find it. But I found my letter, and I said in 1990,–this was just after the revolution–fall of Berlin wall?.

I said Could you clarify [for] me what happened to me family? We arrived on that and that day, five of us, I give every name, and for me I give the tattoo number. I said I know what happened to the parents but I am very concerned about my brother Moishi, who was twenty-nine years old. Did he die immediately? Or did he work first? So I wrote down this letter, it took me three years, or four until I got the answer. I am sorry I don't have the letter.The letter says, we have nothing on father, nothing on mother, nothing on brother Moishi, nothing on brother Yancu, on you we know you were born in Sighet on that and that date, I had to sign it when they tattooed by, you arrived to Auschwitz on that and that date, you were tattooed on that and that date, you left Auschwitz on that and that date, and you were freed then and then. Which means that all you who were tattooed entered. Were entered, were documented and everything is documented about them. Those who were not tatooed might have been taken to the gas chambers the same night in group, 567 from Sighet thats all. 349 from this and this, no more. So they have nothing on those who were not tattooed.

Now here come the "deniers" who say, "We don't say people didn't die. We went to Auschwtiz, we went and checked all the records and sure a few thousand might have died, you know [of] starvation, disease, bombing, but not by the millions." Because they based their so-called reasearch only on the documentation, where only the tattooed people were. And they did not believe that everyday thousands of people were taken to the gas chambers, with no documentation more than the city from which they came. So this is a very important thing, and the students are very happy to learn, to learn what the tattoo meant. And it is also an advantage to know, by now I like that I have it, I didn't like it always.

Can you describe some of the work you had to do in Auschwitz?

I was in various teams. There was a time when we worked [on the] outside road. And I remember we have to push those rollers, the machines [that rolled] asphalt. There other times we helped [build] a hospital and I remember how I have a story. When I worked there I was almost selected. And we had to level the ground, work on the grass and level it.

For a fews months I worked in a factory, within Auschwitz, called the Vaybarye, which is called the knitting factory.And in the Vaybarye we sat at a table, and we were given rags, from the storage. We had to cut them into little strips and tie them and add one piece of leather and make a braid. Long, long, long and I rolled them and made a big ball, like a pumpkin. So that was called the Vaybarye and one day the supervisor, who had to clean– there was a lot of dust and lent from the cutting of those rags– and she said, "I need a lot of cleaning, you help me clean, and I will give you big pieces, you cut them in a half an hour and you make your braids. So I help her clean and in the last hour she will give me a sheet, a blanket and then very soon I didn't have to cut pieces. And I made it, but I did pay attention anymore to the size of the ball. And I made a small ball.

And on that very day, the SS came to check the sizes of those pumpkins and picked all those that had the small balls with their tattoo number and they called us out. And we were sure, this is it, the end. They said, "Stay in front of the barrack", they were going to other barracks to pick up other girls. And here were five, six girls crying. At the front of the barrack, we worked in the back on these tables, braiding braiding braiding. In the front were all timer Polish girls who had other small machines and they did some weaving. And one of these Polish girls, she always mocked us, "You have no courage," you have no this, "What are you saying there laughing and crying?" I said, "What else can I do? He has my number!" "You can't do—you run away." "Where?" And she says, "Anywhere. So what if he catches you?" So I ran away. There in the back of the barrack, and the guy came back and didn't come with a list of numbers, so he didn't know of me, he didn't know of me. And here I escaped, the selection this time. There were many occasions like this, when I escaped. I wrote a whole story on the vaybarye and this event.

Auschwitz Escape Stories

Were there any other escape stories?

One story which I tell them is when I–in Auschwitz– I said that I was a draftsman, so they took me. That was an escape from Auschwtiz. But, I have a story in the book called the beatings, and I just wanted to show that not that beatings were there, they were there everyday but some of the beatings have a special meaning. And I give them types of beatings, like one was this. I was telling them how I was beaten when I was separated from my mother. There was another time when I remember I was hit on my shoulder, I had a bump like this. In the middle of the night and everybody went to the bath and you know it was night and you see the crematorium and you see the fire and the smoke. And you are sure this is where they take you and they hit you and they hit you. And suddenly someone hits me on the shoulder and I almost fell done from the pain. You know something, it was indeed for the best, it was not to take, it was just to cause terror among us in the middle of the night, we woke up to go to the bath, terror.

