Stephen Shooster towards the gate. I could still hear trucks coming and going and train cars being un- loaded. It would be a long evening for the selection committee. We were 3 kilometers to the camp in the cold dead of night. Naked and thirsty, the movement felt good. While we marched, guards and their dogs kept us in line. Ap- proaching the huge compound, I saw smoke from a set of chimneys off into the dis- tance. At this site, I knew all the rumors about the crematoriums were true. We walked through the gates of Birkenau and moved directly to the quarantine center. We might as well have crossed the gates of Hell. Every new prisoner that did not go directly to the killing factory went to the quar- antine center; it was a deadly serious place. Floodlights were scouring the darkness, guards in towers watched from above, and small red lights flashed around the perim- eter. These, I would learn later, designated the high voltage electric fence. For now, they were just a part of the blur. Once in the center, the block director and SS officers started to select us again. I was assigned to Block 2. Moshe and I were separated. He was assigned to Block 7. Auschwitz concentration camp consisted of three main complexes and up to 40 sat- ellite work camps. Auschwitz 1, the main camp started as a Polish political camp. Auschwitz 2, (Auschwitz-Birkenau) was much larger. It had 22 brick blockhouses in the entire compound. Each block was designed to hold 700 prisoners (15,000). Every- thing was overcrowded. At its peak, it had more like 90,000. It had a large brick gate with an open assembly square, an array of barracks, and strange buildings that dotted the compound with smokestacks that never ceased pouring victims into the sky. Those crematoria operated around the clock. While being processed through the quarantine center, I got a tattoo on my arm, 161744. It was done very quickly. Finally, we were issued clothing, but not before being tormented by the other prisoners who handed it to us. Oddly, we were given civilian clothes. What made them different was that they had a red stripe on the side and a yellow six-pointed Star of David, about 3 inches wide over the breast. However, I will never forget the shoes. They were made of wood. They could not bend. You had to shuffle when wearing them. I was beyond tired but mostly thirsty, and now I was also tattooed and dressed as a prisoner. The blockleiters gathered us up, “Hâftlinge folge mir” (Prisoners follow me), and took us to our respective barracks. Maybe here they will give us some water and let us sleep. Little did I realize my night had just begun. I walked with a group of 200 men to Block 2. My blockleiter, Katarzynski, was himself a Polish prisoner. You would think he
162
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator