Jakob Kryszek

Hess: Your name is Jakob Kryszek
KRYSZEK: That is correct. 

Hess: Do you have a middle name? 
KRYSZEK: No. 

Hess: What were your parents’ names? 
KRYSZEK: My mother’s was Miriam, actually, Sarah Miriam, and my father’s, Abraham. 

Hess: Did they have middle names? 
KRYSZEK: My mother did; my father [did] not. 

Hess: Did you have brothers and sisters? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, I did. We were three brothers and three sisters. 

Hess: Counting you there were six? 
KRYSZEK: A total of six. 

Hess: What were their names? 
KRYSZEK: My oldest brother was Isrik, which Isrik would be Isaac. Then a sister, her name was Tamarah. And another sister, older sister; her name was I think Bruha-Rivka now. Then was me. Then was a little sister Rosa, Roselle; then a little brother, Hayim-Yoel. 

Hess: Where did you live? What town? 
KRYSZEK: Well, originally, most of my life I lived in Lodz. But before I came to Lodz I was in Podebbitz. 

Hess: Do you remember Podebbitz? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, I do. 

Hess: Can you tell me a little bit about it? Can you describe it? 
KRYSZEK: Well it was a very little town, a very small town with a small Jewish population. It is not much to tell about. It was just a small little town or a big village.

Hess: What did your house look like? 
KRYSZEK: Well, actually the house was, as I vaguely remember, up on the stairs, and I guess we had two or three rooms. That is what I remember.

Hess: What did your father do for a living? 
KRYSZEK: … I do not remember very well; we used to have a store, a variety store, which the variety consists of hardware and coal and, you know, all kinds. And then he was also a Hebrew teacher at Talmud cheder.

Hess: Where did he study to learn to be a teacher? 
KRYSZEK: Well, I really don’t know. In those days there were the yeshivas…. It was scholars which they were constantly studying; … a constant student.

Hess: What about his father? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know very much about his father at all. 

Hess: Did you ever meet him? 
KRYSZEK: No, I never met [my] grandfather or my grandmother from my father’s side. I never did meet him. 

Hess: Was he very religious? 
KRYSZEK: Very religious. 

Hess: What did a religious man do in Poland in those days? What was his routine, for instance, when you were growing up, before you went to Lodz? 
KRYSZEK: Well, before we went to Lodz, his routine at that time…. He was a teacher, a rabbi for cheder. He was teaching the Hebrew, and then his routine was like the children who came to school. [In] his spare time he was studying Talmud. 

Hess: How many times a day would he daven, for instance?
KRYSZEK: Well, that is three times a day. 

Hess: One time you told me a story about going to see your rabbi. Remember, when you were a boy? Was that before you went to Lodz? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, that was before I went to Lodz. 

Hess: Can you tell me that story again? Can you tell me what it was like to see this very important rabbi? Who he was? 
KRYSZEK: I was very young. I must have been at that time maybe eight or nine years old, …maybe not even that much. That rabbi was one of the biggest, like you would call a prophet, and literally thousands of people came from all over Poland and Europe to see him, to see him perform a Saturday meal after the services and just to watch him also while praying. 

Hess: Excuse me, what was his name? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t remember his name, but he was called the Gerrer Rebbe. That was it. People came, scholars…. 

Hess: Describe the room and describe what he did. What did you see? 
KRYSZEK: What I saw? Basically I saw him perform where everybody was eating. He was sitting with special people around him. They were eating and just doing like a Shabbat dinner, a Kiddush and a dinner, and it seemed at that time very, very special. 

Hess: What was it special about this man, do you think, that he could capture everyone’s faith and attention? What was it about him? 
KRYSZEK: I can’t describe that. I don’t know how to describe something like that.

Hess: Who did you go with to see him? 
KRYSZEK: At that time? With much older people; they were all kind of recruiting, getting their children involved. 

Hess: You mean like a wiedertaufer?
KRYSZEK: Pretty much. That’s correct. 

Hess: Was it a brother or a sister?
KRYSZEK: No. In fact, one of them was a second cousin of mine, who was considerably older at that time. 

Hess: But very religious? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. 

Hess: But when you went, were there many provincial rabbis in Poland that were powerful, like the Gerrer Rabbi?
KRYSZEK: Well, yes. There was also the Alexandria Rabbi, who was also very powerful. Basically, those two. There were others also, but those two were the main, the biggest, the most powerful ones….

Hess: What happened to them during the war? 
KRYSZEK: I am not sure I know that. During the war, somehow, the Gerrer Rabbi got out at the time while Hitler was already in. 

Hess: Where were you standing when you saw the Gerrer Rabbi? 
KRYSZEK: Actually, I was not standing; I was tied on the pole, if this makes sense to you [laughter]. I was actually tied on a pole, a big pole, because it was a very big room with poles. In fact, I had to, in order to [see] the room…; they got me up there, and I was tied on and standing on things and tied to the pole. Otherwise, I was so small I couldn’t….

Hess: How long did you stand there? 
KRYSZEK: Many, many hours. I don’t remember, but it was very, very, very tiresome. But just to be able to see, it didn’t seem that bad. 

Hess: So, he performed the service? 
KRYSZEK: He did not perform the service. He is not the one who performed the service. It was a special cantor. Not a cantor, they called it a baal tefillah, which is instead of a cantor, baal tefillah or shaliyah tsibur.

Hess: Did people sing, or did they dance or did he answer questions?
KRYSZEK: He didn’t answer questions at the time when he was performing. The questions he answered when you were in a line and went through to him. And you had a few seconds just to ask a question, and he would quickly answer so that the people can go by. 

Hess: What did he do in his performance? When you said he was performing, what do you mean by performance? 
KRYSZEK: Well, performing maybe is not the right word. Conducting, I should say conducting. Well, I don’t know that conducting is the right word either. He was just there, and he would make the brachas, the prayers for certain things, and also he would discuss certain parts of the Talmud and give his version of it. Or start with the versions from the other big rabbis from way back, and perhaps at that time, he would explain very thoroughly the meaning of it, the way he sees it. 

Hess: Do you remember what he looked like? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, that I will never forget. He was a short man with a very white, big beard and very deep eyes. 

Hess: Then you went to the cheder; did you go to the same cheder that your father taught? 
KRYSZEK: No. I went to another rabbi; not at that time. No. 

Hess: How long did you go to school there? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t remember how long.

Hess: How old were you when you went to Lodz to work? 
KRYSZEK: Well, when I went to Lodz, I did not right away work. I still did go a little, but I did not work right away. I don’t remember the age I was at that time. But then after a while I did go to work, which helped out my uncle. He was actually in the knitting business, which was hosiery, knitting of hosiery; I learned a part of it. 

Hess: You mean you went to your uncle’s place in Lodz to be. . . ?
KRYSZEK: No, it was not his place. He was actually an engineer. He did put together, originally, those machines, those big machines. And then he was manager of a big plant, and at that time I started. 

