Selected text
Towards the end, not long before the liberation, the Germans started to organize evacuation shipments, especially for the Jews, and they simply massacred them along the way. There weren’t too many survivors among those who left with these shipments, that’s for sure. So when the order was given to gather, say, 1,000 people, the committee scattered them in different shacks. They were sabotaging these measures, in other words.
But what personally got to me about these Communists was their rather idealistic belief that youth had to be spared for the future, that young men were what the future needed. And they took care of them indeed. There was a children’s shack at Buchenwald and they provided them with a special diet.
There were people who taught them, told them stories, tutored them and looked after them. Whenever an easier workplace would come up – as also in my case – they would choose young people for it, to save them.
But what personally got to me about these Communists was their rather idealistic belief that youth had to be spared for the future, that young men were what the future needed. And they took care of them indeed. There was a children’s shack at Buchenwald and they provided them with a special diet.
There were people who taught them, told them stories, tutored them and looked after them. Whenever an easier workplace would come up – as also in my case – they would choose young people for it, to save them.
Period
Location
Buchenwald
Germany
Interview
Miklos Kallos