Excerpt from Part III
People became somewhat crazed under these conditions also. We always had to stand in the same formation. One man, who was a doctor, would constantly talk about calories while we were standing there waiting while the other sections were being counted. Calories, calories, we dont get enough calories; hed go on and on.
Thousands and thousands of prisoners were counted this way each morning. The kapos would report the count to the SS man who would report it to a higher SS man and so on. Although they were afraid of someone having escaped when the numbers were off, the place was well guarded with guard towers with machine guns pointed right at us. I dont see how anyone could have escaped from there. In addition to the guards and guard towers, we were surrounded by electrified barbed wire and dogs patrolling.
One of the things I loved were the American B-17s and B-24s that would come over during the day. The skies were black with them. We could tell from the direction they were flying what cities they were going to bomb. When they hit Hanover, we could hear the bombs falling. It was music to our ears. At night, it would be the British, the Lancasters coming over. One time there was a dog fight of German planes and P-38s. A P-38 was shooting at the camp it seemed. Perhaps they were trying to hit the army base nearby. The German plane was shot down. The guards in the towers were shooting at the P-38's. I was standing out there watching and a big shell casing, like a fifty caliber machine gun casing, came tumbling out of the sky and landed right by my feet. The barracks we were staying in were shot up, either by the guards or the planes, I dont know, but one man was killed as I recall. He sat up in his bunk, and a bullet ripped through the place and right through his stomach. This was the winter of 1944. Times were getting worse, and Germany was losing the war. The next day after these air attacks the guards would be even more vicious, maybe because of anger over their own losses.
Once a week we were taken to the showers. Wed take off our clothes, take our shower, then put our clothes right back on. Putting the clothes right back on was a horrible experience because they were full of lice. Thousands of lice were all over my clothes and my body. It took an hour after the shower for the lice to sort of settle down again. Everyone had them. I used to spend my spare time killing the lice between my thumbs. They would pop and spatter up, sometimes hitting my face. The linings of my clothes were solid with lice eggs.
During this time in Bergen-Belsen, I apparently came down with hepatitis. We had no mirrors, but people told me my face and eyes were yellow. Also, my urine was orange-brown. I was sick for a while and still had to stand for apel, but I recovered without medicine or drugs which were unavailable to us.
As conditions worsened, so did the food. Pretty soon all we had to eat was the equivalent of two slices of bread every three days with a little pat of butter, a little margarine or jam. Then we had the hot watery soup with turnips every day and the hot water for what they called coffee. Thats it; maybe a couple hundred calories per day, if we want to talk calories. I would get the food for Ursula and me, and I would take both of our rations of food and divide it between us. For instance, I would divide our piece of bread. I would always cut myself a tiny bit more, not a lot, but like if you cut it in half, I would take the bigger half. For years, I felt guilty about that. But I rationalized it at the time saying that I was bigger and needed more to eat, and that I needed to be there to take care of my sister. Again, I talked to some learned people who told me there is nothing to feel guilty about.
I also took care of my sister, if I may say so myself. I combed her hair and kept her with me, things like that. One time on the way home from the showers, we walked past a pile of potatoes, and I grabbed a couple and put them in my pockets. The SS guard saw me, and he came and said something to me as we were marching back to the barracks. I thought he was going to kill me or shoot me; I didnt know what he was going to do. He just made me throw the potatoes back and then let me go.
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