Survivors of the Camps


Auschwitz Auschwitz was a death camp posing as a forced labor camp. It was rectangular in shape, and was surrounded by electrically charged barbed wire fences… lots of fences, and on these fences signs read - "EXTREME DANGER, HIGH VOLTAGE, ELECTRIC WIRES". Auschwitz had several guard towers with about 405,000 labor prisoners from which 340,000 prisoners died from either starvation, beating, execution, or sickness. Of 405,000 labor prisoners there was only about 65,000 prisoners who survived.
Rudy At Auschwitz Rudy, a survivor of Auschwitz, arrived at Auschwitz by a cattle car (by which all prisoners were transported). Rudy remembers that everyone had to sit on their luggage, and that he and his family found some water and no food on the their train ride to Auschwitz and that when they arrived everyone was marched up and down the isles for about 4 –5 hours. Once inside, everyone had to turn over all prized possessions, such as wedding ring and lockets and put them into a large box. Rudy had to give up his leather jacket and regretted giving it up. Rudy's father said to him, "Son, if we ever get out of here I will buy 10 leather jackets."
Men went to camp B; women went to camp A. A wide road separated camp A&B. Everyone was hungry, but weren't to be fed until the next morning.
Everyone slept in bunks stacked 3 high with 2 people sleeping in each bunk. The bunks were about 3 feet wide and 3 feet long. There were 24 brackets for men and the same number for women.
Red Cross Vans Some vans at Auschwitz were painted with the Red Cross symbol to hide their real purpose from over passing planes. The vans actually carried military personnel or cyanide poison gas containers. The officers didn't care enough about human beings to give the prisoners any kind of doctoring.
Rudy & His Brother Rudy and his brother memorized a poetry book and played cards to pass the days even though the book wasn't allowed, and they kept it hidden. Eventually Rudy's brother got a job as a stone layer, and because he came back to his bunk very hungry, Rudy gave his brother half of his own portion of food, which wasn't a tremendous amount, so that he wouldn't starve.
Rudy's Mother Rudy's Mother remembered seeing geese back at the ghetto eating the seeds off the grass and so she new that the seeds off the grass was edible and so she picked the seeds of the grass that grew in Auschwitz whenever she could.
Rudy and his family starved for about 3-4 months. They were constantly hungry. They talked & dreamed about food. they constantly hoped( as any prisoner would) that the war would soon come to an end. Still they had no idea about the gas chambers.
The dead were stacked, naked, in front of the guard towers, left to rot in the sun.
Meals Rudy's 3 meals of the Day: Breakfast: 2 slices of bread (sometimes margarine) Coffee (made out of ground acorn powder [toasted]) Lunch: Potato Soup (maybe with some meat) Potatoes & beats were the main ingredient ( the beats were the kind you feed cattle) Supper: 1slice of bread, some acorn coffee
Agi Rubin At Auschwitz Agi Rubin remembers the disinfectant bath. First the prisoners cloths were taken to be disinfected and then they were given baths to be disinfected. Sometimes you didn't get back your cloths, you just made due with what you could find. This was the case with Agi Rubin who went until the next disinfectant bath with only a pair of women's underwear.
Sleeping Arrangements The bunks that the prisoners got to sleep in were made out of boards, were square shaped and, (of course) had no mattress of any kind. Six people slept in each bunk, and because of this, and because of being poorly constructed, the bunks often, and easily, collapsed. When the bunks collapsed they would fall on the bunk below it and cause a great deal of yelling and screaming. Even with people sleeping six people to a bunk there still wasn't enough bunks for everyone and those who didn't get a bunk had to walk around during the night.
The Counting At Auschwitz (as I may have stated before) the prisoners were often counted. Everyone was arranged in groups of five, a lone officer counted them, if the officer counted correctly then the counting lasted for about 2-3 hours. If someone was missing or the officer miss-counted then he/she would recount over and over again. Then if some one was missing, the prisoners would have to stand or kneel (outside) until he/she was found (usually dead in their bunks), sometimes this took 6-7 hours.
Camp Belzac Camp Belzac was strictly a death camp from which there were no survivors, it was impossible to survive Camp Belzac because as soon as you arrived you were put to death immediately. Belzac was full of crematories to burn the deceased prisoners as soon as they were gassed.
Eva Galler Eva Galler's story doesn't fit under the topic of "Survivors of Auschwitz" because she is a survivor of a death camp train taking Eva, her parents, and her younger siblings to Camp Belzac. But I decided to include her on my website because I think her story is special.
Eva Galler(17), her parents, younger sister(16), younger brother(15), and other younger siblings were chased by SS solders from their Ghetto to a cattle car train January 4th, 1943. It was very cold outside and the snow crunch under Evas' feet. There was chaos everywhere with families trying to stay together. The cattle cars were locked from the outside so that nobody could get out. Inside the cattle cars there were only small windows with barbed wire across them. People started pulling out the barbed wires and were jumping out the windows, everyone took a chance if they could because they knew that they were going to camp Belzac. Even with the SS officers sitting on top of the cars & shooting down at them (the prisoners) as they jumped, people took the chance to maybe liver over definitely dyeing.
Eva's father told the oldest 3 children (Eva, 1 brother and 1 sister) "well you oldest 3 you jump, maybe someone will survive but we will stay here with the young children because even if they go they won't survive alone." So parents went to camp Belzac with the young children.
Fist Eva's brother, then her sister, then Eva jumped, the SS officers shot after them and only Eva survived that jump. Eva got up when she could no longer hear the train and went back in search of her brother and sister. She found many, many corpses, her brother and sister among them. There was only one other person survived from that train, Eva's friend from the Ghetto, she lives in New York. Only two people survived out of the whole train.
After that she survived the rest of the war under the assumed name of Arbeitsbuch of Katarzyna Czuchowstka and went to work as a Polish girl on a farm in Germany.