Hess: Do you know approximately how old you were: 9, 10, 11, 12? You don’t remember? 
KRYSZEK: No.

Hess: You were the middle child. So was Isrik already working? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, I was the fourth one, actually.

Hess: And the other children? Were they already working, your older brothers and sisters? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. My older brother worked with my uncle, the same thing with the knitting hosiery. 

Hess: And your sister? 
KRYSZEK: My sister was working also. Yes, I think she worked also in the same thing but in a different area. And my other sister, … I don’t remember what she was doing. 

Hess: How were you treated there? Were they good to you? 
KRYSZEK: If you did your work, yes, it was fine. 

Hess: Do you remember your uncle? What was he like? 
KRYSZEK: He was a redhead. 

Hess: You had some redheaded sisters, didn’t you? 
KRYSZEK: No, my mother was redheaded also. They were not redheaded. One of them had very, very beautiful hair. Brown like chestnut. 

Hess: Which sister was that? 
KRYSZEK: This was Tamarah. 

Hess: How long did you work there? Do you remember? 
KRYSZEK: I worked there until the war. 

Hess: Do you remember about how old you were when the war broke out? 
KRYSZEK: Well, I don’t know how old. I really don’t know. I don’t remember. 

Hess: Did people keep birth certificates then? Were there birth certificates? 
KRYSZEK: I know that I was trying to get a birth certificate and never could. 

Hess: In Poland? Why was that? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know. At the time I didn’t. 

Hess: What happened, do you remember, in 1938, when they had the boycott against the Jews before the Nazis came in, and you couldn’t purchase anything from a Jewish business person? It was a boycott. Remember the boycott in 1938 in Poland? 
KRYSZEK: That you couldn’t buy from a Jew.

Hess: You couldn’t buy from a Jew. 
KRYSZEK: Well, there were all kinds of boycotts around. It was not the only one. There were all kinds, and I don’t remember that particular one. 

Hess: How was antisemitism manifest before the war? 
KRYSZEK: It was terrible. Very bad. I don’t know…. It was bad. 

Hess: What about when you were going to school? 
KRYSZEK: It was particularly [?]; when you were, they knew, and there were bad people.

Hess: What kind of a kid were you? Were you a . . . [gestures]. 
KRYSZEK: With peyos? Yes. And then after I went to Lodz, I did not do any more. I did not wear it.

Hess: Why not? 
KRYSZEK: Because it was in a different environment. You went to work, and you went to work with all different kinds of people and did not wear it. You couldn’t very well do it. 

Hess: Okay, so it’s just before the war, and do you remember where you were during the German invasion of Poland? Remember that day? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. During the invasion of Poland, I was actually at work in a factory. Planes came and did bomb in Lodz. They did bomb certain areas, and the Poles said, “Well this is it. Those are our planes,” when the planes were flying. But when they started dropping bombs, then it was a little different. Very shortly after, all of a sudden, the Germans came in. So it didn’t take very long for them to occupy Poland. 

Hess: You were in Lodz. Did you try to go back to Podebbitz where your family was, or did you stay in Lodz? 
KRYSZEK: No, we all were in Lodz, and then we decided that my mother…. 

Hess: You mean the entire family? 
KRYSZEK: The entire family. My brother was at that time married, just got married a few months before. And then we all, the whole family, we were at home, and we decided that mother and the two little ones go back to Podebbitz, mainly because we had our uncles and family, my grandmother and grandfather from my mother’s side. They had farms and things like that, so they would at least have [food] to eat. It was a decision. They went back there, and we remained. Shortly after that, they put us into the ghetto. 

Hess: Which ghetto did they put you in? 
KRYSZEK: Lodz. 

Hess: Lipfenstauch ghetto? 
KRYSZEK: Lipfenstauch, which is in Lodz, yes. 

Hess: The two people who went back to Podebbitz, your mother and the two little ones, Roselle and Hayim-Yoel, what happened to them? 
KRYSZEK: To them? After a while, they came and put them all in vans which they were….

Hess: You were talking about the vans. 
KRYSZEK: They put them in vans, and what they did, they put up a special exhaust, hermetically closed supposedly. They put the exhaust, and they took them to a destination. The destination was Chelmno, and by the time they got there, they all supposedly, they [were] supposed to be killed. 

Hess: As far as you know is that what happened to my grandparents too? 
KRYSZEK: No. To my grandparents, I am not sure what happened to them. 

Hess: I was thinking of my father’s family. Is that what happened to them? 
KRYSZEK: Your father’s family; I am not sure what happened to them. 

Hess: I think it was the same story. I was just curious. The vans, how did you find out about this? How did you know this happened? 
KRYSZEK: Well, I found out only from people afterwards, who were saying they were from….
 
Hess: Witnesses? 
KRYSZEK: Witnesses, yes. And actually it is still there when you go back. There is a monument now for people who have seen it.

Hess: What happened to you and the rest of the family? 
KRYSZEK: In 1940 the rest of the family was basically my two sisters and myself, who were living together in the ghetto. 

Hess: Where was your father? 
KRYSZEK: My father died in 1937. 

Hess: What did he die of? 
KRYSZEK: As far as we can tell now it was polio. 

Hess: Really? What were his symptoms? 
KRYSZEK: He couldn’t walk very well. And then all of a sudden he couldn’t walk at all. He went to the hospital, and then….

Hess: This made the maintenance of your family fully on the shoulders of the older children, right? 
KRYSZEK: Right. And at that time, I started working. At that time, I already was working, and my sister with my older brother were working. So we had it pretty good. I did pretty well for a young kid; I did very well. 

Hess: I bet you did. So then they put you in, how do you pronounce it? I always forget –Lipfenstauch?
KRYSZEK: Ghetto. Lodz. Lodz actually.

Hess: The ghetto in Lodz was… 
KRYSZEK: Yes, the ghetto in Lodz. It was a ghetto in Lodz, which the German’s named that city Lipfenstauch. 

Hess: How did people go to this place? Were they rounded up? Were they physically given an order? 
KRYSZEK: There was an order that they have to move over there. 

Hess: Or else? 
KRYSZEK: There was no “or else.” 

Hess: So you got there.
KRYSZEK: And that’s when everything was still open. You could move around still in the city. But then it came a time when they closed it off, and you couldn’t go out any more. 

Hess: Do you remember what year that was? 
KRYSZEK: It must have been still in 1939 or beginning 1940, or in 1940 sometime. 

Hess: In the ghetto, who were remaining then, your brother and sister? 
KRYSZEK: No. My brother at that time was already married. I was with my two sisters. At that time they said that any man who would go to work, they called it “voluntarily” go to work, then the rest of the family will have food. And at that time I said, “Well yes, I will go to work,” so my sisters would have food and so forth. 

Hess: And your sisters stayed in the ghetto? 
KRYSZEK: In 1940, yes. 

