European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)
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The camp was huge.
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I think we were a hundred thousand prisoners.
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Birkenau was especially huge.
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Then we found out that Birkenau was no holiday resort.
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The days were very long: from 4h00 or 5h00 in the morning ‘til 21h00, 22h00 in the evening,
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because if one of the 22,300 people was missing during the evening role-call, he had to be found.
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We had to stay standing until this person was found. Sometimes we spent whole nights outside.
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Some people hid, some escaped and then we had to stand until the following morning, in summer, and winter.
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The winters in Upper Silesia are very cold, terrible. We lost many men there.
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Our days began at 4h00 or 5h00 with a first role-call.
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They handed out a brew that they called herbata in our mugs,
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which we should absolutely not lose, and which we could never wash. Then we left for work.
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Yes, we thought of it. There were three or four of us. We tried to find ways of fighting, but it was practically impossible.
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There was a room leader who was to keep control. There also were leaders for each building.
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And there were also team leaders, themselves being deported prisoners.
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Often they were Germans, Poles.
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It was very difficult, very hard. We got lots of beatings.
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In the beginning we thought we shouldn’t take that, but we soon saw that there was no way out, as life there was so terrible.
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It was difficult to form a group.
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Those of us that had been arrested as French resistance fighters were scattered.
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