Read Online DEKEL, LUCETTE MATALON LAGNADO SHEILA COHN by CHILDREN OF THE FLAMES - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: CHILDREN OF THE FLAMES
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from their parents, the twins were marched through the camp, where they witnessed scenes of unparalleled horror. Piles of corpses were everywhere. Lying next to them, and virtually indistinguishable, were men and women thin as skeletons. These were the
“Mussulmans”-the halfdead, with no strength or will to live, who were simply awaiting being carted to the gas chamber. A foul odor permeated the camp, which, combined with the heat, made it difficult to breathe. It was an absolute assault on the senses. Children clung to their twin, their last remaining links with the families they had lost.
The twins’ initiation into Auschwitz formally began when they, like all new inmates, were showered and branded. They cried out in pain as numbers were etched into their flesh with searing metal rods.
But unlike the other prisoners, who were given camp uniforms and whose heads were shaved, the twins were allowed to keep both their clothes and their long hair. These differences made them immediately recognizable as
“Mengele’s children.”
Despite these small privileges, the twins sank into despair within hours of arrival as they began to understand what had happened to their families. Once in their own compound, where at any given time there could be scores of twins, boys and girls separately lodged, they were briefed by the other children about the realities of life and death at AuschwitzBirkenau. Those newcomers who had not understood what they had seen were told about the gas chambers and crematoriums, and the probable fate of the family members they had left behind. In the case of male twins, whose wooden barracks stood only yards away from the crematorium, virtually facing it, Twins’ Father took it upon himself to break the news gently, and at times delayed it for days or weeks. The little girls, who had no such parental figure to ease the transition, were less fortunate. Even though many of the children chose not to accept, or were too young to fully comprehend, what they were told about their own parents, it was a devastating moment.
MOsHE OFFER: I felt so tired, that first day at Auschwitz. There was a terrible smell -it was impossible to escape the smell.
I was very worried about my mother, my father, and my four brothers. I talked with [my twin brother] Tibi about them.
But he was sure our mother was going to be safe.
HEDVAH AND LEAN STERN: We kept crying and looking for our mother. She had promised she would meet us at the gate.
We would search among the women for her dress. When we were separated, she’d been wearing a striking black dress with pink strawberries.
We couldn’t eat. We were constantly crying and looking toward the gate for our mother.
Finally, the head of our barracks said,
“Come here” and pointed to the crematorium.
“I can now tell you that your mother and the rest of your family went to the gas chambers.”
EVA MOZ S: In the early evening, we were finally taken to our barracks.
There, we met other twins, some of whom had been at Auschwitz a long time.
There were only girls in the barracks, I can’t remember exactly how many. Maybe hundreds of little girls. The barracks themselves were filthy. They had these red brick ovens [for heating] running across them, and wooden bunk beds, without pillows. [We] slept two, three, four girls to a bunk bed.
That first night, we went to the latrines. They were just holes in the ground, with waste in them. There was no running water. Everything stank.
I remember seeing three dead children on the ground. Later, we would always be finding dead children on the floor of the latrines.
From our barracks, we could see huge smoking chimneys towering high above the camp. There were glowing flames rising from above them.
“What are they burning so late in the evening?” I asked the other children.
“The Germans are burning people,” they answered.
But the new twins also learned that, as proteges of the powerful Dr. Mengele, their own lives in
“Mussulmans”-the halfdead, with no strength or will to live, who were simply awaiting being carted to the gas chamber. A foul odor permeated the camp, which, combined with the heat, made it difficult to breathe. It was an absolute assault on the senses. Children clung to their twin, their last remaining links with the families they had lost.
The twins’ initiation into Auschwitz formally began when they, like all new inmates, were showered and branded. They cried out in pain as numbers were etched into their flesh with searing metal rods.
But unlike the other prisoners, who were given camp uniforms and whose heads were shaved, the twins were allowed to keep both their clothes and their long hair. These differences made them immediately recognizable as
“Mengele’s children.”
Despite these small privileges, the twins sank into despair within hours of arrival as they began to understand what had happened to their families. Once in their own compound, where at any given time there could be scores of twins, boys and girls separately lodged, they were briefed by the other children about the realities of life and death at AuschwitzBirkenau. Those newcomers who had not understood what they had seen were told about the gas chambers and crematoriums, and the probable fate of the family members they had left behind. In the case of male twins, whose wooden barracks stood only yards away from the crematorium, virtually facing it, Twins’ Father took it upon himself to break the news gently, and at times delayed it for days or weeks. The little girls, who had no such parental figure to ease the transition, were less fortunate. Even though many of the children chose not to accept, or were too young to fully comprehend, what they were told about their own parents, it was a devastating moment.
MOsHE OFFER: I felt so tired, that first day at Auschwitz. There was a terrible smell -it was impossible to escape the smell.
I was very worried about my mother, my father, and my four brothers. I talked with [my twin brother] Tibi about them.
But he was sure our mother was going to be safe.
HEDVAH AND LEAN STERN: We kept crying and looking for our mother. She had promised she would meet us at the gate.
We would search among the women for her dress. When we were separated, she’d been wearing a striking black dress with pink strawberries.
We couldn’t eat. We were constantly crying and looking toward the gate for our mother.
Finally, the head of our barracks said,
“Come here” and pointed to the crematorium.
“I can now tell you that your mother and the rest of your family went to the gas chambers.”
EVA MOZ S: In the early evening, we were finally taken to our barracks.
There, we met other twins, some of whom had been at Auschwitz a long time.
There were only girls in the barracks, I can’t remember exactly how many. Maybe hundreds of little girls. The barracks themselves were filthy. They had these red brick ovens [for heating] running across them, and wooden bunk beds, without pillows. [We] slept two, three, four girls to a bunk bed.
That first night, we went to the latrines. They were just holes in the ground, with waste in them. There was no running water. Everything stank.
I remember seeing three dead children on the ground. Later, we would always be finding dead children on the floor of the latrines.
From our barracks, we could see huge smoking chimneys towering high above the camp. There were glowing flames rising from above them.
“What are they burning so late in the evening?” I asked the other children.
“The Germans are burning people,” they answered.
But the new twins also learned that, as proteges of the powerful Dr. Mengele, their own lives in
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