Grandpa at Dachau

The beginning of this horrible experience began on Crystal Night which was November 9, 1938. On that night, a Nazi-organized destruction of Jewish homes and businesses commenced with the breaking of thousands of windows, burning, and looting. Grandpa, Grandma, and Dad were already in hiding, but Grandpa needed to see if a letter had arrived from a friend so that they could get visas to get out of the country. While he was in their apartment, a detective from the police force came and placed him under arrest. When he asked if he could tell the superintendent of the apartment so she could tell his family what happened to him, the police detective told him not to bother. It seemed that this woman was the one who had notified him that there was a Jew in the apartment. The hurt Grandpa a great deal since he had babysat her child when she needed it. The arrested men were all gathered at a school where they stayed for two days, and then they were taken to the railroad station.

At the railroad station Grandpa was placed in a cattle car which had benches in it and held about 32 people. He felt jealous of some people who go to ride in the regular passenger cars which had nice seats and heat. This ended when he got to Dachau eight hours later. In the passenger car the Nazis had turned up the heat all the way and did not permit anyone to remove their coats. Some of the people got overheated, became ill, and died.

When they arrived at Dachau, their clothes and valuables were taken away from them. The Gestapo would write down in a ledger what money they had and what they weighed. Grandpa noticed that they would always write down 10 kilograms (22 pounds) less than the person actually weighed. This he figured was in case they were released, it would not show that they had not been fed well and lost weight. Also, the money amounts were always a lot less. He had 100 shillings and it was written as 50. A lawyer who was in the group was really upset when they wrote the 1,000 shillings he had as 10 and stated he was going to complain to the commandant. Grandpa tried to talk to him but felt that Germany was a nation of laws and this should not be happening. He went to Commandant Koch with his complaint. Two days later he was taken out of the camp to another one where he was beaten to death shortly after he got off the train. Grandpa was allowed to keep the 10 shillings. Grandma was allowed to send him 10 shillings per week. He used this to buy extra food and cigarettes at the canteen. This was the only time he ever smoked since it kept down his hunger pangs.

The clothes they received were light and looked like striped pajamas and a cap. They also were given boots. No one received a coat even though it was November. Grandpa slept in a barracks with 200 other men. The bed was like a bunk bed two-high with only straw in them for softness. After a few days, the straw stuck to your clothes and there was none left in the bunk. You always wore your striped jail clothes. You were also given a blanket. Once Grandpa had to fight some lawyers who had stolen his blanket and those of some others in the barracks. Ever since that time he states that he doesn't like lawyers.

The daily routine at the camp was as follows: Get up at 5 AM. Get a cup of "coffee" made from acorns and a piece of black bread for breakfast. The bread was not even all flour, but was mixed with sawdust to stretch it out. Afterwards, the men would march in circles until noon. At noon they would have a soup with meat in it. They usual meat was whale meat since it was cheap. Grandpa says it didn't taste that bad. Sometimes they would have beans instead. They continued to march for hours until 5 PM when they received dinner. Dinner usually consisted of cold bread and meat (a sandwich). There was a roll call three times a day to keep track of the prisoners. The camp at the time Grandpa was there was not an extermination camp but more of an internment camp. People were killed sporadically, but it wasn't as organized as it was later on. Once Grandpa was able to save some coffee in a bowl and he used it to wash himself since cleaning facilities were limited.

At the camp while Grandpa was there, there were an estimated 9,000 Jews and 17,000 Aryans (who were political prisoners.) At that time, it was thought that there were physical differences between Jews and Aryans (non-Jews) which could be shown scientifically. A professor from Vienna came to take skull measurements and see who were Jewish types and Aryans. Of the Jews he measured in Grandpa's group of fifty, all but one came out as Aryan characteristics. Grandpa tried to tell the professor that his family had been in Austria for over 200 years, but he did not want to believe him.

