Oral history interview with Leon Weisband

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1289.8 | RG Number: RG-50.205.0008

: Today is August 16, 1982.
: My name is Syd Mandelbaum, and I'm
: interviewing Mr. Leon Weisband in the home of Mike and Doris
: Simon in Lawrence, New York.
: Mr. Weisband, could you please tell us
: your name, the city, and country in which you were born?
: My name is Leon Weisband.
: I was born in Poland in the town is Zwolen.
: It's not far from Warsaw.
: It's about 16 miles from Warsaw.
: In 1919-- December 8, 1919.
: Could you describe those who comprised your household
: before the war?
: Yeah, I can describe, because my family, we lived in Zwolen.
: It was a very little town.
: The town was about 50% gentile, 50% Jewish.
: And mostly Jewish people used to be working people.
: And some of them, we had stores, and some of them mostly
: they used to work, like tailors, hatmakers, shoemakers,
: all kinds of class of people.
: And the people used to live there,
: be very quietly, till started the 1938,
: when the big antisemitic be started in Poland.
: And the Jews tried to do their best to live through till 19
: December-- the September 19--
: 1939, when the war started, when the German came into Poland.
: The German, when they came into Poland,
: our town was completely flat.
: It was about 600 or 700 people die from the bombs.
: And we run to the woods.
: When we came back, nobody has a house.
: Everything was flat, and we haven't got where to live.
: My family-- and we had a sister living in Radom.
: So we decided we going to go to Radom.
: In Radom, the town wasn't so completely flat.
: The town was still--
: the houses were still standing there.
: In the morning, the Germans started
: to take us to work, to an ammunition factory,
: and to climb on the walls, and on doors.
: On the walls was painted with--
: and they didn't give us anything you need to clean up the walls.
: Just with the bare hand to clean the walls,
: to clean those windows.
: My father and me and my brother-in-law, my younger
: brother, we stayed.
: And I used to hold my father.
: You know, we could do it there because he couldn't do with it.
: And they used to go on with stick all around--
: you know what I mean-- and hitting each one of us.
: This happened every day.
: And we decided--
: I tell my father I can't stand here.
: And we were there about three weeks.
: And we decided to come back to our little town in Zwolen.
: It was no place where to live.
: Finally, we find me a little room.
: What, you know, with any walls, but we decided to stay there.
: And we stayed there till the German
: started-- gets every time work.
: They used to take out Jews every day,
: with that tefillin on their head.
: And they used to beat them and kill them every day.
: And one day they came to my house.
: And they killed that day, if I remember exactly,
: about 60 or 70 Jews in our town.
: And they want to kill me--
: till one guy stand up.
: And he told me--
: first of all, he says, lay down on the floor, all of them,
: the whole family.
: They lay down on the floor.
: And he came over to me.
: I should stand up.
: And he puts his gun near my head.
: They were a little drunk.
: My youngest sister, she's not alive now.
: She was brave because she caught him by his hand.
: So I pushed him, and I run out from the house.
: And the gentiles, where the gentile used to live.
: And they were shooting after me five, six times.
: And finally, I run in in a house, to a Jewish house there,
: and I says, I've been shot.
: And I took over my jacket.
: And the bullets went through.
: Because I run away, a neighbor was
: sitting in our house, a young boy there.
: He is 16 and a half or 17 years.
: They shot him.
: And my father and my sister buried him under the window.
: And he lays till today over there.
: From that time, I didn't want it,
: because I came in the morning to our house.
: The wall was full with blood, and I couldn't stand it.
: I says to my father, I'm not staying anymore.
: I'm going to run to the woods.
: I took my brother, my younger brother, who was--
: I was 17.
: My brother was 15.
: And I took him to the woods.
: We were there in the woods for a short time.
: Life was very bad.
: We couldn't have nothing to cover
: and we didn't have nothing to eat.
: We used to go to the farmers to get me something to eat.
: And we told them we partisan.
: We didn't tell the Jews, because they antisemitic.
: The Polish, they was terrible.
: Till finally, one day, I met a Polish engineer.
: And he says to me he's going to make a group for eight people
: to go not far from our town, about 40 miles.
: And we're going to work there.
: They call this [NON-ENGLISH].
: That's where you have to dig.
: You have to dig holes, the water,
: to dry out the land over there.
: We were there maybe about six weeks.
: We came back.
: And we knew that time that all the Jews going to Treblinka,
: to the gas chamber.
: Who were you with at this time?
: In the woods?
: The names?
: Yeah, the names I got to see in the paper.
: All the names that were with me, Harry Schuffman, my brother
: Rubin, Pine Zweinberg.
: He lived in Israel.
: Paysach Freedman, he was here.
: About eight people we were together.
: Only two, and they're not alive.
: They got killed in camp in Skarzysko.
: When we were there--
: and we came back.
: We knew, you know, mean no Jews, the day before, my sister is
: supposed to come out to me, because she
: had a Polish passport, and she looked like a gentile.
: And till today, I don't know where she is
: and where she disappeared.
: And when we were there coming back, there were left--
: the Jews all from the town, there was no more Jews.
: Only was left 30 Jews, where they cleaned up in the houses.
: We worked in those houses.
: They took us, the eight with us, and to clean up those houses.
: We came into those houses.
: There were laying kids, six months, eight months.
: And the German who went with us, you know what I mean,
: took out his gun and he shot those kids.
: And we done.
: We buried them.
: You know what I mean.
: It was like this.
: But two days till we cleaned up.
: It was laying-- mothers used to run away.
: They were thinking maybe they saved themselves,
: and they left the kids in the cribs, little babies
: to lay on the floor.
: We came in.
: And this was for two days.
: After we were there, cleaned up, there
: came a report that they're going to take us to a camp.
: The name Skarzysko-Kamienna.
: We were there.
: We came in Skarzysko.
: Was there already about 3,000, 4,000 Jews.
: We worked in ammunition factory.
: In the ammunition factory was Jews from all over towns.
: It was from Radom, from Kielce, from Czestochowa.
: From all the neighborhood around was there.
: And every time they used to bring more Jews.
: Every time when the Jews used to come there,
: they used to pick up every morning who can go to work,
: and the other Jews, they took them out, and they shot him,
: because they're not be able to work.
: One day, one day in the camp, in--
: if I remind myself, in Skarzysko-Kamienna--
: What year was this?
: This was in 1942, in September.
: It was started to, in camp, typhus broke out.
: And typhus.
: And people got sick.
: And the fact, I was the first one who I got sick.
: They took away my brother.
: From this camp, they sent him to a difference camp.
: I was hidden for 17 days in a stable without any food.
: Only I had a friend, and she gave me
: every time a little water through somebody
: because they used to count every morning that's missing.
: And for 17 days, only little water.
: I didn't have nothing in my mouth
: till my temperature went down, and I started to calm myself.
: When I started to calm myself, so I stay in the morning
: because they--
: and in the morning, they used to count us.
: People were used to send to work,
: and those what couldn't got not to work.
: And I went to work even if I had still a temperature, because I
: was afraid to be so long because they ask where those people are.
: Every day, they send away on the place where they shot him.
: Was about 70, 80 people.
: In fact, my friend, I lost over there.
: My friends from our town, about seven or eight.
: But I got sick.
: They slept near me in the beginning, and they in typhus.
: One day they supposed to liquidate the whole camp
: because two German died.
: And they said, because we used to go
: to work with this sickness.
: And they says they're going to liquidate the whole camp
: and they're going to burn the whole camp.
: This happened in December 1942.
: Then came the SS.
: They says, we need those Jews to work.
: They're going to work till the end,
: and then they're going to go where their parents go.
: But every day they used to say to us.
: This happened like this till about three, four months.
: And every day they used to take out 70, 80, 90, 100,
: and they shot them.
: This was 1943.
: Then in 194-- The Russians used to come closer.
: Were you separated from your family at this point?