Hess: Where did you go and how did you go? By what method did you go? 
KRYSZEK: By train. 

Hess: Was this a transport to a concentration camp? 
KRYSZEK: It was a transport; well at that time it was a type of concentration camp. It was a concentration camp. We went to work at the Autobahn. 

Hess: Where was this? 
KRYSZEK: This was in Germany. It was called Bailetz. That I do remember.

Hess: And Bailetz was a concentration camp, wasn’t it? 
KRYSZEK: It was a working camp. All concentration camps were working camps. 

Hess: What I meant to say, was it also a death camp? 
KRYSZEK: No. At that time this was not that; we [understood] that it was not a death camp like Auschwitz or Buchenwald or Maydanek. 

Hess: How long were you there and what did you do? 
KRYSZEK: Well, over there was working on the Autobahn, building the Autobahn, and a few other places. From there we moved from one to the other. And then also we were building ammunition factories in different places. I don’t remember all the names. 

Hess: When you were in this camp? 
KRYSZEK: In those camps and in different camps. We moved. They moved us to different camps.

Hess: When they moved you, were you some sort of entity, were you part of a group, or was it random? 
KRYSZEK: Group. Well, I went [with] a group mostly. Most of the time they took a group of certain people they put together and moved them around. 

Hess: Who were these people? 
KRYSZEK: The people, it depends what they are doing. I don’t know how they did that, but that’s the way it worked. And also you know, when a certain portion of the Autobahn was done, then you moved ahead. 

Hess: What were conditions like there? 
KRYSZEK: The conditions most of the time there were not so good. The conditions were a little bit better than they were later on in the other camps. 

Hess: I forgot to ask you something. I have to go back. Can you just tell me a little bit about the ghetto? Can you describe the conditions in the ghetto? 
KRYSZEK: Well, the ghetto there was basically…. I was [a] very short [time], actually, in the ghetto. They closed the ghetto, it must have been, in late 1939 or 1940, early ‘40s sometime.

Hess: 1942?
KRYSZEK: No.

Hess: 1941? 
KRYSZEK: No, 1940. 

Hess: They closed the Lodz ghetto in 1940? 
KRYSZEK: It had to be sometime in ‘40, yes, because I left for camp in 1940. Well, they have all kinds of ordinances that came up. And later on, I’m not sure what happened because I left just in 1940, so I don’t know how life was there exactly because I wasn’t there. 

Hess: They closed the ghetto in 1942 because that’s when Guetchin, you know the sisters, went. But anyway it doesn’t matter. That’s what she said. I’ll look it up. 
KRYSZEK: I don’t think so. They perhaps came in 1940. 

Hess: They left the ghetto in 1942. They left in 1942, and they said they were one of the last transports. But anyway, I’ll look it up. So, you were there just a short time. So that means from 1940 until the liberation in 1945 you were in concentration camps? 
KRYSZEK: Different camps. Yes. 

Hess: That’s a remarkably long time to survive in concentration camps wasn’t it? 
KRYSZEK: It certainly was. But that’s nothing which somebody could figure out how to do. It’s just [what] happened. 

Hess: After that, when you were working on the Autobahn, essentially what were the conditions? What were the food rations? They were a little bit more….
KRYSZEK: Than later on in camp. 

Hess: More than thin soup and bread? 
KRYSZEK: No. Not more. In other words, you got a little more bread. To start with there were pretty good soups. But when I say pretty good, it was you had some potatoes in it. Then later on, actually even in those camps, you had only kohlrabi; they were like rutabagas. That was what the soup consisted of only, and not very much of it either. 

Hess: At that point were you wearing a uniform, the uniform of the camps?
KRYSZEK: No. At that point I did not wear the uniform. We had to have our star, but I don’t remember what we wore. There were not uniforms when we came to the Autobahn. 

Hess: Do you remember when you were first made to wear that star? 
KRYSZEK: That was still in Lodz. 

Hess: What was your reaction? Do you remember?
KRYSZEK: I can’t describe my reaction. I was so young I didn’t know what it meant really. 

Hess: After that you were there for how many months, did you say? Did you already tell me how long you were in the first camp, Bailetz? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know. I don’t remember the times, how long or [how many] months. 

Hess: After that where did you go? Do you remember where you went?
KRYSZEK: To different places, and I don’t remember all the names. I don’t remember in what order either. But…from Bailetz, we went to Zelechow and Brates.

Hess: Work camps? 
KRYSZEK: Work camps. Then in 1942 or 1943, I came to Buchenwald. Buchenwald was not far from Auschwitz. That was where [they] really did [have a] death camp; …there were the real death camps. When we came over there we [were] supposed, actually, to go to the gas chamber. But somehow some military people came, very big shots, and they took our whole transport, to make it short, …they took us into Auschwitz. 

Hess: Don’t make it short. 
KRYSZEK: No, I say, that is what actually happened. We were ready to go into the chamber, the gas chamber where we were standing there…. Well, later on we found out; I didn’t know before what actually it meant. Nevertheless, they came and they gave an order for us to go to Auschwitz, [so] we came into Auschwitz. From Auschwitz, we worked for a while there, … we went into Buna. 

Hess: You were standing there at the gas chamber, and all of a sudden…. In other words, you were nude. 
KRYSZEK: No. No. We were not nude at that point. We weren’t nude. We were still in clothing.

Hess: What prevented this horrible thing to happen? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know. Because I assume they did need some people to work. In fact, we came in from Auschwitz, and by Auschwitz is Buna. It is not far from Auschwitz. That is where we came in also to build a plant, which would make fuel from coal. Our transport had a record of building those factories and those ammunition factories, and building the Autobahn, and there were quite a few people who were qualified in different things like running certain equipment and skilled in certain areas. They were skilled in our transport, so that’s why I think they took us. 

Hess: How long were you in Birkenau? 
KRYSZEK: In Birkenau we were only literally, I don’t know, maybe 10 hours. Not even maybe that much. 

Hess: But you had already gone through a selection? 
KRYSZEK: There was no selection. We supposedly [were] all supposed to go into the chamber. There was no selection that they picked out at that time. 

Hess: Then you were sent from Birkenau to where? 
KRYSZEK: Auschwitz. 

Hess: Oh, to the other side of the camp? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, it is not very far. They are two different camps. They are not attached, very close, a few kilometers. 

Hess: So you went there and what happened when you got to that camp? What did they do to you? 
KRYSZEK: In that camp is where we went and were shaved, you know, and [they] took all the clothes away, and we got the concentration camp clothing. 

Hess: Is that when you knew it was a death camp? 
KRYSZEK: Well, no. We knew something. We didn’t know exactly what, but we knew at the time…we still were in the other camps that something is going on, but we didn’t know for sure what. 

Hess: So, you must have been about 17 or 18 by this time. Would that be correct? 
KRYSZEK: Maybe so. Probably 16, 17, 18. 

