European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

They loaded us up in the animal wagons and we were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

You know, we arrived in Auschwitz. Auschwitz consisted of old barracks, big buildings.

We realized we were somewhere foreign, but it was almost more comfortable than what we had left behind in Compiègne.

The following day we were taken to Birkenau, 4 or 5 km away and there it was totally different.

Birkenau is a camp that was built on marshlands. There were old barracks. It made quiet an unsettling impression.

They gave us striped uniforms and took pictures of us.

They tattooed our registration numbers onto us.

They tattooed this number.

Of course that had a big effect on us.

We were no longer called so-and-so. We had this number and were supposed to respond to this number.

We had to learn it in German and in Polish, not easy. But we had to learn it quickly.