: I was separated in 1942 when I run away from the woods.
: I didn't see them anymore.
: In that time, you know what I mean, when they went away,
: my sister was--
: my two sisters was there, and my nephew, mine--
: in fact, it's through his brother, younger brother.
: He was three, close to four years.
: Where were they?
: My sister, through a Polish people, brought him to our town,
: because they were thinking, as in Radom, they
: don't let with kids.
: She didn't know what-- when they're
: going to send out our town.
: This what's happened about a week, eight days before.
: And she brought her small boy to us.
: He was three years and seven months and eight month.
: And he went away, together with my family, to Treblinka.
: My sister, she had the Polish passport.
: She run away from them.
: In fact, I saw her once in Skarzysko.
: When I passed by, go to work, and she gave me some bread,
: passing the street.
: But we had to cross the main street
: to go to the ammunition factory where the road was.
: So she passed by the road while I was walking.
: She gave me a package, and I went in.
: That's when I saw her the last time.
: I didn't see her anymore.
: In 1943, when the Russian started coming closer,
: we supposed to, a few groups from us,
: we decided to run away from the camp,
: because we knew where we were going to go.
: So we organized a group in the camp, about 20, 22 people,
: and we cut the wires.
: We went through the wires in the night time.
: Where did you get the tools for this?
: We had the tools in camp.
: In camp.
: Because in camp, they used to be--
: I mean, shoemakers, what they make, you know what I mean,
: for the camp to fix.
: And one thing I have to remind yourself.
: When I was in Skarzysko, they took me to a camp
: to bring the clothing from the people what they bring
: in the gas chamber in Majdanek.
: I was there twice.
: They took us, six people, with the German.
: There was from our--
: it was, from our town, from Skarzysko-Kamienna
: was about 350 miles.
: And we arrived there.
: And I stayed near the gas chambers
: where all the people went to the gas chamber.
: And we took the clothing from them,
: from the people that got burned.
: And we brought them to our camp, because they
: should have something to wear.
: This happened.
: I went twice.
: Some people went three times.
: We came into Majdanek.
: It was terrible.
: People over there who came in from Majdanek--
: I don't think it's a lie--
: 5%.
: I met over there, a cousin of mine from Radom.
: The name was Weisband.
: And he was going, carrying some bricks and cement.
: And I begged him.
: I says, look, we're taking the clothes here.
: He stayed near the gas chamber.
: And I says, if you're going to go jump on the truck,
: and we're going to put the clothes on you,
: maybe you'll pass by.
: He should go through.
: He was afraid, and he never survived.
: And Majdanek was terrible.
: Everybody knows Majdanek was a camp who they got-- they
: sent them to the gas chamber.
: And the gas chambers, was only three camps what they--
: mostly was Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Treblinka.
: In Majdanek, I think was about a million Jews over there.
: Disappeared.
: From 800,000 to a million Jews.
: This was the last-- in that time, I could have run away.
: When I was in Majdanek, when we stopped, we had a flat tire.
: I remember going.
: So we stopped.
: I could run away because we heard the shooting
: from the front, from the Russian people.
: I was afraid.
: If I going to run away, my brother is still in that camp.
: They know I run away, and they're going to shot him.
: So I came back.
: That night, when they liquidated the camp,
: they sent to a difference camp.
: The whole camp for now, they send to Czestochowa.
: Was ammunition factory.
: We were the last.
: Our group was the last about 40 people.
: So we decided, about 22 of us, we going to cut the wires.
: We're going to go through.
: We cut the wires in the night time and we went.
: We walked a mile.
: We walk.
: The shots.
: The shooting was there.
: And we got me a little scared, and we went back.
: We went back.
: We find out in the morning, as from the other camp from
: Skarzysko-- was three camps--
: Werk A, Werk B, and Werk C. The Werk C
: was a death camp over there.
: Were there ovens in that camp?
: No, was no ovens over there in that camp.
: Only the ovens what I saw was in Majdanek.
: This I saw with my eyes.
: I didn't go there, me, because they didn't let us go.
: We just took the clothing the next building
: where the crematorium was.
: And we find, coming back, we find
: what the Jews used to bury in their shoes,
: accidentally, because you used to throw out the shoes
: on the truck, and the clothing.
: Accidentally, if-- I remember like that, you now what I mean?
: It was in a heel.
: We throw the heel.
: And a lady's heel, you know what I mean, is broken.
: And over there was inside, you know
: what I mean, hidden, you know what
: I mean, some what they think maybe they're going to save
: themselves, some gold pieces.
: I think one was a $20 gold.
: But when we came to Skarzysko, they
: didn't let us unload the clothing.
: We used to stay.
: Three Germans used to stay with us.
: We used to check all the clothing, you know what I mean?
: Go through.
: And then, even if they check some of them,
: you know what I mean, still, you know what I mean,
: where they got something from the camps,
: still find something there.
: We were there in Skarzysko, let's say,
: was lost about I would say about from--
: they got swollen and they didn't eat the food from the nutrition.
: I think they lost about 7,000 or 8,000 people there.
: Finally, we went back because we worked.
: In the morning, we find out some Jews escaped from the difference
: camp.
: And they got shot.
: So we got scared.
: They took us to Buchenwald.
: Who took you?
: The German.
: They didn't send us to Czestochowa.
: No, straight to Buchenwald.
: We were there.
: And they put us-- the wagons came, and they put us, about 70,
: 80 people in one wagon.
: I still remember, this guy is alive.
: We didn't know where we're going.
: They didn't give us for seven days no water, no food.
: Were you in a transport?
: On a bus?
: On a train?
: No, on a train.
: They put on the train us.
: And they took trains from some place.
: I know.
: We we were only one wagon.
: Then, when we came to Buchenwald,
: I saw many other wagon.
: So I remember we came to-- we in wagon for seven days
: without food.
: We did everything on the wagon.
: They didn't give us nothing--
: even a little water.
: Finally, we arrived to Buchenwald.
: The station was Weimar.
: From Weimar, they took us to Buchenwald.
: We came into Buchenwald.
: So I remember one fact.
: I knew one friend.
: He's alive now.
: I still remind him this.
: He had a piece of bread.
: And I says to him, listen.
: We didn't know where we going.
: We were thinking we're going for sure to the ovens.
: And I ask him, take that piece of bread and split.
: He didn't want to.
: When we arrived to Buchenwald, and we stayed in Buchenwald,
: he says to me, you want a piece of bread?
: Said, nah, I don't need it.
: I don't know where we're going So he says to me,
: at least you're going to die not with an empty stomach.
: So no, now I don't need it.
: I'll die with an empty stomach than with a full stomach.
: And we went.
: And because we didn't know.
: We came into Buchenwald.
: They count us.
: One SS man came up and count us.
: 50 in a group.
: I was standing with my brother, because I
: hold my brother from the beginning till the end.
: And they count 50.
: When it comes to my brother, my brother was the 51.
: They took him away.
: And I said to him goodbye, because I
: didn't know where we're going.
: And he went separate.
: He went separate to the showers.
: And I didn't see him till--
: and then, after I came, after I went in with the other group,
: 15, they put us into a shower.
: First of all, they shave us all around.
: And they with their flashlights, they
: look all over, so we hid some gold or the diamonds.
: And then they put us to the shower.
: From the showers, the showers was so strong.
: We didn't know.
: We were thinking that's gas.
: Did you hear that showers had gas in them before you came?
: We knew.
: We knew.
: Buchenwald is a camp what nobody comes out from Buchenwald.
: Well, we didn't know that, where are we going.
: We know the showers were so strong.
: We only hide from other Jews from France.
: They were yelling, Shema Yisrael.
: That's all.
: They didn't know.
: We didn't know that.
: Because the eyes was burning.
: Everything was burning.
: Everywhere we-- they put us a certain chemicals that was
: so strong, we couldn't take it.
: Finally, after the showers--
: till we came out.