Hess: Between 16 and 18. 
KRYSZEK: Something like that. 

Hess: And then you were in Auschwitz how long? You were given a uniform. You were given a pair of wooden shoes, I understand, that don’t fit I have been told. Is that correct?
KRYSZEK: I had…I’m trying to remember what kind of shoes.

Hess: That’s all right. You were also given a tin spoon and a plate, which is a very important element, isn’t it, in camp life? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. 

Hess: That you have to keep on you always? 
KRYSZEK: All the time. 

Hess: Don’t people try to steal this? 
KRYSZEK: Well…

Hess: If you lose it you don’t eat, right? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know. I haven’t lost it, and I don’t know. 

Hess: Just wondering about that. What did you do in Auschwitz? What kind of work? 
KRYSZEK: In Auschwitz for a while just inside work, cleaning up and things like that. From there we went into Buna, also not far away from Auschwitz. 

Hess: Buna is a work camp? 
KRYSZEK: It is also a concentration camp. 

Hess: But it doesn’t have the mechanism for death? 
KRYSZEK: They did not have there the mechanism of death. From there they did send them to different places; …there were the selections where…every so often they looked you over.

Hess: In Auschwitz can you describe anything about camp life? Can you describe on Saturday? You work how many hours a day? Then what happens? Is there any time off? Is there any relief? Are people allowed outside the barracks to mingle? 
KRYSZEK: Well, when you were in you had to be also careful. But when you were in [the] barrack[s], when you say mingle, you were out to work, and then you were tired and you tried. I personally did some work after coming back. I worked in the krankenhaus; it’s within the camp, a kind of hospital, you know.

Hess: Why did you do that? 
KRYSZEK: Why I did that is that I would get some extra food. A little extra food and things like that. 

Hess: Was that voluntary? 
KRYSZEK: It’s voluntary, but they asked; more or less it’s voluntary. 

Hess: Not everybody could do it. I’m sure that most people didn’t have the energy. 
KRYSZEK: Well, that is true, but also it is a privilege that you could do it, that they took you. 

Hess: Did you have anybody in your barracks that you thought of as a friend, that you had a relationship with?
KRYSZEK: Yes, three…of us…became very, very close. Of course, when you go away back in camp, …I had a very dear friend, and we were very, very close. 

Hess: His name? 
KRYSZEK: His name was Redlich, Jakob. 

Hess: Did he make it through the war? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, he made it through the war. 

Hess: And who else? 
KRYSZEK: There were others who made it through the war, but with him I was very, very close. But then…we separated; we separated during the course of the camps. Then we were three other people, which we were very close. In fact, every time when we acquired some extra food other than our ration, we split it in three. 

Hess: That’s wonderful. Is that unusual? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know if it was very unusual, actually. Because I know we did it. Maybe other people did it when it was a family, close brothers, or father, and so on. We did that.

Hess: Buna… 
KRYSZEK: Buna, yes. I don’t remember when they evacuated Buna. That must have been early 1945 or end of 1944, and we had to walk a long ways. 

Hess: Excuse me, you are talking about the end of the war?
KRYSZEK: Well, I was in Buna towards that time.

Hess: You were in Buchenwald 
KRYSZEK: I have not said anything about Buchenwald yet. Did you write down Buchenwald? Because we [were] not there yet. We had stops; people were, in the meanwhile, traveling. It was snowy and people got shot. 

Hess: You were explaining to me what Buna was. 
KRYSZEK: By going through from Birkenau; I probably told you from Birkenau we went into Auschwitz, and from Auschwitz we went. We were not in Auschwitz too long a time; I would say maybe six or eight months. 

Hess: In Auschwitz? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, in Auschwitz. I don’t remember exactly the time. 

Hess: Do you remember the year you were in Auschwitz? I know you didn’t have a calendar but do you remember the year? 
KRYSZEK: It would have to be either 1942 or 1943. 

Hess: What did you do when you were in Auschwitz? 
KRYSZEK: In Auschwitz we just went out to different works. Not much, inside and outside, nothing in particular. 

Hess: Do you remember some of the specific jobs you had? 
KRYSZEK: Oh, some of the jobs we did: we went out and carried telephone poles and [were] digging up certain areas. All kinds of stuff, nothing in particular. When we got into Buna, we did for a certain period of time particular things. I worked in a painting commando. The painting was actually different types of painting…. Buna was basically a place for a factory to make fuel from coal for the airplanes. That was what they were building, the factory. They were constantly building, [with] very heavy wiring. And the power went through aluminum, thick aluminum plate, like maybe three to four inches wide, maybe half an inch thick. And those needed to be for coding; in other words, which wire is what. We used to paint those. And then also, I was working outside a lot on one of them. I was carrying those telephone poles with six people or eight people; it depends what we were carrying. It was a very hard. One particular instance I remember very clearly. We were carrying those poles, and it was very, very hot. We didn’t have [anything] to drink. Very hot. They did bring a kettle of coffee, so to speak. It was this ersatz–ersatz, meaning imitation coffee, and everybody was running towards it to get it. That one is SS because we were outside and guards were sitting around…every 200 yards or 200 feet, the kapo, the kapo being also one of the prisoners. 

Hess: Jewish? 
KRYSZEK: No, he was not Jewish. He was trying to keep everything in order and so forth. But didn’t succeed very much in any case. That SS guy he called me over like this. And this guy was known to actually come back with less people than he went out with from the camp to work. Usually he was sending. He said to run into the field, and then he shot them; he shot people. He called me over from the bench. When he called me over, …he asked me to run, and I already before my eyes I saw what’s going to happen. When I got over, he said to me in German, “Vas is the kapozer?” In other words, “What is the kapo? What is he to you?” I said, “He is my superior.” “And, who am I to your kapo?” I said, “You are his superior.” So he started saying, “You know when you are not obeying him then you are not obeying me.” I said to him, “What do you want me to do? Shall I go and embitter him for erbetten verzeihung, shall I go and ask for forgiveness?” All of a sudden he said, (he had already started to turn his head, it seemed to me at least) he said, “But, quick schnell -­ go –go!” And when I went over to the kapo and I said, “I just told [you] to hit me.” Well, he did kind of hit me, not very hard. But he did hit me, and he said, “You know what you could have been?” Anyway, we went back to work. This was one instance. 

Hess: In other words you didn’t do anything? He had just singled you out? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, but that was nothing, when I did the same thing as anybody else did. I went to grab out some coffee to drink. It was hot and you wanted to drink, and that is what they had. So this is one instance, which was very hard. 

Hess: Where you could have died? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, I could have. So I guess that to say something pushed you perhaps to say the right thing at the right time, but it is nothing. You don’t know if it was right or wrong. Just the same as I could ask him, “What shall I do? Shall I go and ask for forgiveness?” I could have said, “What do you want me to do?” And he could have just as well said, “I want you to run out to the field.” And it would be all over. Maybe because I just added on that particular word…to go to the kapo and ask for his forgiveness, you know, I did it. I guess that is the thing that did it. 

