Růžena Plíšková

It was a very hard life. One could never imagine how we could survive, also the harsh winter after the liberation in 1945 and 46. We didn´t have clothing, or shoes. After the war there was nothing. So, I and my sister, we survived in the small shoes, low shoes. The sole was made of wood. To make it flexible there was a kind of small metal strip, you know, to connect it, and the upper part was canvas. How could we survive? The small military jacket was a gift from American soldiers, the skirt was sewn by hand from a blanket. That was made for me and my sister by a fellow sufferer. She was originally a dressmaker. The poor soul, she died of TB. But already after the liberation, in Sweden. For certain ill people there came a train, I can´t imagine now how near, probably quite near, I´d have to have a map, the train came, and they got on. Well, they sent the very ill peple there, to Sweden to recover. MČ: Could you tell us anything about your sister, how she lived then? RP: My sister then, she worked, I´ve told you this already. She worked in the factory. She got married, had a husband, who when he was 17 was put into a concentration camp because of sabotage. No idea in which factory he worked. His German foreman warned him several times that if he practised sabotage again, he would report him. Well, he wouldn´t listen, so they arrested him. I know that he talked about Gross-Rosen, and then Dachau, but now he is dead. My sister died when she was 62.

"After we came to Auschwitz, Dr. Mengele made a selection. He sent my mother and brother to the gas chamber and us to work. My sister was to work around the camp and I, I was in a group of teenagers. I was also a teenager then. I was in a group clearing away the corpses. It was very hard work because food was not available and neither was water. To do this work we got one boiled potato a day and a small ladle of something like ersatz coffee. That was all. Well, the corpses.. we didn´t have the strength. We moved them away by their legs like a wheelbarrow."