: We went to another room.
: So in another room, they started to give us the clothing.
: They called us the pasiak, prisoner's uniform.
: So you know how they given.
: When somebody was short, they give him a long one.
: Somebody was tall, they give him a short one.
: Finally, I was looking for my brother,
: and I couldn't find him, because everybody
: looked the same in the uniform.
: I couldn't recognize him.
: I was looking for hours.
: Finally, I find him.
: And we started to kiss.
: He came to Buchenwald.
: They took me.
: I was in Buchenwald.
: They took me to a Steinbruch.
: Steinbruch, that means where the--
: I have to work with a hammer and the--
: cut those stones.
: And we used to give us--
: every day, they used to took us in Buchenwald like this.
: And finally, I was standing and working.
: And I didn't know the German walked around.
: And we used to give us, if a German
: used to walk, we used to give us a signal, 6.
: That's mean he's coming.
: I didn't see it.
: And he kicked me with it.
: And he knocked all my front, because I was lower,
: and he was standing higher, because was--
: I was in Buchenwald for about a month, two months.
: And then they send us to a different-- the same camp,
: an Abteilung-- that's mean a division from Buchenwald--
: to work in the ammunition factory.
: Did you work different shifts in the quarry in Buchenwald?
: In Buchenwald, you know what I mean, it wasn't special work.
: In Buchenwald, you took the rocks.
: You put in one corner one day, and next day you
: put the same rocks and put in the other day.
: Like you saw the Holocaust, in the-- you
: watch the Holocaust where in Buchenwald where
: they used to knock those rocks?
: That's what I did.
: Just, you know what I mean, to make, you know what I mean, in--
: In Buchenwald was about 100,000, 175,000 prisoners.
: Was from 17 countries.
: In fact, in Buchenwald there was with us
: the French premier, Leon Blum, was that time, because he
: was standing in the--
: every morning they used to count us.
: Every morning.
: In Buchenwald, it was more, you know what I mean,
: like, it was running by the communist,
: the Buchenwald, the organization over there.
: The organization was more left.
: The Jews in the organization which ran the Jewish camp?
: No, all the-- those people who run Buchenwald was more
: to the left, because in Buchenwald,
: when they gave us out--
: each one had a difference--
: what do you call this?
: The Jews, you had to have a yellow star.
: The communists used to have a red star.
: The homosexuals used to have a pink.
: The murderers-- let's say, killers-- used to have green.
: There was about 17 or 18 nation.
: The worst was for the Jews.
: The Jews wasn't allowed, you know what I mean,
: not to do anything.
: Just to go to work.
: Used to be English.
: Used to be Norwegian.
: Used to be Russian.
: Russian and Jews, the Russian used to be-- they
: were treated the same like Jews.
: Was [INAUDIBLE].
: Used to be France, from all over Europe, from all over Europe,
: where they were occupied by the Germans.
: And it was that they arrested them.
: They used to get some Marks for if they worked a day,
: they used to give them a Mark.
: And the Mark, I brought it here to see
: that Mark what I brought it.
: Here is the Mark.
: But I got to see it.
: This is the Mark.
: This is the Mark.
: But the Mark was in--
: and I got this from-- a Hollander gave me this.
: And I think this Mark is in a museum in Israel.
: They was allowed to buy some gemuse.
: Gemuse was salad.
: For the Jews wasn't allowed.
: When I was in Buchenwald like that, yeah.
: In Buchenwald, they gave us nothing to eat.
: And I was with my brother.
: And every day we got weaker.
: So they brought a transport Gypsy,
: about 3,000 or 4,000 Gypsy, from Auschwitz.
: Being in Buchenwald, have nothing to eat,
: you have to know how to survive.
: So I know the Russian used to--
: it was cigarettes.
: It was no cigarettes.
: And the Gypsies used to smoke.
: So I went out to work with a Russian guy.
: And the Russian guy says to me, when we find a tree--
: the tree was a cherry tree.
: And he says, take those leaves in the pocket.
: And finally, I went through those leaves in the pocket.
: And we sit down on the sun, in the daytime,
: and I took a bottle, and I made from that leaves,
: I made tobacco.
: The Gypsies didn't know that this is--
: because there was no cigarette paper.
: With plain paper, used to taste like a cigarette.
: It was no paper.
: You see, they used to find a piece of paper a lot.
: And I make tobacco, and I was holding on my neck
: because I was afraid they're going
: to steal from me, because we slept, me on the--
: just on the floor.
: And they used to stay in the line,
: and I used to-- a piece of bread,
: a little piece of tobacco.
: They sold a piece of bread for tobacco.
: I only took what I could eat for the day and for my brother.
: This was going on like this till finally they came out,
: and they says, they're going to take out all the Jews,
: send them to a camp where they're making the ammunition
: factory.
: This was Schlieben.
: And we came in in that factory.
: You left Buchenwald.
: Yeah, they took us from Buchenwald.
: Yeah, this was a division from Buchenwald.
: They called this Buchenwald.
: And the ammunition factory was not far
: between Leipzig and Berlin.
: We came in over there.
: There was nothing.
: Just empty space.
: And we had to build the barracks,
: because only ammunition factory.
: The factory, we used to work.
: In those factories, they used to work a lot of women before us.
: There was also prisoners.
: Mostly it was from France.
: They were from France.
: They from some Scandinavian countries, if I remind myself.
: And after when we came in, we started to build the barracks.
: We build up the barracks because there
: was no, you know what I mean, no place where to go.
: We started to build the barracks.
: Did the Germans have engineers working with you?
: No, it was only the prisoners from us.
: We used to come into that camp.
: They ask, who is electrician and who is a builder?
: You try.
: In fact, once they ask me, who is electrician?
: I says, I'm an electrician.
: They took me out, they through.
: And I came in.
: They says they give me some work to do.
: And I remember like now, to build those barracks,
: build the wires.
: And over there was some Jews what they knew electrician.
: It was, I remember one [? named Gary. ?] He knew.
: He says, you work, me and me.
: I was afraid to tell him, I don't know.
: So he tell me to go try to fix the wires.
: I fixed the wires, I connected wrong,
: and the whole camp went out, the light.
: And the German used to run around and says sabotage.
: Who did it?
: I didn't do it, you know what I mean, how to do it.
: It's the truth.
: No, finally, you know what I mean, he show it to me.
: He says, why don't you tell me how.
: Finally, you know what I mean, I helped him, and I worked.
: I didn't work too long.
: Then they took me to work in the ammunition factory.
: In that time, the German started to develop the new anti-tanks.
: They used to call this German rockets V-2.
: And I worked with those.
: And I worked in those ammunition.
: In that factory was all kind divisions.
: I worked in the division where the--
: I used to control where the powder went
: in for the Panzerfaust This was against the tanks.
: I don't know if you recall, the German
: came up, with the new ammunition.
: They used to call us Rocket 2.
: The V2?
: V2, yeah, at that time.
: We worked that factory.
: And it was, over there, it was about--
: one division was [INAUDIBLE], a powder, a yellow powder.
: Over there, only Jews could work only four weeks because they
: got yellow and they couldn't survive anymore,
: because over there, nobody could survive only four weeks.
: And they used to switch.
: After four weeks, they'd take another transport.
: And those where they couldn't work anymore,
: they took them out on the field and shot them and buried them.
: One day, my brother fell in in this--
: in this group.
: And he came home, and he started to cry.
: And he couldn't eat anything because he
: started to get yellow.
: And I was afraid I'm going to lose him.
: And I know I didn't want to lose him.
: So I had a friend.
: Well, he used to work--
: he was the Vorarbeiter.
: You know what's a Vorarbeiter?
: Like, it's a foreman.
: Used to [INAUDIBLE], you know what I mean.
: He was the foreman.
: And also a Jew.
: He was with us in Buchenwald together.
: And I knew him from before Skarzysko.
