The Liquidation of the Veshelde Camp and the Dead Marsh
At the beginning of February 1945, the advance of the forces of the liberation armies was felt in a tangible way. The Nazi government tried to hide the atrocities they committed in the concentration camps. At the same time, they increased the murder of the Jews.
When the liberation forces advanced to our camp, in Vechelde, they took us out on the "death march", from the labor camp in Vechelde to a concentration camp in Watenstadt, a distance of about 32 km. They forced us to march, without rest, without food or drink. This was one of the methods, with the aim of killing as many Jews as possible.
We marched, accompanied by German soldiers from the Wehrmacht. Today when I write these pages, I do not remember, happily, most of the pictures of this tragedy. They were lost from my memory. After all, 70 years have passed since. I'm glad I was able to forget most of the details, what I went through. But some of them, I still remember the contrast between the beautiful landscape we were passing and the people marching.
Anyway, I remember how we marched in fives, accompanied on both sides by the Wehrmacht soldiers, who were under the supervision of the especially cruel SS soldiers. We passed fields and villages and on the outskirts of towns. But we did not see the residents. They shut themselves in their house, probably according to instructions from the SS.
We didn't have toilets, which are necessary for humans. I remember, the Germans did not see us as human beings. Even before the war, the advertisements of the German authorities compared us, Jews, to rats. The German Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels made sure to spread out, the malicious propaganda. Without any fear of reaction of the enlightened world. Because in fact the whole world didn't care what happened to European Jewry. Anti-Semitism flourished not only in Europe, most of which were under Nazi rule.
At times, some of the marchers fell. A few managed to stand up, before they were beaten by the soldiers who were accompanying us. A special collection unit collected those who did not stand up. They were sent to a place where they were shot dead. The death march had only one goal, diluting the number of survivors. After all, the Germans tried to verify their promises by eliminating the Jewish question.