Written on 22 July 2019
From the 20th of December 1941 until approximately January 1942, I was on block 9. The winter was very harsh. There were blizzards, and the temperature dropped to approximately -24C. We slept on hay, on the floor with open windows, by SS-man orders and on the side, as it was so crowded. It was impossible to lie on the back. There were no beds or toilets. And only cold water. We had a bucket for the toilet in the corner of the room. We slept (laying) in thin underwear under a thin, old duvet with clothing folded into a cube instead of a pillow. Before laying down, inspecting the underwear for fleas to destroy them was mandatory. Prisoners lying down had scabies and deep abscesses from frostbite and avitaminosis. Before laying on the floor, another prisoner, so-called ‘sztubowy’ (room leader), rubbed other prisoners’ backs with ointment for scabies and an ointment for abscesses.
I remember that for Christmas, 24.12.1941, an SS man entered the block and put a gun to the head of a young prisoner.
After a morning roll call, we worked on removing the snow from the campgrounds.
In the morning, we could only drink black barley coffee, and once per day, after the evening roll call, we were given a portion of bread, about 200 grams, a piece of margarine or a spoon of marmalade. At the same time, the main meal was given – turnip soup, under half a litre, and one bigger or two small potatoes in skins. Everything that was given to us was immediately eaten, and we waited for food until the next day. Hunger doesn’t hurt, but it makes one feel weak. At the beginning of a month, I was moved to block 4a, a group of young prisoners from Warsaw, to a room leader, prof. Lipiński. I was assigned to a group of capo – Golus, named ‘New Builds’.
The Auschwitz camp was being extended. There were blocks with construction started. Therefore, a decision was made to train 15 prisoners to be builders. I was in that group, along with a few men from Warsaw. After a morning roll call, there were lectures until noon. There were tables, and a brigadier Alojz was drawing on blackboard methods or laying brick, lecturing about varieties of mortar, etc. At noon, the classes finished, and we went to block 4a for an hour’s nap and after a nap to remove snow. We were trained until the early days of March 1942, and it turned out none of us could lay bricks, so we were assigned to carry bricks and mortar to the block being built. There was no further training after that. We went to work after a morning roll call, returned for an evening roll call and food distribution, etc.
I remember what happened one day during training and afternoon rest. Our room, where we slept, had a window facing a square, and someone yelled that a soup was poured from a barrel into the sewers. Thus, a few prisoners, myself included, went out to the square with bowls for soup, but we weren’t allowed to leave our beds. It turned out that it wasn’t soup being poured out, just water. Our block leader from block 4a, Franz Kozub, noticed this. He stood on the staircase and punched every prisoner running up the stairs in the back of the head. I got hit, too. After the hit, the bowl fell out of my hand; I fell down the staircase and ran up to the first floor. The punch was painful like someone had driven a nail into my brain. After this punch, I never fully regained balance while walking. After regaining freedom, I was treated for headaches for a long time, but USG and other procedures didn’t reveal anything.
During the classes, there was also a 20-minute break. During one of such breaks, an SS man caught and brought into the class 2 prisoners who illegally got two turnips. SS-man cut those turnips in such a way that the prisoners had to hold them in their teeth while crouching on a school table with hands stretched in front of them. After that, he took those turnips and discarded them somewhere.
There was also a case when a master builder training us, Alojz, obtained a few potatoes illegally and, during the 20-minute break, baked them in sand in a bucket in front of the building. An SS man came, smelled the baking potatoes, kicked the bucket, and smashed the potatoes with his shoes. He also kicked brigadeer Alojz (I don’t remember his last name).
I also remember an event during snow removal. My frozen knees hurt badly, so I had to rest hunched over the shovel in the snow. A guard noticed this and kicked me in the stomach. After a few days with a stomachache, I went to a doctor in the camp. How I was received there was described in the magazine Agora, attached to note 03 dated 22.07.2019.
On block 4a, one could often hear machine gunshots as someone decided to forgo their life and went to the fences.
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