Transcript

"Of course we soon realised that there was this big chimney, you know, out of which came a lot of smoke, and the sky was red, the sky was red all the time. And you know, when we asked what it is they told us, and we couldn't believe it. Well the Germans didn't tell us, but other prisoners told us you know. 'What's this, what's this smoke, what's this fire, you know, why is the sky so red?' What is this all about, you know, we couldn't understand. But then we were told, very soon we were told you know, and we saw these transports of people coming; they came past us because there was this Lagerstrasse, you know, this road that was going to the gas chamber, from the train, and they came past. All these transports came past us, you know, thousands and thousands of people. And they never appeared again, they just disappeared into this building, you know. Somehow you know, you just got used to it; you were there. It's more terrifying thinking back on it now, in a way, than then. Again, they said you know, they're giving us bromide in the soup to keep us calm. But things were so bad, and you lost everybody, that it was just another blow, you know, you just got sort of immune to these things."