LUDWIGSLUST THE LAST CONCENTRATION CAMP
The train stopped often and stood still for a long time. We were allowed to light a fire and boil water. After a few days of traveling with breaks, we entered the forest again. Again we feared that we were being led to our end. We thought machine guns were hiding in the trees. Finally, I was happy when I saw the promenade fence and then buildings inside it. It gets easier for me.
Our train passed near a camp, part of which was "new", the construction of which was not yet finished. It turned out that we arrived at a concentration camp in Ludwigslust which was very large. We were not allowed to walk around the entire camp area. In the old part of the camp, there were Russian and Ukrainian prisoners, who were very anti-Semitic.
Every morning at 8:00, there was a general order in the camp. The SS men who guarded us were very brutal. On the other hand, the Germans already knew that their end was near. Every morning, during the parade, an American plane appeared above us and flew around over us, and also surveyed the parade. After staying in this camp for about 10 days, one morning, the SS disappeared, and the morning service was not held.
I remember the release from the concentration camp very well. I was with some room friends. This camp was not jet finished. No windows, no doors. We sat on the bare floor. I saw through the open part of the room, where a window should be, the wire fence of the camp, by which we passed a few days ago, on our way into the camp.
Suddenly, one of the company runs in, shouting - "Americans are coming". Immediately after, we saw two tanks with American soldiers sitting on them. The tanks were passing not far from us. I didn't have the strength to get up and be happy. I didn't move from my seat. We were very excited.
It wasn't until the next day that I recovered and went out to hang out with some of the room's occupants. We passed places of the camp, which we were not allowed to go around before. We encountered horrific plays. Piles of dead bodies were piled up in several places of the camp. In one area I saw a pile of corpses, some of which were missing their buttocks. Suddenly I realized what was the source of the meat, which my friends received in exchange for cigarettes provided to them by the Ukrainians and Russians who were in this part of the camp.
The next day, the Americans forced the German residents of the town of Ludwigslust to visit the camp to see with their own eyes the atrocities committed by the Nazis. After two days, the residents were forced to collect the bodies, and bury them in a large mass grave.
After the release, I stayed in the town for a few more days. We gathered some friends from the camp when we passed through the nearby village, we took a cart with two horses, and in a journey full of hardships, we went on way to Lodz, Poland.
When I arrived, I immediately went to the offices of the Jewish community, where I gave testimony about the loss of my family. We received a small amount of money that allowed me to purchase an ice cream scoop, from a vendor that was standing on the side of the street. The Jewish community was the meeting place for the survivors. Here, I heard from a girl I didn't know her. But she told me that she thinks that she knew my sister, Sabina. She claimed that my sister was sent to a concentration camp that was in an area close to the Baltic Sea. She also told me that all the women were killed.
For 70 years I have tried to verify this information, but I did not succeed. Despite the many references, to all possible causes. Until one day, when I was searching the internet for something routine, without any connection to the Holocaust. Suddenly I found the whole story on Google, the origin of which belongs to the website of Yad Vashem, the contents of which I am narrating below, in the part concerning my sister, Sabina Zloczewska.
During my visit to the Jewish community in Lodz, I met some veterans who returned a few days ago, they offered me to join them. They found a house that had been bombed, with no occupants. The house had no windows. We spread straw on the floor. After many days of moving about, we could sleep soundly.
l