Surviving Hitler: Chapter 8–The Human Cost of WWII

By watching the seasons, he knew he had been in captivity almost a year.

Some of the concentration camps, including Gross-Rosen, had the ironic words “Work Makes One Free” above their entrances.

The worst part of the day was roll call. Not only did it mean standing at attention for hours on end, but it was also when prisoners were punished for some slight infraction, or simply terrorized at random.

What also kept many from trying to escape was knowing that even if they succeeded, many fellow prisoners would be killed in retribution.

Jack fell asleep and slept for a long time, then awoke, delirious.

Jack drifted in and out of a stupor, first awake, then asleep.

As Jack watched, he realized that within minutes of receiving a shot, the man would jerk spasmodically—and then die.

With great deliberation, he put his feet on the floor and stood up.

That day and for several thereafter, the kapo got Jack assigned to a coveted indoor job in the camp machine shop so he would not have to march outside or do heavy labor.

He wondered how God could allow these atrocities to happen.

Using his eyes and covertly pointing with his fingers, he let Jack know he would distract the guard while Jack grabbed something and slipped it into the bucket, where it would be hidden by the scrub rag in the murky water.

That night before lights-out, they sneaked back and retrieved the butter and jam.

Rumors were rampant in the camps that American troops were gaining ground in Europe.

“When I am a free man,” he would say, his eyes twinkling with anticipation, “I will have a big round of the best bread and I will cut it up piece by piece and eat it just as slow or fast as I want.”

This is followed by succulent roast duck, all you can eat.

When his reveries ended, he was still in a filthy, threadbare, lice-infested uniform in a miserable camp crowded with starving and dying prisoners.

The few civilians they saw in the distance seemed dejected and hungry and paid no attention to the prisoners.

Jack could feel his strength ebbing away.

Whenever we could, we scavenged in the fields, looking for a beet or potato—anything edible.

Although roll call was held each morning, the daily death toll from typhus and starvation was quickly reducing the prisoner population.

Limping and still stiff, and as perilously thin as Jack, Moniek quickly related how he had spent all this time lying in a far-off barracks, recovering from his injuries.

They built a fire in the stove and made tea and feasted on vegetables, fried potatoes, and canned meats, eating so much, they feared they would get sick. To top it off, they found some brightly wrapped candies in a closet and savored the delicate sweet taste.

“Moniek and I had two main objectives,” said Jack. “To regain our health—which meant we had to go where there was food—and to find our families.”

As they talked to people, they began to understand the hardships suffered by so many during the almost six years that the war had ravaged Europe.

Former prisoners told of being on harrowing death marches where almost everyone died along the way from exhaustion and exposure, and stragglers were shot.

The story came out haltingly, the townspeople shamed by what had happened.

About two thousand elderly Jews, including Grandfather and his wife, had been marched to a ravine outside town and shot.

“But the one allotted bullet per person was not always enough to kill instantly,” Jack said. “I was told the earth over the grave moved for two days.”

Hitler and his millions of willing accomplices had succeeded in destroying a family once vibrant, prosperous, and loving.

Ten years after arriving in America, Jack took out a loan, bought the company he was working for, and turned it into a thriving import company.

Most survivors suffer physical problems associated with long periods of deprivation.

“Almost all of us suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome,” Jack said.

I have tried to live with tolerance and forgiveness as the themes of my life.

The camps established to intern prisoners were usually built with the cheapest materials possible.

The elite SS troops of Hitler’s army ran the concentration camps as a profitable business.

Some of the more notorious killing camps were Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

They were supervised by female guards and kapos, who could be every bit as brutal as their male counterparts.

The Nazis viewed children as a liability and showed them no mercy.

Because conditions in the camps were so bad, most children eventually succumbed to starvation or disease.

Regardless of the circumstances, most of these children suffered long-term effects of stress, loss, fear, and trauma.