Hess: Can you describe Auschwitz? What was the camp like? How was it organized? 
KRYSZEK: Well, I don’t know. It was organized, very well organized. And as far as they were concerned, you were in blocks and you had certain times you had to get up and…go to work or do something. 

Hess: Did you work every single day of the week? 
KRYSZEK: Pretty much. I’m just trying to remember. I don’t know. You know, I don’t even remember, because it was quite close to Auschwitz. Actually we marched from Buna to Auschwitz. 

Hess: And then you came back to Auschwitz to sleep? 
KRYSZEK: No, no, no. Buna had its own camp. Buna was, Buna Werke. And the camps were . . . what article did you see that? They kept it; they really went according to their plan. 

Hess: Well, were you in Buna until the end of the war? No, … after Buna you were sent to Buchenwald.
KRYSZEK: No, after Buna I did not come right away to Buchenwald. 

Hess: There was an incident you told me once, at Buna, about working and being chained to a machine during the bombings. Do you remember telling us that? There was some sort of bombing? 
KRYSZEK: In Buna? Yes. After a while of being in Buna…the sirens always went off. This alert [was] a bombing alert…that planes, search planes [were] coming. And what I used to do, as I told you, [was work] in those buildings, painting those electrical things or inside, whatever was necessary. Then when those sirens went off [for] this alert, they actually camouflaged the whole [plant] with artificial fog. 

Hess: How did they do that? 
KRYSZEK: I think they ignited something. In that it was, you just couldn’t see anything. And what I used to do, not only me, but quite a few people, [was] we went up on the roof to lay down to rest, you know, and watch. And sometimes you could see. Most of the time you couldn’t even see the planes because maybe they didn’t even come that far. Sometimes you did see them. But you didn’t think of it anything. You where supposed to go…they had shelters. You where supposed to run to the shelters, but to make it just simple, in so many words, this one particular time for some reason or another, we did run out. When I say “we,” some of the people, which were also usually going up to the roof. We ran out to the field and just lay down and watch, you know. We could see the planes, the shimmering in the silver from the sun reflection. Sure enough that building was bombed at that time. It was just a half torn apart. Again, you know, something made you push not to go up there, but rather to go out to the field. Those circumstances to remain alive, you know, that you were alive, [were] really absolutely circumstantial. We could not figure out; it was not a matter of figuring out how to do it to stay alive. It was fate. 

Hess: Some people, also the story goes, as people have told me, some people gave up. Of course, because it was hell. The situation was hell. 
KRYSZEK: Lots of them gave up, uh-huh. 

Hess: So there was this element inside of you, you wanted to survive didn’t you? 
KRYSZEK: Well, yes. Absolutely I wanted to survive. But it wasn’t a plan. It was not something you did, something spontaneous you did, [not thinking] of the consequences or whatever. Like we forgot you could yourself be shot. We went in the wintertime to open up…they preserved from the harvest of potatoes or rutabagas, …in particular lots of rutabagas. You know they put them somewhat in the ground, up to a certain point, and then they covered it up with sawdust and all kinds of stuff to preserve it through the winter so it doesn’t freeze. What we did, myself and also some friends, we went and opened that up to steal some to have, …my gosh, I mean, you know I didn’t get caught. If I would get caught, who knows what it would have been. So, it was something spontaneous without any thinking of the consequences. That was what you had to do. That’s what you did, regardless. 

Hess: Buna was run by I. G. Farben, was that right? German Industrial–was it E. J. or I. J? 
KRYSZEK: No 

Hess: I think it is E. G. Farben.
KRYSZEK: Yes, E we said it. 

Hess: So, were you actually physically chained on a chain in Buna? Chained to a machine?
KRYSZEK: No. 

Hess: What happened after Buna? What happened after you left there? 
KRYSZEK: Well, actually that was quite an ordeal itself; you want to know to?

Hess: Unless there is something else you want to tell me. 
KRYSZEK: No, I mean, other than from Buna, just to tell you that also you went to work. Yes, there is one thing in particular. While I was in Buna and working outside in the painting, I… brought in, stealing under the coat, particularly at the time when we wore those coats (it was cold, and we had an extra coat instead of the pants and jacket), I used to bring home some paint. Home, I mean into the camp. And with this I did some extra work while being there in the krankenhaus. Krankenhaus means hospital, kind of the hospital. The head doctor over there, who did run that hospital, was also one of the prisoners, one of the you call them haftlinger, you know one of those prisoners. So I knew him pretty well. Now, one day, and that was, I think, about 1943, there was a selection. A selection was that usually the head doctor, maybe a couple of other doctors, but mainly the head doctor from this krankenhaus, we called it. An anesthetist doctor…or medical, or whatever; this was a doctor, I am sure. They took the people who would walk by, and they, whoever they didn’t like, if you didn’t look good enough physically or what, then they would send you one side or the other side. Now, what I did, I went to my side, and then [the man] next to me, he worked with me also. It was a Greek fellow, and I remember his name; Isy Olaloof was his name. I don’t remember many names but this was an instance, which I remembered very well. In fact, the doctor’s name was Beyjik; he was a Polish doctor. I switched because we were in bunks. I slept here, and he slept here. Now, when his row… I was already back, when his row… I moved him over here, and I went for him because he was so small, so thin. I don’t know why or what; it was afterwards I realized how crazy that was what I did, without any thinking. 

Hess: You tried to protect him. 
KRYSZEK: Yes, and I went through and everything was fine, …but the bottom line is like this. Afterwards I was walking through in the camp, and that doctor Beyjik…called me over, and he knew immediately. He recognized me while I was going through the second time…I can almost feel it. He took my ear…and he said, “Next time, if you are going to do something like that you are going to go to the chimney.” That is exactly the words. He remained alive too, it seems to me. 

Hess: The doctor? 
KRYSZEK: The friend, I don’t know what happened, what happened to him. Because that little Greek fellow, even with all the things, he was such a happy fellow. While he was working he was singing, you know, to make it…. I don’t know if he made it or not, because it must have been in January or February of 1945. I don’t remember exactly when we had to leave Buna. We had to march, and it was cold and snow, and lots of them, while we were walking it, we were walking towards a, I’m not sure towards what, but we wound up for a while in like a brick factory. 

Hess: You had a brick factory? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, we were there and from there.

Hess: Before you tell me, was this during the liberation?
KRYSZEK: Oh no, no, no, oh no. That was before Birkenau. 

Hess: You were talking about a selection. How often did you survive selections? 
KRYSZEK: Selections? Well, I don’t remember, several times. It was in Auschwitz; also we had some selections [during] the few months I was in Auschwitz; then in Buna every so often. 

Hess: Did you know when a selection? You knew it was a selection when it was happening? It was obvious? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, while we were there. They just came into the blocks, and sometimes they did it also outside.
 