: And I ask him, look--
: Finkelstein was his name.
: He do me a favor.
: Maybe you can take out my brother from over there.
: He says, how can I take him out?
: Because he knew that German who used
: to supply people over there.
: Nobody could live more than four weeks.
: Six weeks was the most.
: And this happened.
: One time, one day, there were two brothers.
: One brother couldn't stand anymore.
: He took a match, and he throw in in that part of where they
: used to mix, and this exploded.
: 168 got killed--
: Jews, and two Germans, two where they were there.
: And they used to say, the Jews did a sabotage,
: and they're going to kill the whole camp.
: The time was so bad for the German,
: they need the working power.
: They didn't have.
: This was in 1943.
: In fact, my brother got wounded too.
: And all of them who they got wounded,
: they took him to Buchenwald.
: I don't know what they did.
: And my brother, and I didn't let him go.
: I says, you're going to stay with me.
: Wherever it's going to be, we're going to be together.
: And he stayed with me, and I didn't
: let him go, because I couldn't, in that time,
: in the night time-- this was happened in the night time.
: I worked in the day shift, and he worked in the night shift,
: because when you worked in day shift,
: when I was with my brother, so I could organize something
: to eat in the night.
: And when I worked in the night, he
: could organize something in the daytime to eat.
: So we did it.
: So I know, you know what I mean, the whole explosion
: started, and started to go from one place to the other.
: And I was going to the factory.
: And look, I know a lot of Jews got killed.
: Now looking, looking for my brother.
: Finally, I find him laying in blood.
: And every time the explosions started, you got light.
: And I try to take my shirt, rip my shirt,
: and try to bandage his head.
: And I took him with me.
: And I didn't let him go no place.
: After he got-- he had to go back to the same place to work.
: Finally, that Jews, that Finkelstein, ask me,
: maybe you can--
: it's a true story, what I'm going to tell you now.
: Ask me, maybe you can get me for the German a little diamond.
: And I says, who has in camp a diamond?
: We went through Buchenwald.
: You know that.
: He says, if I'll give him a little diamond, he'll try.
: I was going around for days in the camp in finding.
: I find one guy had a little diamond under a cap
: under his teeth.
: So he want six bread.
: Where can I get six bread for him?
: And he didn't want it-- it's a true story.
: He didn't wanted the bread every day, the six bread.
: He didn't want it in one time.
: No, he want every day a half a bread.
: I didn't know what to do.
: I didn't want to lose it because I see he couldn't
: eat after the fifth day.
: He couldn't take.
: He got yellow complete.
: In fact, when we got liberated, we came after the war
: to Stuttgart.
: He got yellow, came back, and he got yellow,
: and he was laying for eight, nine weeks.
: Came back.
: So I finally, I used to work, you
: know what I mean, for a German, from the camp.
: Did you get him the diamond?
: No, listen.
: I was working for a German in the camp.
: In that camp, that German, he was a Communist.
: He was arrested when Hitler came to power in 1933.
: And he was in Buchenwald for so many years.
: And he started to like me He was also a prisoner.
: But I used to make him up the morning
: to report how many Jews goes up and how many Jews is left.
: And I tell them to him--
: the name was Gustav.
: I wrote up that paper.
: And I says, you have to help with my brother.
: He used to receive packages from Red Cross from home
: because he was a German.
: And he had it a little better, because they used to send him
: package from the house.
: And I says, you have to help me.
: He says, how can I help you?
: I would like, so if my brother is there,
: how can I get six breads?
: In the kitchen, used to work over
: there woman, French prisoners, woman, where
: they used to be prisoners.
: And they need to smoke cigarettes.
: He used to receive packages from the home with some cigarettes.
: So I says, you try to help me.
: He says, I'll help you.
: When we used to-- you go, walk over to the window,
: to let's say they used to have to give a piece of paper.
: A German used to stay, an SS man.
: And he used to tell them, that woman,
: how many people is in that block?
: In that block was a barrack.
: Let's say it was 300 Jews.
: So let's say each one used to get a piece of bread.
: They used to give us, let's say, 50 bread, or a [? sick day come.
: ?]
: So he says to me, that German, let me take care.
: He went over, walk over to the window--
: it's a true story.
: And he gave the French girl a few cigarettes.
: The SS man didn't see it.
: And I was the first one.
: And everyone used to carry six bread or seven bread.
: When she gave me the six bread, she says to me,
: I should walk away.
: She didn't say to me.
: She winked.
: And I heard, when I walk away, she
: started to count through one, the second one.
: I had the six bread already.
: What are you going to do with that?
: He wants the six bread.
: He doesn't one time.
: So I ask that German, so can you hold me those bread?
: You get every day bread.
: Try to give me every day a half a bread, and I'll give him.
: He says, I'll do it for you, because I
: used to help him, cleaned it, clean the barracks,
: work for him, you know what I mean?
: And he was a prisoner, the same like we are.
: They used to call this kapo.
: He was a very good guy.
: He used to help a lot of Jews.
: And finally, I gave him the six.
: I gave him the bread.
: We make an appointment with him.
: How you can take out the diamond.
: We were going around.
: Some people used to work.
: They call this transport.
: But a transport, they used to have pliers.
: They used to work.
: So I begged one guy he should bring in his pocket a plier.
: And he brought a plier.
: And I was holding by a head.
: The other guy pulled a tooth.
: He pulled out the whole tooth with the diamond.
: And I gave him this.
: And two days later, my brother was free from that work,
: and he came to work with me.
: That's what I say.
: We were there till 19--
: we were there till January 1, or February.
: February.
: In February, they tried to take out all the Jews.
: From Buchenwald.
: Yeah.
: We walked.
: We walked out, about 3,000 Jews, 3,400, 3,500 Jews.
: When you were in Buchenwald, were you
: able to socialize with the other prisoners that were not Jews?
: No, no.
: That wasn't allowed.
: Jews was separate.
: Jews was with barbed wire separate.
: Only it was allowed, you know what I mean,
: for the French, English, Holland, and let's say
: all are difference.
: They accept the Russian, and Jews wasn't allowed.
: We used to be in a separate barrack
: where it wasn't allowed, you know what I mean, to go out.
: We used to stay every day.
: They used to come to us.
: We used to walk out, and we used to stay all of them
: on the same place.
: They used to count all the prisoners.
: Buchenwald was more, you know what
: I mean, a place where the communist inside
: had the control, inside.
: The German used to come in in the morning.
: They used to take us to work, count us.
: And in the night time they brought us back.
: So every day it was the same thing.
: When they send us, and they send every week to a difference
: ammunition factory.
: This belongs to it.
: It was a division from Buchenwald.
: When we were then in Schlieben, Buchenwald,
: over there started to get, you know what I mean,
: every time, the Russian used to come closer,
: and the American used to come closer,
: and they start to evacuate us.
: We walked.
: We walked out.
: It was February the 5th or the 6th.
: What year was that?
: 1945.
: Would you like something to drink?
: No, thank you.
: [INAUDIBLE]
: I'll take a little bit water.
: So we walked.
: You were in Brooklyn from 1944 to 1945.
: Yeah.
: Working in the ammunitions--
: We did, yeah.
: And we walk like this for six weeks.
: You know what I mean?
: Like in each wagon, we used to go, 12 prisoners.
: We used to pull their wagons.
: And they used to have their clothing, their bread, the all
: kind.
: And we used to be like that.
: And every time, you know what I mean, who got tired.
: And we used to work mostly in the night time
: because in the daytime we couldn't walk.
: The American planes and the Russian used to bomb.
: So mostly we used to walk in the night.
: So you were pulling wagons with German material.
: Germans, their uniform, their bread.
: They all this, all their belonging what they have.
: And the SS used us to go on the side,
: and we used to walk in the middle.
: And I see, you know what I mean, every day it gets less and less
: of us.
: One night, I was pulling the bread.