One of the worst days occurred when one person escaped from camp. The prisoners were made to stand outside motionless at attention. It began to sleet and snow and no one had on a coat. If a person fell to the ground, you were not allowed to pick him up. He just froze to death where he was. Grandpa stayed alive by standing next to a man who was burning up with fever since he had pneumonia. He helped the man stand up so he wouldn't fall onto the ground and die, and his fever kept Grandpa a little warmer. Everyone's right ear was frozen since the wind was coming from that direction. There were breaks for meals, but often they would just let you have a bite and tell you that you had to return to the paradegrounds. When you returned outside the bodies would have been picked up by other prisoners. Many people had frostbite and pneumonia from this day. All in all, they stood outside for about 23 hours.

Most of the prisoners were middle class and there were about 20 doctors in the barracks with Grandpa. This came in handy when a man showed him a blue line in his arm which meant blood poisoning. If they went to the clinic, they would either be thrown out or the doctors there would amputate it. The clinic was a terrible place and people avoided it as much as possible. If you came there with a fever, it wasn't uncommon for them to hit you with a chair and tell you to go back to your barracks and stop bothering them. Grandpa brought the man to the barracks and the doctors had a consultation. They decided that they could cut out the poison and save the arm. One doctor cut along the blue line with scissors (he had hidden) while two doctors help him down. Toothpicks were used to scrape the infection. Needle and thread were used to sew him back up. The man not only survived the operation, but survived the war and is living in England.

If a person had a visa to leave the country, he could get out of the concentration camp at that time. It was up to Grandma to stand in line at government offices to get the appropriate documents. It was a real bureaucratic nightmare. Papers had to be in place saying that your taxes were paid and anything else they could think up. You needed about ten papers in all, which had expiration dates of two weeks or so. By the time you received the last paper, the first one would have expired. Grandma stood in line for weeks to get all the appropriate papers. Sometimes the officials would take people from the back of the line and tell people in front of them that had been waiting all day to go home and come back tomorrow. Finally, all the papers were collected, and Grandpa was given back his clothes and allowed to leave the camp. It was February 8, 1939. He went on the train to Vienna. At a stop between Dachau and Vienna, some rowdy guys tried to take him off the train. He told them that he had papers from the Gestapo saying he had to be in Vienna, and if they took him off they would have to answer to the Gestapo. This frightened the men who left the train and left he alone.

When Grandpa went to Vienna, he needed to get some money together for the trip out of the country. He went to the Aryan "Commissioner" who had taken over Grandpa's movie theater with its profits. The man refused to give him any money even though it was rightfully his. Luckily for Grandpa, the conversation was overheard by Baron Von Trapp, who was a famous captain in the Austrian navy and who was a character in the movie, Sound of Music. He knew the commissioner from the navy and ordered him to give Grandpa his money. With this 1,000 shillings, Grandpa had the money he needed for the trip out of the country. Grandpa always felt that Von Trapp was a real hero, and the movie didn't do him justice.

One family gave Grandpa some money hidden in a box of chocolates to take to relatives in England who would pay him for bringing it. When he got off the train, he hid the coins in his coat and threw out the box of chocolates. Later he found out that the person had hidden diamonds in the chocolates and the family only thought that he had stolen them. But no one had told him about the diamonds, only the coins underneath them.

Grandpa was permitted two weeks to get everything together to leave. They left Vienna by train and went to England by ferry. They were sponsored to England by a Quaker group. A Jewish community in Bridgeport, Connecticut, sponsored them to come to the USA. They were only in England about two weeks before getting on a German boat to come to this country. Grandma was seasick, but Grandpa and 3-year-old Dad were feeling fine. It was an overcast day as they entered the harbor of New York. As he was standing on the deck a German officer on the ship came over to him and said, "You had better not say anything bad about us in America. Remember, Germany has a long arm, and we can get you anywhere." Just then, and just like in the movies, a shaft on light broke out of the clouds and lit up the Statue of Liberty. Grandpa laughed when he saw this and told the officer to try if he could. They were in America now.