Petr Rössler

“Then we went from Lodz to Auschwitz. We didn’t know what was happening. One day they told us that they were closing down the Lodz ghetto. Originally, there were about 300,000 and when the ghetto was closing down there were about 40,000, of whom some survived. They took us to the Radegast station and we boarded the train. We didn’t know where we were going but we went to Auschwitz.”

“They took us to a school where there were various people. There were two storey beds but our father was a gentleman, he did not push to get a bed, so we slept on a mattress on the ground. There he died. When he died, only mother survived. I feel remorse now since I think she died alone. I don’t know how it is possible since there was uncle Brumlík and aunt Fritzu. I was really touched by our aunt who took some gifts for us when we set out. I know that our dad had medals from the Great War and hoped they would help, that they would bring some benefits for us which was not the case.”

“We had our personal belongings. There were not many of them but I recall that we even had our ski boots which the poor Polish Jews long didn’t have. For the boots we could buy bread or soup. I remember me and my brother celebrating our birthdays. Since we have our birthdays two days and two years one from another, on June 3 we went to this gas kitchen where you could buy soup and we bought soup. This was our birthday gift.”

“Then we moved on until we came to the selection. This was the second miracle. I think it was Mengele even though I didn’t know what he looked like, but I think it was Mengele and another guy in uniform sitting at the table. My brother was in front of me and Mengele asked him how old he was. He told him he was sixteen years old. Mengele sent him to the right. I didn’t know it meant that he’ll survive, that he’d be used as a labor force. I was next and I said that I was fourteen years old. It was a big mistake because no one under sixteen was supposed to survive. I said that I was fourteen and so he sent me to the left, to the gas. It wasn’t because I was smart, but I followed my brother to the right and nobody stopped me. And so here I am.”

“I injured myself quite seriously in Birkenau. I went down a narrow path and an SS-uniformed man walked my way. He yelled at me: ‘you stinking Jew, get out of the way!’ He kicked me and I fell on the ground that was gravel. I passed out. When I woke up I looked at my leg and realized there was a hole in it. Even today, I still have a scar there. We used a margarine wrapping paper - still greasy – to cover up the wound. At the selection, where I was with my brother, we had to take off our pants, and that paper covered up the wound. It was a little miracle. I was still fourteen years old and I said that I was sixteen. We were on a transport, in the cattle car again, we went to the Kaufering IV camp.”

“When we got out on that ramp there was a man standing in a striped uniform and he shouted in Czech: ‘Are there any Czechs here?’ My brother and I told him that we were Czech. ‘So come with me’, he said. He took us away. He was called Poldi and he was a Jew from Prague. He worked for Dr. Halpern, a Czech Jew, too. He had, I think, survived Warsaw already. Anyway, we met him again after the war in Prague. Dr. Halpern was a leading Jewish doctor who worked under the guidance of the Germans. He took me to the house of the doctors and there, they miraculously treated my leg. Certainly not with antibiotics because they didn’t have any of those. But they had some sulphadrugs or something else. Maybe I was also getting a little bit of extra food. Anyway, my leg healed.”

“We began to slowly move forward and suddenly we saw men in striped uniform. They were shouting something at us. ‘Do you see the smoking chimneys? Do you smell the stench of burnt flesh and bone? They will first gas you and then burn you’. So that was the first thing we learned there.”