Hess: What was it?
KRYSZEK: Some of the selections were pretty much they took the whole camp. Sometimes they had excuses to take every l0th one out or every 20th one out, to go. You never knew what they did. 

Hess: When you are saying you went through, what does that mean? Does that mean that someone passed you, or you had to walk through something? You said a little while ago, you used the term, “I walked through” or “I made it through.” 
KRYSZEK: Through –you mean selection? Well, you went through selection. Basically, most selections, which I encountered there, you went through nude, and there was this, as I said, this krankenhausters, which was the doctors; …and…in Buna… there was usually some SS people there. You just went through, and they told you to go this way or go that way. 

Hess: Did you ever see any of the famous monsters from, like Mengele or Hess? 
KRYSZEK: I would say so even though I may not have, I have seen those people because they used to come quite often, reviewing, and all kinds of big shots. I don’t know if I would recognize them now. It has been a long time. I do remember one instance…back before Auschwitz. I think it was the first camp we came in to build the Autobahn. We were all standing outside, and he was explaining to us that we came here to build the Autobahn. 

Hess: Who was he? 
KRYSZEK: The one, one of the big shots with the big fur collar, and he said, “You will be fed and get housing, and you are going to build the Autobahn from here to Berlin. As long as you are going to work, you are going to get fed. Otherwise, we have no use for you. Then you are through. We don’t have no use for you.” 

Hess: In what I have read about these camps, many of them, particularly the big well-known camps like Auschwitz and maybe Birkenau, there were great divisions in the nationalities. In other words, you know when I talk to my mother or I talk to people who survived the camps, they talk about how the Poles were treated or what the Hungarians were like. What it was like when the Hungarians came in? Because the Hungarians came in very late, and they were allies with the Germans, and they had a certain attitude about the Poles, and that there were these, sort of, in a sense, these national divisions and a certain kind of feeling among the Gypsies and the way the Gypsies were singled out for annihilation. Did you notice any of these distinctions when you were in camps? 
KRYSZEK: Oh sure. The Gypsies were very much, also. In fact, when I was laying…when I was shot, I don’t know if we got that far or not. 

Hess: Maybe we could just talk about the march and then we will get to the story. 
KRYSZEK: Okay. Then we came in, as I was saying from that brick factory; we went further, and we came in, I believe it was Gleiwitz, and it was where everybody…. 

Hess: Is that in Germany? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. And everybody tried to get in someplace to lay down. [There were] broken windows, and finally, at that time, from that point they put us on, that was the place where they put us on trains. Open wagon trains. You know, cattle wagons, open. We were traveling, I would say for a week or more, and we were traveling in the open wagons in snow and very severe winter weather. Every so often they did bring us some bread and some water, but most of the time we took the snow where it was likely to be on the side, and people actually died right there. We were packed…. Some of them just couldn’t make it.

We…also dug to get snow and to use it for water and so forth. I remember that we happened to be in Czechoslovakia, and the train was stopped, and we were under an overpass, right under an overpass where people in Czechoslovakia were going to work. Lots of people came and actually threw down their sandwiches and some food, which we were very lucky. The people and I, myself, were lucky to catch some. But, to make it short, from there we finally wound up in Buchenwald. That is, as I recall, that was the first. Because actually, it started already that they didn’t know exactly where to put us [or] what to do with us, I suppose. But that is the time when I wound up in Buchenwald. 

Hess: Were you shot on the way? 
KRYSZEK: No. Not in Buchenwald. I was at Buchenwald for a short time, not very long. The conditions were there absolutely terrible. So dirty, so unsanitary. Oh, it was awful.

Hess: Typhus? 
KRYSZEK: All kinds of sickness, and it was really bad. In Buchenwald I did not go to work other than, you know, you went out to clean. You wanted to do something. This gave you a chance; you got a little bit extra. 

Hess: Was it food? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, a little bit extra. Whatever it was. It was very bad. 

Hess: You don’t even want to describe it, do you? 
KRYSZEK: No. It just is bad. It was so bad. They took us and put us on another train from Buchenwald. Some were supposedly to go to Halberstadt, whatever that is. I never got there. 

Hess: While there were many people in Buchenwald, somehow they transported you and some others. On what basis? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know. 

Hess: Other people were just left there? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, lots of people were still there. Yes. I would guess that the people who were there in Buchenwald, the ones which they did not send out maybe, I don’t know if they sent them out later on also, but…the ones who were left…were not any more capable of performing any kind of duties or any kind of work. 

Hess: Too sick? 
KRYSZEK: Maybe too sick or from Dabrowa Gornicza. I’m not sure. Or they didn’t send them also away someplace. I am not sure even that they sent us away because of maybe the allies moved into that territory. I really don’t know. But from there they sent us to Halberstadt. 

Hess: What is Halberstadt? 
KRYSZEK: What it is? It was also a camp, supposedly.

Hess: A work camp? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, I suppose. When I say a work camp, …even the concentration camps, not all of them, but quite a few of the concentration camps were working camps. 

Hess: Why do you say no, but some were death camps like Buchenwald. 
KRYSZEK: Strictly death camps. But it seems to me, even in the death camps, that they still took, in the meantime, certain people to work. They took certain people, they needed some jobs to be done; they took them, and…it was the same thing, or it was Auschwitz or Buchenwald. From Buna, I know for a fact, because I was working in the krankenhaus, the hospitals so to speak, the camp hospital, I know they were bringing in.  In fact, there was one doctor from Krakow, who…has performed, and I have seen it myself, he has performed electrical shocks for certain people. Particularly, they brought in some woman. I don’t know exactly what they did before or after with them….

Hess: These are experiments? 
KRYSZEK: I would imagine. You know they put on… a whole apparatus with knobs and all kinds of stuff, and they put [it] on here, and they did put something in their mouth, …and you could see them like they shook and then they were kind of out. Then they took them away, but I don’t know what they did. 