: And I says to--
: in the same wagon used to be with me four Jews,
: I remember, the two French guys and two Russian,
: and some was Norwegian guy.
: And I tell him, I have a little knife in my pocket.
: And you see, every time gets less and less from us
: because we only-- we didn't know.
: They got tired, they cut us.
: They cut them off.
: And we only heard machine guns.
: We didn't know what happened there.
: We knew, you know what I mean?
: They didn't come back anymore.
: So that time, I says to one Russian guy,
: I says, you see, we're getting less and less.
: We pulling the bread.
: It's the night.
: I'm going to take off every time a bread,
: and I have a little knife, and I cut pieces.
: I told him, you see it anyway, we going to death anyway.
: What's different?
: Finally, I convinced them.
: They says do it.
: And I took off like this from the wagon
: about seven or eight bread.
: And my brother was swollen already up to here.
: He couldn't walk anymore.
: And I was afraid I going to lose him, because he was a tall guy.
: He need to eat more.
: And he couldn't.
: He says, I can't hold anymore.
: When he had to go, you know what I mean,
: he couldn't take off the pants.
: He was swollen complete.
: And I was afraid I'm going to lose him.
: So finally, I says to him, Reuben, stay near me.
: Oh, he says, he can't.
: He says, go near the wagon, because it
: was in the night time.
: Finally, I tried to cut those bread,
: and I cut about six, seven bread.
: And I gave each one a piece of bread in the night time.
: In the morning, when we stopped, the German
: count the bread that's missing.
: Who took the bread?
: They took us 10 guys, and he says,
: if they wouldn't say who took, they're
: going to shot those 10 guys.
: Nobody said anything.
: And they took away.
: If somebody had a piece of bread, they took away from them.
: When we were going like this, you
: know what I mean, till the border in Czechoslovakia.
: Did you know that the war was coming to an end at this point?
: Yeah, we knew the war comes in, because we saw in the nighttime
: the German, the civilian people.
: They're running with their wagons, with their autos.
: We saw them, you know what I mean?
: We saw, you know what I mean, something is going to happen.
: We didn't know how long, because the SS still
: believed that they're going to win the war.
: Let's go back a little bit, Mr. Weisband.
: Did you have any contact with any of your other sisters or--
: No.
: --family from the time you had left home?
: No, I have no contact with them.
: The minute, we knew all of them went to Treblinka.
: And nobody-- because the German used to do like this.
: They used to take, every day, a difference town.
: They didn't know where they're going.
: They told them they going to work.
: And every day, they took a difference town out,
: and they send them to Treblinka.
: When we were there in Skarzysko-Kamienna,
: we find out-- we knew already.
: Somebody came back, a Polish guy.
: And he says, all the Jew they going to Treblinka
: to the gas chamber.
: And in fact, one Jew escaped.
: Seldom, you know what I mean, over there, you couldn't escape,
: because it was so barbed wire, you couldn't escape.
: Because it was in the woods.
: And over there, you know what I mean, it was--
: And in fact, when I was there, here the last time,
: two years ago, was only stones staying there,
: and still stays a monument.
: And it stays, you know what I mean, like a wooden,
: you know what I mean, wood stage, how they used
: to burn them, you know what I mean, after they gassed them,
: because they couldn't burn them so fast.
: They made like one ply human and one plywoods, one ply human.
: This still stays like this.
: And the German used to say all the time, when we worked,
: he says, when you finish your work, you go to your families.
: And we knew where our families went.
: In those times, it was--
: we didn't have no choice, you know what I mean?
: Just to try every day to go through, every go to go through.
: Because when we were there in Buchenwald,
: there were about 160,000 or 170,000, you know what I mean,
: prisoners.
: The Jews, I didn't see any of in Buchenwald,
: because they didn't let us near there,
: because we were way far away.
: The Jews and the Gypsies, they were the worst in Buchenwald.
: They liquidated, every time, used to transport Gypsies,
: 3,000.
: Two days later, you didn't see them anymore.
: They used to bring them from Auschwitz to Buchenwald.
: You didn't see them.
: They used to bring from all those camps to Buchenwald.
: They were with us a few days.
: You didn't see them.
: Only luck was with us for what they send us out to work, not
: to being in Buchenwald.
: When we were there in Schlieben, when we worked,
: over there was no gas chamber.
: Because everyone who worked, they know, you know what I mean,
: after you finish your work, we didn't
: figure we going to survive.
: Nobody figure we're going to survive.
: And this happened until they took us on that trip.
: We walked out 3,000.
: I told you, about for 4,000 or 3,000, 600 and 700 Jews.
: We only got liberated about 240, 250.
: Exactly, I can't remember.
: How were you liberated?
: And that's why I'm telling you now how we got liberated.
: When we walked-- when we pulled their wagons,
: going to the border of Czechoslovakia,
: [? slope ?] wasn't so bad.
: Though on the border from Czechoslovakia,
: there are a lot of hills there.
: They call this the mountains there.
: And when we used to pull those wagons, going up the hill
: wasn't so bad.
: Now going downhill, the wagon used to push us.
: So the German used to run around calling [GERMAN].
: One guy used to go, [GERMAN], by the wheel
: used to be to hold this on the brakes.
: They used to say, [GERMAN].
: Finally, we arrive.
: We were going like this in the nighttime.
: In the daytime we was late.
: Finally, we arrived in a little town.
: The little town was Nixdorf.
: And we only were left over 200, to 240, or the 60.
: When I arrived in that town, the SS went up to the Burgermeister.
: Burgermeister was the mayor from the little town.
: And he says, this is [NON-ENGLISH].
: That's me.
: This is people what they not supposed to live,
: and we're going to burn the stable.
: We didn't know that.
: Now with us was one German guy, also a prisoner--
: the same guy who I tell you about the bread.
: So he knew.
: They says, look, they're going to burn us.
: Somebody told me.
: An old German used to stay, and he told them probably.
: And he says, look, whatever's going to be, we don't know.
: And we didn't sleep a whole night.
: Listen.
: And somebody had a little knife.
: They put us in a stable.
: And somehow he made the holes in there, and look out.
: Finally, they took us out.
: They took us out from over there.
: And the Burgermeister-- I mean, the mayor-- didn't want to sign.
: And we used to walk like this, walking like this.
: They took us out from other there.
: And they still believed the war-- this was May 1 or May 2.
: When they took me--
: so I says to my brother, now is the way.
: In the night time, let's escape.
: We couldn't walk too fast.
: So when we were going in the nighttime,
: because I know we're going--
: they going to put a fire in the stable, because this was their--
: to do with those thing.
: And I says, to my brother, to another guy,
: when we walk in the nighttime, it was very dark,
: because the plane was going in the daytime.
: So me and my brother moved over on the side,
: and we went in in the woods.
: And we walked in the woods like this in the nighttime,
: till we saw a house with a light.
: Just you and your brother?
: My brother and another two guys.
: And they were walking.
: They are still walking.
: They walked.
: And finally, later, I find out they walk-- they took them
: to Theresienstadt.
: You heard Theresienstadt was a camp there in Czechoslovakia.
: And we walked the whole night.
: We still was wearing the uniforms, the prisoner.
: We were afraid.
: So we saw a light.
: So one guy knew a little Czech, Czechoslovakian, the language.
: So he knocked on the door.
: He knocked in door.
: Came out a Czech or a German.
: I don't know till today.
: He says he was a Czech.
: Yeah, no, we didn't knock on the door.
: I forgot.
: We went in in that stable.
: We went in in that stable.
: And the stable was shaking.
: And we were laying there on the straw like this.
: In the morning, he came in to pick the eggs.
: He saw us.
: So we got scared.
: So he says-- the guy used to--
: and we used to talk Polish.
: Polish a little similar to Czechoslovakian.
: So we told him.
: He says, he shouldn't be afraid in his house.
: It's near the war.
: The Germans are running away.
: No, we should play quiet, because in his house
: the SS is there in his house.
