Dachau

Every morning and every night they had a roll call. We were counted. We had to stand in blocks of ten - ten this way and ten this way (indicating with hands). We were counted. One morning one man was missing. They made us stand for, I think, over a day and night in the cold weather, until they found who was missing. I recall that, that night, they shunted away in a wagon about 40 or 50 people who could not stand the cold, who could not stand any more standing there for about 72 hours. The man was later found in the toilet somewhere and what happened to him we never knew. I remember that night there must have been 40 to 50 people died. It was a dreadful place.

One time, I don’t know what happened, the Gestapo came running after me, because I was late for roll call, they hit me with a rubber truncheon filled with lead, even today I have got a dent in my head. And you can see, you can feel that, you can feel that dinch yourself, here…

And in the morning we got the first march from Dachau, towards the end of January, towards the middle of January, we were going towards the Swiss border and as we were marching, whoever dropped out in the snow, they were shot and left there behind, that was day or night. At night we were told to lay down and they stood watching over us in the snow. And we heard artillery shooting from a distance where the multi explosions, away in the distance, we heard explosions so we thought maybe the Russians are coming because we didn’t know America was still there, coming through, and the British, but on the 1st of April when we got to a certain place, we woke up in the morning and there was no guards, nobody at all, and then we heard an engine which we didn’t recognise the sound, and we saw a small car coming up and soldiers sitting on top. We didn’t recognise the soldiers, and we stood up with our hands in the air thinking they had come to shoot us and fortunately they were Americans and that is how we were liberated.

One time while I was in Dachau, the Gestapo came running after me, because I was late for roll call, they hit me with a rubber truncheon filled with lead, even today I have got a dent in my head. You can feel that dinch yourself, here. They hid me for 3 weeks, somebody else from another barrack came in for the roll call. I was bleeding, unconscious for 2 or 3 days, when I became conscious I slowly managed to come to the roll call. They hide me, behind the sleeping compartments, right in the corner. I was half laying, half sitting, against the wall, covered with straw. I was hit in the head, afterwards sleeping on the straw I lost my hearing. Perforated drum in the right ear with the straw, I found out when I came to England. That's why I've got a hearing aid. When I got to Flossenberg they saw the crack in my head & put a bandage on it. The same bandage all week without changing over. I still get big headaches from it, after so many years. Every time I go here to hospital for x-ray they think I have got a plate put in my head.