Hess: How is it that you saw this? 
KRYSZEK: That I saw? Because I was working there, I was doing painting and cleaning. Because sometimes, let’s say, instead, when there was something they needed to do, something the head of the hospital would request from our arbeitsson, which would be some SS, to leave some people in, and he would request…me and a few other people to leave it in there. Speaking of the arbeitsson, it reminds me also that when I was out actually doing the painting, and we were that kapo from the painting commando, myself and two other people, he just didn’t like it because we did a little bit. We would bring out some stuff and try to do with the civilians something to get, …and he did a lot of that. So, what he did, he went to this arbeitsson, to this one SS, and he dug up another to give…some bad report on us, and he called us in, and, well, to make it short, it was a broom stick. You know a broom, a push broom. The two of them, he hit him so hard, actually the stick was broke. When I was the last, and it was already short, he grabbed at the short end and hit me with the heavy end. Even today sometimes, it feels like it doesn’t, but it is just when you remember. It was awful. I wouldn’t dare not go to work, [or] say that I am sick, because of that. But that is what this kapo…. But to go any further, that same kapo, when Sala and I got married in ’46, in Hanover, we wanted, we did go to Garmish Beiden Campen…from Germany. And at that time it was very hard to get on the trains. They were always full. So at that time, after the war, you felt like everything always, and you pushed yourself, and you didn’t care for anything. So I said to Sala, “You stay right here, and I will go in and find for ourselves a spot.” While I went in to try…to find a spot, I walked through, and I saw this same kapo who did this thing. I saw him [sitting] there. And I did not stop, and I did not say anything, …because I wanted to get Sala up there, because the train might leave away. Finally I called her up, and I found, I pushed a couple of Germans…away, and I said, “Don’t you take this. This is for me, my wife,” you know, and so forth. So I brought her, and we did sit down, and the train started. I said, “I will be right back.” I was ready, literally, I mean literally, because [there] probably was nobody [I was] so mad at during that thing as I was at him. 

Hess: You went back to kill him, didn’t you? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. Absolutely. I went back to kill him. Well anyway, he was gone. He was gone and maybe thanks God he did go. 

Hess: Was he Jewish? 
KRYSZEK: No, he was not. 

Hess: What nationality was he? 
KRYSZEK: He was German. But he was in there for…it could have been for different reasons. He could have been in there for, who knows, for some criminal things; he could have been in there for political… reasons, I am not sure. They had different, even some Germans when they came in, they had different kinds of signs. Different colors of….

Hess: On their uniforms? 
KRYSZEK: They wore the same outfits as we did, but they had, you know, the Jews had a Star of David here. They had different…blue, green or something. 

Hess: Was Buchenwald in Czechoslovakia or in Germany? 
KRYSZEK: No Buchenwald would be, I think, in Germany. 

Hess: And Halberstadt, that must be in Germany? 
KRYSZEK: I have no idea where it is. I just remember it was talk that supposedly we [were] supposed to go to Halberstadt. 

Hess: So, you are on your way to Halberstadt and what happens? 
KRYSZEK: On the way I was shot. 

Hess: How did this happen? 
KRYSZEK: How this happened is that some planes were flying very low, and I assume it was maybe reconnaissance planes, you know, and there certainly [were] allies. And the guards started shooting to those planes from their rifles, which they were guarding us. And they just turned around, and those were, actually, those cars were closed. They were closed; they were not the open ones.

Hess: In other words, in a train. You were physically in a train?
KRYSZEK: I was physically in the train. 

Hess: Were they allied forces? Either the Russian or Americans were flying? 
KRYSZEK: Or British or French. I don’t know who it was, but the bottom line is that they strafed it, they came down. Two planes and just phst-phst-phst, and then already people were falling with arms with big bullets. It was supposedly 50 mm. Later I found out what kind they were shooting. I got hit right through here; it went in because I was laying against the wall. No, just sitting up, something like this, against the wall. The bullet went in here. 

Hess: When you say, “in here,” you mean your left thigh? 
KRYSZEK: Left thigh. Through the bone, shot at the bone. In fact, I was after the war, quite a while, …on crutches. The whole bone shattered; I had, for quite a while, osteomyelitis.

Hess: What is that? 
KRYSZEK: Osteomyelitis is shattered, I guess, … shattered bone goes into the flesh, and then it…. Well, here is another example, when you are supposed to be alive; …what I think the big part of it, why I remained, the leg, the leg remained, and I still stayed alive. One part of it is because we were three good friends, which we kept always, whatever we had. If we had additional other than our regular ration, we always shared. 

Hess: So you were with Jakob Redlich? 
KRYSZEK: That was not him in this situation. He was not there; we separated. In Buna we were together. We were together from…. With Jakob Redlich, I was in camp from the beginning, from 1940, through Buna. 

Hess: He lived through the war? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. 

Hess: Who were these people then.
KRYSZEK: One was from Lodz. 

Hess: What was his name? 
KRYSZEK: Fischel. In fact, when I came to Lodz after the war on the crutches to see if I had some survivors from my immediate family, my sister, brothers, mother, …I was in the Yiddish Gemeinde, which was the Jewish Gemeinde, what do you call it? 

Hess: The Jewish Federation or Jewish community? 
KRYSZEK: Community. The Jewish community sent us, so to speak. I was looking on the crutches on the list to see if I can find somebody. Somebody, that was this Fischel, grabbed me with the hands from the back, and he said the words, which supposedly I have told him. I remembered them, which I told him I say: “Fischel, Fischel wat bothers ich will asoy micht leben.” I said, “I won’t live anyway, don’t bother.” 

Hess: He repeated those words? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, he repeated those words with me while holding me like that, and of course, I recognized that was him. So him I saw shortly right over there, and then he somehow … I’m not sure he went to England, because I thought he had some family in England or whatever. Fischel Ruchstein? 

Hess: And who else? 
KRYSZEK: And then…either in Vienna or Germany another, and his name was also Isy, but I don’t remember the last name. 

Hess: Was he a Greek? 
KRYSZEK: No. This was a German; he was a Jewish fellow, German or Austria. 

Hess: What was it that drew you three together? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know. I don’t know. Somehow, actually, you know like this Fischel, I didn’t even know him before the war. And I certainly didn’t know the other guy before. Somehow we kept very well together. We had this thing, I don’t know. I really don’t know. In fact, that Fischel, he was quite a bit older than I was. He had some medic training, and what he did, he put splints on my leg. Because the women when I got shot, when the train got shot including me, women came with sheets and all kinds of stuff from the village running to bring some of those things. And he broke off some of those boards and he splinted up. I think this was one of the contributions which helped [me] to survive that, helped me to survive and to retain the leg. In fact, there was this Polish doctor, which when we came in to Dora, it was when we were shot instead of [going] into Halverstadt, they brought us into Dora. And Dora was very close, and it was a camp from which people were working at V-1s and V-2s. 

Hess: What are V-ls and V-2s? 
KRYSZEK: That was…the German rockets, which they were shooting over to England. But anyway, I have not worked on those because I was in actually laying in bed in tractions.

Hess: In the camp? 
KRYSZEK: In the camp. In that camp. 

Hess: Why was it they allowed that in that camp? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know. But I was there, and that doctor, one part of it was, which helped, was that he right away splinted up. Also while I was shot, I did put on… there was actually one guard. He had the whole heel here shot off. His heel was shot through, and he says to me, “You see what they do to us?” Anyway I took off the belt, and I…tied it on. 

Hess: A German guard said that to you? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, yes. 

Hess: What an ironic statement. 
KRYSZEK: Yes. You know it was really Anyway, this Polish doctor, he was absolutely so devoted to the people to get them well. 