Another time when I escaped is I said that I worked in a building hospital and I had a group of girls who were just raking the grass, I was also working. And our supervisor had to go somewhere and I was oldest so he says, "Would you take care of the girls, make sure that they work, make sure when the SS comes they work." So here I am with a group of girls, and I start ordering "Work work work hard" When I see an SS coming, "work work, he's coming" And then "okay, he left, now you can relax." And they relaxed. And then I see someone is coming, "work hard", and it was on and off and on and off. At a certain point, it turned out that one of the SS officers was inside the hospital and from the window he saw my game. He can out very very angry,and he started screaming at me, that my girls didn't work, "this one I saw her sitting down, this one stopped working, and you ordered them not to work." And he screamed at me and he wanted me to beat up the girls.

I couldn't do that, he pushed me toward the girl, and somehow my hand reached the girl, but it became a caress, instead of a beating. He got angry, "I will show you how you should have done it." He took of the gloves, I remember, and he put them between his knees, and started to slap me, right and left and right and left, I almost fell down. "Now you know how to do it, show me!" By then I couldn't care less, by then I said he could kill me, he can take me where he wants, and I wouldn't do anything any more. He beat me up again and then he let me live. So this was another time when I could have been selected.

There were many times, I can not tell all of them, so I am not sure whether we were related when we escaped or we spent more time in Auschwitz. I can also tell you that my last few weeks in Auschwitz were very very hard because it was it was winter. And we were all infested with lice and we all had frostbite, we all had dirty rags on us, all the times you need another jacket you bought with your food from those who worked with the clothes. And I had layers and layers of thin dresses, one on top of the other, they were dirty.

My hair had grown wild, and you know we didn't see anything out, because we knew that they russians are very close and we could have hoped that they were going to free us, but at the same time we were afraid that they would selected and kill us. One crematorium still worked, there were no selections actually, but it stil worked for the sick people, I don't know. So we were desperate to get out of Auschwitz and this is when day in and day out civilians came to the camp to chose girls to work in their factories. And we thought the only way to get out of Aushwitz was to go to a working camp.

Missing Transcript: 1:27:18 - 1:29:26 For days I, could not get into a working camp. And again on December 12th, we saw the civilians, we ran and stayed in line.....

Transcribed by: Daniel S (2010)
Proofed by:

After Auschwitz & Letters to Miriam

In the last interview you talked about how death will be a relief to you, can you explain that?

Yes. When I was in the train and I thought that death would be a relief.

Can you explain more about that?

Well it is only that it was the train ride was so hot, and we were all together and we all suffered and at night we slept one on top of the other. I remember how I put my head on my older brother's chest and I curled around my mother to protect her legs, from others hitting her, and we could not sleep and we were tired and hungry, but there was no more food. We did not get water and indeed children were crying there was the little boy in my boyfriend's family whom we taught to say in German, "please give me a little water." When the train stopped at (lager station.

What I wanted to say was that was it was a desparate situation and we did not know where we were going to go. Not only physical suffering, but also anxiety and fear. We arrived to a place in a forrest and they just machine gun us.

Did you always know what the SS officers were doing when they took you places?

No, we had so little connection with the SS officers. They hardly got to us except when there was a big selection. And in my selection there was the (Dr. Menegele) he was with the first few transports arriving from (Siget). (Mengele) himself was there. The fact is that it was the most severe selections in the first few days when twenty percent entered the camp and eighty percent went straight to the gas chambers. Later on when the second and third transports came there was here and there a mother and one or two mothers came in with girls. So it was very strict, many young girls did not make it to the right side.

Why did you have to make those balls?

I think they used them as fuses for the war industry. I never knew exactly what it was. There was a time when the bowls were made of plastic, transparent, at least they were clean there was no dust and dirt. We do not know what they used them for, never told, even when we were (vising) and they had little little canisters to check the wiring and we do not know what they used them for.

How long did it take you for you to tell your story?

