Chapter Nine: Allach Dachau

Arriving at Dachau we were allocated to barrack 25. After the roll call in the evening, we lined up single file outside the barrack to receive the soup (plain hot water with no salt) and a slice of bread. In front of me was a "muselman" a man skin and bones who could barely stand on his feet). As he received the soup in one hand and the slice of bread in the other, he started to walk towards the barrack, so he could sit down and eat his meal. He was approached by another inmate, a long time resident in Dachau, who tried to take the slice of bread away from him. Although he was very weak, he did not let go of the bread, and proceeded to put the piece of bread in his mouth, the other inmate gabbed his hand holding the bread in his mouth and bit off a piece of bread taking a part of the muselman's finger with it. The following morning the "muselman" was reported dead.

A couple of days after this incident, I developed an infection on the palm of my left hand. The hand swelled up and the pain became unbearable, I was afraid to go to the hospital because at certain, they made a "cleaning" to provide place for others.

A prisoner, a medic, looked at my palm and said it had to be opened immediately, otherwise gangrene would set in. He found a little pen knife and without further ado, plunged the knife into my palm. I fainted, when I woke my hand was throbbing and very painful. I could not sleep all night and in the morning the wound was closed.

I had no choice but to go to the hospital, because infection had set in. As soon as I entered the hospital I was given a gown and all my clothing was taken away. I was directed to the doctor's office and without any anesthetic he pierced the scalpel into the palm of my hand. I woke up lying on a cot, my hand bandaged, double the normal size. The pain and the pressure gradually subsided so I started to scheme how to get out of the hospital.

I was watching as new patients were admitted to the hospital, I took their clothing and a pair of shoes, and the following morning I got away from the hospital unnoticed.

The inmates in the camp were already lining up to leave the camp -- my brothers among them, so I joined the ranks. We marched to the train station and in an orderly fashion were loaded into the cattle cars. The train arrived in Munich and remained there for two days. Finally the train left the station travelling south in the direction of Tyrol.

In the meantime, my hand started to smell -- neither I nor anyone else in the cattle car could stand it. So I took the bandage off, removed the tampon from inside the wound and re-bandaged the hand. Fortunately within two days we were liberated in transit by an American black platoon. It was the first time in my life that I had seen black people.

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