Hess: He was a hafpling? 
KRYSZEK: He was also a hafpling, yes. But he was a doctor, and he had the help. He was the head himself, and he was working so much on me. In fact, once the doctor came, and he was looking, and they were already decided to amputate, to take the leg off, …he talked them out. He talked this, the Polish doctor, talked them out of doing…it. Because you see it started; I had tubes all the way up to here, the tubes for drainage and all of that. 

Hess: What was it about Dora that allowed the sophisticated, I mean relatively sophisticated for a concentration camp, isn’t it? This sort of medical treatment? Dora is unusual to allow these sort of medical treatments to even take place. 
KRYSZEK: When you say medical treatments, …the treatments [were] very primitive things. Like they have drilled here, they have drilled through my knee right here. You can see it still. 

Hess: Yes, I can. 
KRYSZEK: You can see it was drilled through without; they drilled through and put in a wire through it with like a horseshoe on it for traction. And then this was with no…they didn’t give any anesthetic. 

Hess: How did you stand that? 
KRYSZEK: Well, I don’t know. I couldn’t stand it today anymore; I know that. I don’t know how you did it. You did it. 

Hess: All these medical treatments on your leg were without any pain killer or anesthetic at all? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. I do remember afterwards, I do remember getting gas. When they went in, some of them, lots of it, nothing. They went in with those long wires, and what they were trying to do was open up so the drainage goes, and [they] put in tubes with all kinds of stuff. But I do remember getting, you know, …and supposedly, I must have. The doctor asked me, after I got to it, he said, “Where is my castle?” I supposedly promised him a castle while [laughter] and so…. 

Hess: Was he Jewish? 
KRYSZEK: No. He was also not Jewish. But that man, I truly don’t understand how he could even do it. I mean literally 24 hours a day. I don’t know if that man slept two hours in 24 hours. Constantly, constantly, and to me [it] was about three times a day. He came personally to work on me. 

Hess: Did you ever see him after the war? 
KRYSZEK: When we were liberated I saw him. He actually had him a breakdown; afterwards he had a real breakdown. 

Hess: What happened then? Was Dora the place where you were liberated? 
KRYSZEK: Yes. In Dora I was liberated. Actually, the way we were liberated, in reality, we [were] supposed to get shot. I couldn’t. They evacuated everybody, but the people who were the sick in the beds [were] supposed to be shot in the beds. In fact, a few kilometers away from this camp, they were shot in their beds. 

Hess: What was the name of that camp? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t remember that name. 

Hess: How did you know that? 
KRYSZEK: Because afterwards, we did find out. This one, and this was an SS doctor, supposedly, which he talked out, some kind of lieutenant or whatever, who had ordered to shoot us in bed, and he talked him out of it. Yeah. 

Hess: Did you hear this? Did you actually hear this transpire? Did this conversation happen in front of you? 
KRYSZEK: No. It did not. 

Hess: But, it was the word of the camp? 
KRYSZEK: It was the word of the camp. In fact, afterwards, that doctor, because lots of other people knew about it and so forth, …they got him so that nothing happens to him, and he was actually helping out, I guess, in Bergen-Belsen or someplace…after the war, to work to help in the hospital. 

Hess: When you were in any of these camps were you ever aware of any kind of resistance? Jewish resistance or resistance of any kind? 
KRYSZEK: No. 

Hess: It was dangerous, wasn’t it? 
KRYSZEK: No. In fact, you know, we were being in Buna with a few of us, maybe three or four people, five I guess, we were always talking to try to escape and things like that. Finally, the decision was, I didn’t, but two or three of us didn’t, and I guess a Kapo of them did. I don’t know exactly what happened to them, but I know that they did catch and put…. And there were others who did escape, and they caught them, and they actually hung them right in front, right in Buna on the plots there, you know the big space. You had to march through and watch it. They were hanging there for a couple of days.

Hess: So then you were liberated by the Russians? 
KRYSZEK: No. By the Americans. 

Hess: You were lucky, huh? 
KRYSZEK: Well, we were liberated by the Americans.

Hess: What was that like, the liberation? 
KRYSZEK: [Laughter] I remember being in bed. I was with a Russian fellow, while we were lying in bed together, a young Russian fellow. But anyway, the Americans came in. He came in to that one, he must have been Jewish or something, I don’t know. 

Hess: Why do you say that? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t know why, because I couldn’t speak English, and he, well of course, they do understand some German, and he took out, that is the first time in my life I saw gum. [Laughter] I didn’t know what the heck! 

Hess: Just what you were yearning for? [Laughter]
KRYSZEK: Sure. [Laughter] And then he pulled out chocolate and some kind of little cakes or whatever it was. Everything he had in his pocket, he emptied it out, and then they start coming in. I guess the Red Cross came in, and they started cleaning up and started giving food, and you ate. Some of them got terribly, terribly sick because they overate, you know. They had those cans of ham and cans of all kinds of rich, very rich food, and people were; some of them…actually, literally died. They couldn’t save them anymore because of overeating of some of those things. 

Hess: So by that time you were too weak to move probably? With your leg and everything. 
KRYSZEK: Well, of course not. I didn’t move at all at that time, but I started getting the crutches and started a little bit. It didn’t take long. You could see yourself the flesh growing, you know, because it was just bone. All we saw was bone. After a while, the Russians came in there, and the Americans moved out. I moved out with them. Where did I move to first? 

Hess: Did you go back to Podebbitz or Lodz? 
KRYSZEK: Yes, I did. Sala, I met in Lodz on the crutches. 

Hess: You must have probably gone to see your family? That is where you ran into your friend you knew?
KRYSZEK: No, no, no. I did not from there; I did not go to Poland right away. I went in from there, I went in someplace, I forget, which came very shortly. 

Hess: You went someplace that enabled you to get involved in the Zionist movement. 
KRYSZEK: This was later on. 

Hess: When I ask you to describe a condition in camp and it is really terrible like Buchenwald, even though I have read about it, and you don’t want to talk about it, who are you protecting? Are you protecting my reaction, or are you protecting, and it is perfectly understandable, you and your memory? 
KRYSZEK: I don’t think I am trying actually to protect anything. It is just that, just to see piles of dead and with very…piles of human, it just makes you sick. It just is not pleasant, and that is the things you have seen, just throwing people on top of each other, and you just don’t want to. 

Hess: But when you were in Germany again and you were liberated, then you started to experience building your life again. You met Sala? 
KRYSZEK: When I met Sala that goes back to Poland. Not very long after I got liberated. I was not very long. I had I made a stop someplace, and from there I went back to Poland to see if I can find somebody.

Hess: And then your involvement was later on with a Zionist organization.
KRYSZEK: That was later on after. Actually after I was already married with Sala. 

Hess: Before we stop, what was the name of that organization, the Zionist organization that you were involved with? 
KRYSZEK: Irgun. 

Hess: Irgun? How was it spelled? 
KRYSZEK: Irgun Zvai Leumi. Irgun, actually, I don’t know exactly how to spell it.