It was terrible, terrible! In 1943, my family was forced to move from our home to a ghetto in our village where we lived. We were there for about one month, where we had no food. My father used to sneak out of the ghetto to steal food. After the ghetto, we were taken to the train station, and then to Auschwitz.
My mother, brother Pinkus, and sister Aletza were immediately sent to the gas chambers when we arrived at Auschwitz. I am still not sure how my sisters and I found each other there. We could not recognize each other, because the first thing they did when we got there was to shave all of our hair off. I had beautiful long hair! They shaved our hair and everywhere else too, and a man did this. I had never been with a man before the war.
After about eight months in Auschwitz, we were transferred to a factory in the Sudeten where we worked night and day.
My father worked in a separate area and he was killed during the death march. We found out from a man who had been with him on the march. My father could not go on; he sat down, and was shot. His body was left there on the spot. I don’t even know what they did with the body; they probably just left it there.
I was beaten by a vicious woman, almost to death. She snuck up on me in the bathroom and hit me over and over. After a while, I could not hold it, and everything came out…everything. She left me there. I think the smell is what saved my life, because she could not stand the smell.