: We were there with him, and he used to bring us
: every morning some eggs in.
: In the nighttime, when he came in, we have to go.
: He told us where we should go.
: And the German was still in the house.
: And we were in the stable by him.
: And this was like that about four days.
: One day, in the morning, he came in.
: He says he says, the SS away, and we liberate.
: This was May 7, in the nighttime on the 8th.
: And when we were liberated, we didn't know.
: A lot of the guys, we couldn't walk.
: A lot of guys from us, we were there.
: And one guy was very sick.
: And in fact, he died later because he got so wild.
: And he made himself--
: he was so hungry, he made himself a scrambled eggs
: with a lot of bacon over there, from the German.
: And he got the dysentery.
: And three days later, he died.
: And then the Russian came in with the American.
: They came into the town and to the barn where you were staying?
: Yeah.
: Yeah.
: Three days later they came in.
: We got liberated on May 7 and the nighttime of the 8th.
: They came in by the 10th.
: They took us to a little hospital,
: and they gave us some tea.
: And because I, at that time, I was about 85 pounds.
: The time when we were there, and the four days hidden,
: this helped us a lot, because that Czech brought us in.
: Every time, you know what I mean, to eat a little bit.
: He didn't give us--
: gave us some eggs, very soft eggs.
: He brought us some hot tea.
: And this helped us.
: Do you remember his name?
: Sure.
: His name was--
: I have pictures in the house with him.
: His name was--
: I wrote, but I don't remember exactly, you know what I mean,
: his name.
: And we stayed with him.
: Then, when they took us, we came back.
: And he says he is a Czech.
: We find out he was a German, a Sudeten,
: and his wife was a Czech.
: Now, when the German was in Germany, in Sudeten,
: he was a German.
: But then when the German walked out, he was a Czech.
: And he was a very fine person.
: He brought us to the hospital every day food.
: He didn't know what to do with us.
: And in fact, when I left that town, coming to Prague,
: I used to send him packages.
: And I did whatever I could because he helped us a lot.
: Finally, we came in, after a few weeks--
: You were in the hospital for a few weeks.
: Yeah.
: And when we got liberated, a guy came in
: and took us the pictures.
: Now here is the pictures for the--
: when we got liberated.
: This is in Czechoslovakia.
: That's in the town is Nixdorf.
: It's a German town.
: Sudeten.
: And after, we were there about three weeks, till--
: then we had to go to Prague.
: In Prague, they used to give us, you
: know what I mean, like passports.
: And they tried to take us to Pilsen.
: From Pilsen, they took us--
: yeah, in Pilsen was the American,
: because the American in Czechoslovakia
: was the border what the Russia used
: to be in one side and the American used
: to be in the other side, not far from Prague.
: A little town was there--
: Chekhov, if I remember.
: And an American took us.
: And they took us to München.
: And they put us in a little house.
: Over there, it was already Jews from before,
: where they got liberated before us.
: Some Jews, they got liberated in April,
: what they were in Germany before us, when finally,
: when I got liberated, I went to-- when I was in München,
: I says, I have to look for the family, where the family--
: maybe I'll find somebody.
: I was traveling around Germany.
: Finally I came to Dachau.
: When I came to Dachau, I look on the list, on the Dachau list,
: I find my brother-in-law's name--
: Stewie's father-- on the list.
: They told me, it was a name like this,
: that I didn't know where he is, where he went, where he left.
: And I left Dachau.
: I went to München.
: Being in München, I met some Polish Jews.
: And I ask him, so you know, maybe my brother,
: I know he's alive.
: I saw the list.
: He says, yeah, I know your brother-in-law is in Dachau.
: I went back to Dachau, and I find him.
: He was there living with some other people
: where they got liberated.
: I didn't know for my sister.
: I didn't know.
: My sister got liberated in April.
: I didn't know if she's alive or not.
: After about few weeks later, my sister
: came to where she found out as my brother-in-law was alive.
: And we all went to Stuttgart.
: In Stuttgart was a camp for all those refugees.
: And we were there.
: I was there till end of 1947.
: My brother and my sister left in--
: What did you do in the camp there?
: We didn't do nothing.
: Just they organized, you know what I mean?
: They organized places where to stay.
: There are a lot of places they organized if somebody
: wants to learn a trade.
: So they organized places.
: And a lot of them, you know what I mean, used to go.
: And I used to do-- what I used to do mostly,
: I used to organize people going back
: to Czechoslovakia, organized people to go to Israel.
: And I brought them from Czechoslovakia to München,
: from München to Italy.
: In Italy they went in those, in 1945,
: they went to [? Imlie ?] Galilea.
: That's the unlegal.
: And they went to Israel.
: And with two American soldiers.
: One who was a rabbi, [? Wolbaum. ?] I
: never visited him when I came to the United States.
: He gave me his address.
: He lived on Broadway and 86th Street.
: I never went to visit him.
: And we organized.
: We were going back and forth, and bring
: from Prague to München, and from München to Trieste, Italy.
: And from Trieste they went by boat to Israel.
: And [INAUDIBLE] in Germany.
: And I was in Germany till 1947, end of 1947.
: First of all, in 1946, there was a sign, you know what I mean,
: in Stuttgart, who wants to go to the United States?
: I didn't know that's true.
: And I told.
: I gave my name, and my sister and my brother.
: We gave our name.
: And about a few months later, about eight, nine months later,
: they called me in the consul.
: And my sister and my brother went too.
: And I still stayed in Germany until 1947.
: And from 1947, end of 1947, I came to the United States.
: This was my whole story.
: And coming here to the United States, I worked a little bit.
: And then I went in business.
: Did you have a choice to go to other countries?
: You were involved with Israel.
: We, in the beginning, we organized just--
: I was almost went on the ship, on the Exodus.
: In fact, you know what I mean, my two friends, I said,
: we supposed to go.
: Now a lot of people at that time,
: we got signals from Israel, as the English make,
: you know what I mean, holding the people there,
: and they sending to Cyprus.
: So we didn't want to go to Israel because we didn't
: know how long it will take that Israel
: is going to become a state.
: So we decided--
: I decided, then-- we were going to go to the United States.
: My friend, a lot of them went to Israel.
: With a group who I was liberated,
: now they're living in Israel, mostly, them.
: And I decided I'm going to go to the United States.
: And being in Prague, every week, we
: used to send it through a group.
: It was about 7, 600, from München--
: from Prague to München, from München to Trieste,
: and from Trieste they went by boat,
: what the Israel organization used to buy those boats.
: And we find out a lot of them went to Cyprus,
: and the English didn't let them in.
: So we decided, you know what I mean, not to go.
: And I went to the United States.
: What are your feelings today, how the war has influenced you?
: With what?
: I think, you know what I mean, that this should be,
: to remember.
: Nobody should forget, especially, you
: know what I mean, when our generation passed away.
: Should go over to the next generation,
: especially to those survivors, to those people, the families
: what they survived.
: It should go from the generation to generation,
: because in another 100 years or 500 years,
: they wouldn't believe that this happened.
: Because if you tell stories about the Spain,
: the Inquisition in Spain, a lot of people
: believe and other people don't believe.
: Or what happened this, nobody would believe it,
: because a lot of-- they came out.
: They says it's not true and this never happened.
: Then this, in fact, they coming out,
: you know what I mean, in Germany, and they says,
: it never happened.
: Never happened on Mengele, but they never can catch him.
: And Mengele used to be in Auschwitz
: where he used to select all the people who
: should go to the gas chamber, who should
: go left, who should go right.
: Did your degree of religious observance
: change because of the war?
: I changed with the religious observance, yeah.
: Because I'll tell you why.
: When we walked to Skarzysko-Kamienna,
: was with us in our group walking there.
: We walked about 14 miles till to the wagon.
: it was about seven or eight rabbis.
: I don't know how they find out they're rabbis.
