European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)
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Then they took us to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In Compiègne we were already hostages.
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That means when an attack had been, they would come and take some of our comrades.
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I escaped this fate like another few - but they would come and take some of our comrades to be executed,
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as there had been this attack the night or the day before.
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The following morning, at four o’clock, we were called up by buildings, as usual.
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We were loaded up into the trains and we left to a destination unknown.
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What we felt was a certain fear, because we didn’t know where we were taken to.
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We were led away in groups of ten. Ten people could easily be shot half an hour later.
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They loaded us up in the animal wagons and we were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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You know, we arrived in Auschwitz. Auschwitz consisted of old barracks, big buildings.
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We realized we were somewhere foreign, but it was almost more comfortable than what we had left behind in Compiègne.
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The following day we were taken to Birkenau, 4 or 5 km away and there it was totally different.
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Birkenau is a camp that was built on marshlands. There were old barracks. It made quiet an unsettling impression.
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They gave us striped uniforms and took pictures of us.
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They tattooed our registration numbers onto us.
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They tattooed this number.
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Of course that had a big effect on us.
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We were no longer called so-and-so. We had this number and were supposed to respond to this number.
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We had to learn it in German and in Polish, not easy. But we had to learn it quickly.
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Arrest 21st of October 1941
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