27/1/2021 , International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

I am copying here small parts of the testimonies given to me by my two private heroines, my mother Shari Uher (born Weinberger, 1st marriage Mordkovitch), and my sister, Helen Gottlieb (born Mordkovitch), who were liberated from Birkenau in 1945 (see photo below: Mom and Helen after liberation - photo taken in Prague, 1945).

Mom Shari:

In October (1944) we started to hear the news about what was going on the fronts. There were rumors that the Russians are getting close and that maybe we will be liberated. But when they came close to Auschwitz, we were afraid that the Germans will kill us before this happens. They closed the gas chambers so no one should know what they did.

On the 18th of January the SS evacuated the ones who could walk. The sick, and whoever couldn’t walk stayed behind. We were discussing whether to stay behind and hide or go. We decided to go.

We were walking seven days in heavy snow, the SS were pointing their weapon toward us and their big dogs breathing down our necks. We didn’t eat for days. On our way we saw those who were shot by the SS because they sat down and couldn’t carry on.

I felt I couldn’t go on, and I saw that Helen doesn’t take down her eyes of me. After two days I said to her: “I am so cold, I can’t go on anymore, I have to stop.” “if you stop, I will stop too”, she said, “and you know what will happen to both of us. I was close to fainting, but because of my daughter I did not stop. I was afraid they will shoot her.”

She encouraged me to carry on, whispering that rescue is near.

My feet were swollen, and I drank water from the ditches, but I felt that I can’t go on. I was crawling and I felt the dog’s breath on my neck. Suddenly I saw a girl from our town. Cilka I said to her, if you believe in God please take my daughter with you and let me stay behind. Cilka said aunt Shari I don't have enough with my two sisters? You take care of your daughter.” We went on.

After 7 days we came to a platform where open cattle wagons stood. They put us into those wagons. In each wagon there was an SS. We rode for seven more days, no food, only melted snow we could get hold of. I looked at Helen and saw she was freezing. She did not respond to me. She was totally apathic.

I made my way to the SS who was standing in the corner of the wagon and warming his hands with the smoke that rose from the locomotive. I said to him would you mind if my daughter would sit next to the smoke and warm her fee? I asked. He nodded his head, and I made my way back to the other side of the wagon and dragged Helen close to him. After some time I saw her fainting again, this time from the gas she breathed. I picked her up and dragged her to the other end of the wagon, begging the girls around “please give me some snow, she is fainting.” I held her with one hand and with my other hand I took from the accumulated snow and washed her face. “Hayukam, Hayukam”, I called her by her pet name, wake up, wake up. After an eternity she opened her eyes.

Helen:

When I got back to myself I heard a whole discussion in the wagon…… I want you to get the feeling about what was going on in the mind of these people… we were like animals…… The girls discussed us, mother and daughter who were taking care of each other while they had no mothers with them, and they didn't know where their mothers were. The discussion accelerated and became a riot. Suddenly, I found myself getting up from my weakness and I said aloud: Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? all of you. Where are your feelings? So…we have one mother here…she is the mother of all of us, and we should cherish her and take care of her. I saw the girls sinking each into her own freezing and silence prevailed.

Silence violated again when the train stopped. The doors of the wagon opened and the Germans through in pieces of bread. Once again, a riot ensued. We swooped the doughy pieces as we stepped on top of each other and scratched everyone standing in our way.

After a week of inhumane conditions, we arrived at Ravensbrück, the biggest women’s concentration camp in the German Reich.