: They took out on every mile a rabbi and they shot him.
: I saw myself this.
: I used to say to myself, if it is a God, how the hell
: can we see those Jews.
: They used to sit and the yeshivas and they
: praying for God only day and night.
: How it's possible he could see there,
: you know what I mean, those Jews to get killed?
: And I change.
: What was your house like before the war?
: Was your father--
: My father was--
: What did he do--
: My father, we used to have--
: we used to have a store there.
: And we used to-- my father used to be a [INAUDIBLE] [? baker. ?]
: And we used to work three people in our house.
: And we used to have-- we used to be a middle-income family.
: I mean, we used to make a living.
: And during the war, during the war-- and my father
: used to be religious.
: Not too religious.
: He used to go every morning, you know what I mean, to shul.
: Friday, I had to go to shul.
: I went to the yeshiva till I was 13.
: And Friday, we used to have to, Friday night, all the kids used
: to be by the table to sit when--
: in fact, if somebody used to come to--
: I used to like, let's say, to go to watch soccer.
: I remember, I used to like to go--
: I remember one thing, Friday night, used to soccer game,
: and I came a little bit late in the house
: because I didn't go with my father to the shul.
: So because I wasn't there.
: So I couldn't sit down and eat with them together there.
: I had to wait till, when everybody's finished,
: I should eat by myself.
: I mean, discipline was more, you know what I mean, taught.
: You have to observe the family together.
: That was the discipline more in Europe.
: Here in the United States it's not like that.
: In Europe, they were more close.
: The family was more close.
: The upbringing, you know what I mean, was more closer.
: The family was more close.
: And we used to be a very close family,
: till 1939, till Hitler came in.
: And I used to help the family.
: I wrote the papers here.
: I used to help the family.
: And during the war time, because they make a ghetto.
: And the ghetto, you couldn't go.
: I used to go out, take off my armband,
: where there used to be a star.
: And I had a bicycle.
: Go to town, to Radom.
: I used to have, on mine bicycle, I
: used to have about 30 kilos, 60 pounds flours,
: and bring to Radom in the morning.
: I used to get up about 4 o'clock in the morning, and bring back,
: you know what I mean, something, you know what I mean,
: to eat in the house.
: And in fact, I went with two guys every day
: like this, till one guy, the SS, we blocked the road.
: And we find out, you know what I mean.
: And they caught my two friends.
: And one friend, you know what I mean, they shot him.
: And I got in in the woods with the bike.
: And I was running away.
: And I left the bike in the woods.
: And after that, when I-- usually, I came home.
: When I came home in the middle of the night,
: my father didn't know.
: And he didn't let me no more.
: And they shot my friends.
: And I wrote up the paper about this.
: And they were buried right there on the--
: Where did you get the flour from in the ghetto?
: In the ghetto, you see the Jews used to--
: the farmers used to come in the ghetto.
: And they used to bring those flours from those--
: they used to have, in the little towns,
: they used to make where they used to make flour by hand.
: Not in a big meal, though.
: And they used to bring it.
: And the Jews, they used to exchange with the Jews,
: because if somebody was a tailor, they used to fix him--
: they used to fix the jacket, or they used to fixing the pants,
: and they used to exchange the flour.
: And so they used to bring a lot of flours.
: So I bought from them the flours, and I brought them back.
: In fact, I brought them in to my sister.
: And over there the bakers used to come already.
: They used to buy the flours from me,
: and they used to give me bread back.
: And This.
: Was going out.
: I did it for a few months, till it started to get bad.
: So we couldn't go anymore.
: Because every day in our town, the last
: before, you know what I mean, they took us out.
: Every day they used to shot 40 to 60 people--
: every day.
: Was there any resistance in the ghettos?
: Not in the small towns.
: The only resistance it was in Warsaw Ghetto,
: because when they took out the Jews,
: they didn't know where they're going.
: They took a sign.
: They hanged up signs in the corner.
: They says, today this town goes to work, all of them,
: the morning, should come out, on the field--
: the husband, the wife, and the kids.
: They should come in.
: They're going to work.
: They didn't know where they're going.
: They were thinking really they're going to go.
: They're going to work.
: In fact, when I run away to the woods, I asked my--
: I begged my father, come with me.
: My father was a young man.
: He was 46.
: So he didn't want to go.
: He says, he can't believe that the Germans are going
: to kill so many million Jews.
: He says, where are they going to get the bullets?
: Nobody was thinking they're going to establish the gas
: chamber and kill them.
: And he didn't want to go.
: If he would go, you know what I mean,
: he would go and be in the woods.
: Maybe he would be alive.
: But he didn't want to go.
: And then, when I convinced him already to go, and I says,
: you see, this town went away.
: This town went away.
: So my mother didn't want to go because we had our sister's kid,
: and she didn't want to go leave the kid separate.
: So she said, whatever it's going to be it's going to be.
: Now listen.
: We were in the woods.
: We slept, you know what I mean?
: One day we slept here.
: One day, when it started to get colder, one day over there,
: till finally, the German, when they caught us,
: they were thinking we partisan.
: And how we got back to Zwolen, I'll tell you,
: was coming back-- we were eight people.
: I'll tell you in the story.
: We were eight people in those--
: we were working.
: Finally, we have to come back to Zwolen back.
: No Jews was there.
: So we went through the woods.
: The Polack saw, you know what I mean, we walking.
: So they went.
: They run away to the SS.
: They says the partisans is there.
: And they came in.
: And they circled the whole wood around.
: And they said we should come out.
: And we came out with Hande hoch, me.
: And we came out.
: And they tell us, you know what I mean, to stand near.
: And they tell the SS to--
: they're going to shot us.
: And we knew that.
: They're here.
: My friends were.
: Now luckily, a truck passed by.
: This was in the wintertime, you know what I mean,
: where it started to get snow.
: A truck passed by.
: And on the truck was a lot of Germans.
: And they got stuck.
: So they came over to the SS, to the guide, to the officer.
: The officer says, what is those Jews doing here?
: He says, they partisan.
: We're going to shot them.
: Said, don't shot them.
: About three miles from here, my truck got stuck.
: They come.
: And we need some people to help.
: So we went over there, and we try to dig out the truck.
: Eight people tried to dig out the truck.
: One SS over there from that truck was a very nice guy.
: So he didn't send us back to them.
: No, he took the truck, and he went to our town.
: And he let us off in our town.
: And from our town, about two days later, they came, the SS.
: They took us to--
: locally.
: And they took us to Skarzysko-Kamienna, to a Lager,
: because they need people.
: At that time, you know what I mean, the Russians make
: a stop at Stalingrad that time.
: And they need people to work.
: And mostly people, you know what I mean, went to the gas chamber,
: because I lost, in the gas chamber, friends.
: But I begged him to go with me.
: They didn't want it.
: And I lost two friends when walking from Buchenwald.
: And one of them was 19, and one of them was 17.
: And they couldn't walk anymore.
: And I lost them.
: And I think, what you're doing now, it's should be done.
: It's a long time.
: And should be more publicized.
: People should know what happened,
: because a lot of people, they don't believe that this is true.
: And in fact, some people, they says it never happened.
: And here, I am here to tell what I lived through for myself.
: And I think you have a lot of people
: like that, where they can tell you the same story, what
: they lived through.
: Is there anything else you'd like
: to share with us that you may have left out?
: Was there any resistance in Buchenwald when you were there,
: other than the explosion?
: No.
: In Buchenwald was no resistance there,
: because in Buchenwald, the SS--
: the Buchenwald camp was the oldest camp when
: the Germans started to make.
: The first camp was Dachau.
: The second was Buchenwald.
: And then was another.
: Gross-Rosen was the third camp.
: The fourth camp was Mauthausen.
: And then, when the war started, the first camp they made
: was Auschwitz.
: In Auschwitz, they built over there, in Auschwitz.
: And I would like to bring to you.