I was New York (weather), this is where I worked, for New York Medical college. I was very busy with my career I became a professor with raising the children they had to go to school. I was too busy and indeed I remember I had a (chief) and we worked for years wih him. He moved to another city and said, "You know Dora we worked together for years and you never told your story." And I said, "you never asked," maybe that was one reason people did not ask. This was the first time I talked, one day a friend of mine who did not go to school and she was very invloved in Holocaust education. I was involved in medicine, she was called to speak in Tarrytown, you know where Tarrytown is, near New York. She could not make it, I dont know why she said why dont you call my friend we were together in (wvitzwasher) call her Dora shes there in there. Tarrytown was close to my hospital because I was in Westchester Hospital, and the guy came over and we talked. And he wanted me to come and speak on Yom Hashoah. I had aleady a few letters written to Miriam, you know the letters from Miriam how it started. The book, how it started.

When Miriam was born I was over sixty years old and I did not talk about it never. And it hit me that now I have a grandchild, and I will have many more how will they ever know what happened to my family, to my parents to family to relatives, what happened in (Sihget). I was very upset [and] couldnt figure out how I couldnt leave her with (no legend or) legacy. My daughter said, "I am going to tape you" (this stuffs enough). I came up with the idea to write letters to Miriam, she was one year old, you have the picture of Miriam on the [cover], she was one year old and I started to write her letters when ever I had time. I came home from the hospital and if anything inspired me outside a chimney, a movie, a radio music. One day I went to a nursing home and I saw balls and flowers and I wrote a story about when I worked in (Vabera). So when ever something inspired me I came home sat down and wrote a letter to Miriam; two, three, four, five pages short letters, an event. And over the years I wrote many many stories like this. I never saw that they would be published.

When this guy asked me to come and talk in , to come and talk to Tarrytown. I had already a few letters, I had the letter of Passover written. I said I am going to read the letter to them that I wrote about Auschwitz. How about introduction? How can I introduce the present to them? I remember I was very upset that I did not know how to start it. I cam to visit my daughter here in Berkeley. I was living in New York, my daughter is a skater, and I went with her to the skating rink, you know the one they just closed. She was skating and suddenly I started to thinkthat two weeks ago my brother in Italy had died. As he died I started to think about how good that he had a life and a family, I started to cry. My daughter comes from the rink, "Mom why do you cry?" I said I know how to start my speech. This was my speech that was (sidulized) in a Jewish newspaper in which I said, "A few weeks ago I lost my brother, but to compare this with my brother I lost in the Holocuast, and I made the comparison, this one had a life, had a family, we know where he is (buried), we can go. The other one (were did he), he lost his future, so this is when I talked for the first time, I read, I could not talk yet. Then they oppened a small Holocuast Center is Westchester County, small. I went and I told them I am ready to talk to some students so they called me always. Since I am a Californian, years, I worked very closly with the Holocaust center. At this time so many have died already we have very few left of this age or those who were in camps. We have many others who were children, but they don't have the same experience. So indeed they solicit me a lot. I am a expert now.

After your book was published, you must have some letters and stories that you forgot, but are there some stories that you didnt put in the book that you realized later.

Many, many.

Can you think of some that might be useful to talk about?

I will tell you one, there are more stories. Sometimes they ask me, the sudents, how old were you then. Sure I answer with a joke, I will tell you how old I was then if you can tell me how old I am today, which they can not. Nobody can calculate. Its okay, I was twenty two years old and you have to understand what age meant. At twenty two I was among a few mature girls. I did have a cousin, my age, from another village. She married the year before and she was pregnate and she gave birth in the ghetto. So she arrived to Auschwitz with her baby, her young husband, and her parents. They arrived there and luckily one of the soldier commander, those people who worked there the prisoners the prisoners who worked in the gas chamber. They came and told the husband, (Magda was her name) Magda's husband, "Tell your wife to give her baby to her mother." "Why?" "There are going to kill them." [I think you have told this before]. So indeed he went to Magda and said, "Magda give your baby to your mom." And Magda did not want to. He got histarical he screamed at her, and she gave her baby to the mother. And what happened was that Magda was able to enter the camp with her husband, th baby, her mother, her father all went to gas chamber.This is what in my age group lots of girls were married and had a baby. So it is impressive to see how those people could have helped some times because they saved Magda's life. Now wait, behind them came Magda's brothers one of the brothers Henry was twelve years old, short. The sondercommando mabye the same guy told him, "How old are you?" "Twelve" "Tell them you are seventeen and tell them you are a carpenter." They arrived in front of the selecting and immediately said, "I am a carpenter," and he entered the camp. He was the youngest to enter. This story of some were so lucky to be helped, others were not lucky, like my brothers. There are many stories which come to mind since then.