The Horse Adjutant upon himself at great risk the task of saving over 1,000 Jews. Since my sister worked for the camp commandant, she was able to sneak me and my other oldest sister food so that we did not starve. “I found myself in Plashow ghetto working at Madriz, making uniforms for the German soldiers. There were about 25,000 prisoners mostly from Krakow when I was there. Since I was studying sewing prior to the war, it was a natural job for me, and I was good at it. I was with women who were much older than me. A few were my age. When I say much older, I am referring to about 50 and below. No one was allowed to work with us that was old. Leon
hung on my every word, listening intently. He asked, ‘Did anything bad happen di- rectly to you?’ Losing my parents was terrible, but it was done in a way that was decep- tive, so I did not feel the pain except within the context of everyone I was with who was displaced and suffering. It would take years for me to properly grieve they are gone. I don’t think this can even be done so I will miss them forever. But, there was one inci- dent that was dangerously close to a terrible outcome. “We were working at the factory. We worked seven days a week. We knew of no other way. One day a Gestapo officer did an inspection on a Sunday and said, ‘What are you doing here? Don’t you filthy Jews know that you are not allowed to work on Sunday, the day of our Lord?’ What he did next still puts shivers down my spine. He gathered all of us old and young, 5 or 6, and made us strip. Then, one at a time. He had one of his henchmen deliver 25 lashes to each of us on the rump. My oldest sister, courageous to the end, volunteered to take the first set, hoping that the sting would somehow soften by the time it reached the rest of us’ it didn’t. “That was the worst direct infliction of pain upon me I can remember. My sister was lashed in this way a second time for a different infraction. None of us could sit for weeks, but we were young and healed, and at least we could sit, but I will never forget the torture they put us through. “All of the Schindler-protected people were transferred to another camp in Brinlistz, Czechoslovakia, but it was required that all of us had to go through a quarantine and indoctrination camp – Birkenau. The same place Leon was located, but I was there a
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