: I was in Auschwitz.
: And I made pictures from the ovens.
: My wife was with me.
: And I made the pictures for the ovens.
: And I make the pictures for still the shoes
: laying from the people, glasses, all kind
: of-- hairs laying still.
: They made a museum over there.
: And I walked with my wife, and the oven still
: stays where the people--
: most of the people, I think, was lost in Auschwitz.
: Auschwitz was the first place.
: Majdanek was the second.
: Treblinka was the third.
: I think so.
: And in Dresden, in Germany.
: Because if you spoke to a German--
: I got liberated in Germany.
: They says they didn't know that.
: Now, every 40 miles you had a camp.
: So how is they didn't know it?
: Because every 50--
: 40, 50 miles, 100 miles, was a difference camp.
: So they knew.
: Especially in Germany, the discipline by them
: was so strong, where they afraid to say.
: Because when I was in Buchenwald, and I worked,
: a German took me out to work, one German.
: And he was a very nice guy.
: He was in civil clothing.
: And he took us out, you know, with the work.
: So one day, he throw me a piece of bread.
: And it's in a piece of paper.
: He never talked to me.
: And I picked this up.
: While we was marching, I tried to go--
: the last one, because he went there in the last one.
: There's something in the front, that says, why can't you
: say-- why are you doing this?
: He says, I can't talk.
: If not, I'll come in here, where you are now.
: But I got liberated.
: I find out he was--
: before Hitler came to power, was 10 million communists in 1933.
: And the economics in Germany was very bad.
: And when Hitler came to power, all those--
: First of all, all those communists he put into jail.
: And nobody could believe as Hitler
: will take a stand against the Jews, because I remember.
: And I was going to school.
: And they used to discuss, in my house, politics.
: And they says, Hitler came to power.
: It's no good for Jews.
: So my father used to say, the German used to be-- they
: were good.
: In 1914 he remember when they came in,
: because the Russian was bad.
: But still, nobody could believe that this is going to happen.
: Because listen, he did it.
: He did things what no human being can ever
: imagine and think, you know what I mean, what Hitler did.
: So listen.
: In camp was, in Buchenwald, was Jews,
: was even Catholics was in the camp then.
: Was with us maybe about 20,000 Catholics,
: or priests were there, because they wanted to have a clean
: Aryan.
: They used to call only their blood.
: And in Buchenwald, they used to take out from us, from camp,
: and test it.
: Somebody has blond hair.
: They used to take him out.
: Some of them, you know what I mean, they used to take out,
: men.
: They used to, you know what I mean,
: when you came into Buchenwald, you shouldn't feel any sexual--
: they gave us needles.
: Right when we came in.
: This was the first day we came into Buchenwald.
: They gave you needles so they would not be aroused?
: Needles.
: That's right.
: This was the first day.
: Because they, when we came into Buchenwald,
: they always, when we used to go out
: to work, they used to tell us, young boys, 22, 18, 19,
: he says when you finish the work,
: you go away your parents is.
: We knew our parents already went to the gas chamber.
: And we didn't have no choice, because no Jews believed that
: this is going to happen, because if the Jews would believe this
: would happen, in Poland was about 4 million Jews before
: the war, 3,700,000, they would did what happened in Warsaw.
: And I think more Jews would be alive today
: if they would resist.
: What do you communicate to your children about the Holocaust?
: I tell them they shouldn't forget this.
: Every time, when they are small, I used to sit down with them
: and talk them, and show it to them--
: some pictures, what I have, what I went through.
: I mean, their grandfathers got killed.
: In fact, when my kids, they were small, they used to ask me--
: they couldn't understand.
: I used to tell them, your grandfather
: got killed by the German.
: So they used to ask me what they did.
: Did they kill somebody?
: They couldn't believe that they got killed for nothing
: because they were Jews.
: And nobody, until they got older, they got older,
: when they got older, they could understand this.
: Then, you know what I mean, when they started to read, and when--
: even when they get a little older,
: they couldn't believe it till they read books.
: They see what Hitler did to the Jews.
: And I have one for you, what somebody wrote about Auschwitz.
: And I made copies for this.
: I'll going to give this to Stewart.
: How Hitler started to organize with Goebbels and Bormann,
: the liquidation for the Jews.
: And I don't remember who there was, the writer.
: And I made a copy from this.
: It was in a magazine.
: And I have a copy from this.
: This is about 28 pages.
: And I think everyone from us should read this and see
: what they did, how they organized the gas chamber, how
: they had meetings, how they liquidated the Jews,
: because they couldn't liquidate with the bullets so many.
: How they organize to liquidate it
: with the gas chambers, and what kind of gas
: they used with everything.
: Do you think another Holocaust is possible?
: I don't think so.
: It's possible.
: I mean, can be a Holocaust, which
: I know it's possible, because in 1933,
: before Hitler came to power, was a famous Zionist, Herzl, came
: to the German Jews and says, we have to organize a Jewish state.
: And the German used to enter--
: the Jews from Germany used to enter our fatherland,
: in Germany.
: It's mine.
: This is mine.
: Mine-- this is my country, and this is mine--
: this is mine where I was born.
: They didn't want to.
: And they didn't even want to know that they were Jews,
: because then, when Hitler came to power,
: and Hitler, he didn't take Jews where they born now.
: They will take from generation what his grand-grandmother was
: a Jewish.
: And he send them in the camp.
: With me, was some of them, what they didn't even know.
: With me was one guy.
: He was a German.
: He didn't know he was Jewish.
: He says his grandfather was Jewish.
: No, they look in the paper, and they find out
: that his grandfather was Jewish, they put him in camp too.
: So it's possible.
: Why it's possible?
: Because the Jews--
: Now, why it's possible now, because mostly
: is because the Jews, they, years back, they never
: be together like to now.
: Now, that's only one thing can be
: not happen like what happened by Hitler,
: because we have a country--
: Israel.
: Because before, if we would have a state like Israel,
: this wouldn't have happened.
: Because when it was before the war in 1938 and '39,
: when they had a discussion-- it was illegal nation those years,
: in Switzerland, when they were discussing about the Jews,
: they says, who the Jews are?
: They have no country.
: Why would they [INAUDIBLE].
: And we never discussed about the Jews, that they have a land.
: Only one thing.
: Now, we only, we happy.
: We have a state, Israel.
: And I think every Jew who is Jewish, and who feels,
: you know what I mean, shouldn't happen again, this, should try,
: you know what I mean, to work for Israel wherever he can.
: Because it's the only one thing what
: save the Jews when any Holocaust should happen now.
: You want to know any more?
: I'll tell you.
: Ask me more questions, I'll tell you what I went through.
: Well, I'd like to thank you very much
: this evening for being interviewed.
: I'm-- pleasure.
: Anytime you need any help, or what,
: if you need somebody else from difference camp,
: where I know I have friends, I'll, you know.
: Thank you very much.

Overview

Interviewee: Mr. Leon Weisband
Date: interview: 1982 August 25
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Second Generation of Long Island

Physical Details

Language: English
Extent: 1 videocassette (VHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
Conditions on Use: No restrictions on use

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Holocaust survivors--United States.
Personal Name: Weisband, Leon.

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The interview with Leon Weisband was conducted on August 25, 1982 by the Second Generation of Long Island as part of a project to document the testimonies of Holocaust survivors on Long Island, New York, and Israel. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received a copy of the interview from the Second Generation of Long Island in 1989. Permission to use the collection was granted by the Honorable Syd Mandelbaum, Commissioner for the Nassau County (NY) Commission on Human Rights and Founder of Second Generation of Long Island on April 6, 1995.
Special Collection: The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive

Record last modified:: 2023-11-16 08:21:33
This page:: http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn512597

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Interviews conducted by the Second Generation of Long Island as part of a project to document the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and camp liberators on Long Island, New York City, and Israel from 1982-1989

Date: 1982-1989