Mielec

The conditions were very, very strict. We had an order to fulfil. Eight frames every week, we had to do them, and there was only 1,000 boys and 500 girls in that camp, and that is why I have got the KL [Koncentration Lager tattoo], that is what we got in Mielic, instead of a number we got that…we were living in barracks, on three tier, what its names, and, we were divided into shifts, we were working 12 shifts at day and 12 shifts at night, and those working days they were in one barrack, and those working nights were in another barrack. The girls never worked at nights, they only worked days, and what the girls used to do was the job that we were doing, they used to smooth it off, with the sand paper, all done by hand, and we had to do it and we had done it and every week there was a big transport plane, eight engine, and we used to carry on taking the frames into the plane and the Germans, soldiers that were with the plane, air force I would say, not soldiers, they were stacking them. They were taking them from us, they were stacking them in the plane, so they won’t fall down, they won’t break. They used to come every week, regular, and we had to have eight frames done, if there were only seven done, not eight, we used to get beaten about it.

We got on very well, because we knew each other, we knew everybody from home, and those people who came from other places, we got to know them as well, a Yid is a Yid, so we carried on together… and those who could help, helped, for instance, with me being what I was trained at, by my firm, tools were known to me, I knew how to use them, and I used to show other people how to use them at the beginning. Afterwards they all knew, they got used to it, but the main thing is, like myself, and quite a few besides me that knew how to use tools, they used to help others if they got behind with the work. We would finish our place, our things quicker and then would help them finish theirs, so we always helped each other, we were one group all the time.

English people didn’t understand anything about the camps. Whatever you said they didn’t believe it. So that [showing his KL tattoo], I used to say was King’s Loyalty, KL. It stands for Koncentration Lager. That was put on in Mielic, the only camp that had that put on. I haven’t got a number on my arm. When I came to Manchester I met Moshe Besserman. He was in Mielic, we got very friendly. After 5 years of marriage he committed suicide. So in England I am the only one with with KL.