heart, because he had once had a son of Laci’s age, who apparently also resembled him, but who had passed away. He took additional food to Laci, e.g. milk, liver and other things.
An “authorised” Jewish community of religious and moderate Jews was founded in the camp and all Jews became members. Rabbi Wilmer held daily services for religious Jews. The communist leadership supported this activity, as it contributed to the general solidarity of the internees.
Some totally unexpected cultural activities took place in the camp while Colonel Popovici was in command. The internees produced a variety of craftworks, which were displayed at a camp exhibition. The commander and some officers visited the exhibition and had to acknowledge that there were many talented Jews. There was also a performance with singing, violin, dancing and gymnastics.
Workshops for shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, etc. were set up in the camp where the most impossible repairs could be made. A certain Mr Goldberger, a very educated man, was a shoemaker in the daytime but gave scientific lectures at night. All of this demonstrates that an experienced, consistent leadership within a death camp made it possible to lead a life that was “almost normal” and to have hope of freedom, despite an extremely difficult political situation. This was the greatest achievement.
In my story about our life in the camp I have not really put enough emphasis on one fact. The only reason why they did not exterminate us was that our communist leadership, who had a lot of experience with jails and camps, organised our survival. I will never deny or regret my anti-fascist activities under the leadership of the illegal Romanian communist party during the anti-Semitic right-wing dictatorship in Romania, beginning in 1939.
Nowadays, we know about the crimes and atrocities, which have been committed in all former communist countries, but we also know about the decisive role of communists in the fight against Hitler's Germany. Auschwitz was not the only camp, which was liberated by the Red Army. Unfortunately, we don’t know another social order to this day, which is free of atrocities. I would like to make this comment in order to contradict those who can only see communist atrocities and pretend that good things never happened.
At this point I would like to address the current “Jewish question” with regard at myself. I was born as a Jew and discriminated against at school, in the army and at work. As a Jew I was dispossessed, as a Jew I was forced to work in labour camps and, as a Jew, I was deported and had to spend almost two years in a concentration camp and in a ghetto. Like it or not, I was always a Jew and a second-class citizen.
I have never been religious and I am not religious now, but I respect those who are. But I am not the only one to say that there is something specific about Jews, something that is not negative, that cannot be covered up or denied. It is not based on race (I strongly disagree with racial theories) but on their life in a Jewish environment and on the necessity of surviving in a hostile environment, and probably on other reasons.
Shortly before his suicide, in December 1935, Kurt Tucholsky wrote in a letter to Arnold Zweig: “I resigned from Judaism in 1911, and I know that you can’t do that.” Heinrich Heine, who was baptised but did not consider himself Christian, made a similar statement in a letter: “I make no secret of my Jewishness which I haven’t returned to, because I never left it.”
An “authorised” Jewish community of religious and moderate Jews was founded in the camp and all Jews became members. Rabbi Wilmer held daily services for religious Jews. The communist leadership supported this activity, as it contributed to the general solidarity of the internees.
Some totally unexpected cultural activities took place in the camp while Colonel Popovici was in command. The internees produced a variety of craftworks, which were displayed at a camp exhibition. The commander and some officers visited the exhibition and had to acknowledge that there were many talented Jews. There was also a performance with singing, violin, dancing and gymnastics.
Workshops for shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, etc. were set up in the camp where the most impossible repairs could be made. A certain Mr Goldberger, a very educated man, was a shoemaker in the daytime but gave scientific lectures at night. All of this demonstrates that an experienced, consistent leadership within a death camp made it possible to lead a life that was “almost normal” and to have hope of freedom, despite an extremely difficult political situation. This was the greatest achievement.
In my story about our life in the camp I have not really put enough emphasis on one fact. The only reason why they did not exterminate us was that our communist leadership, who had a lot of experience with jails and camps, organised our survival. I will never deny or regret my anti-fascist activities under the leadership of the illegal Romanian communist party during the anti-Semitic right-wing dictatorship in Romania, beginning in 1939.
Nowadays, we know about the crimes and atrocities, which have been committed in all former communist countries, but we also know about the decisive role of communists in the fight against Hitler's Germany. Auschwitz was not the only camp, which was liberated by the Red Army. Unfortunately, we don’t know another social order to this day, which is free of atrocities. I would like to make this comment in order to contradict those who can only see communist atrocities and pretend that good things never happened.
At this point I would like to address the current “Jewish question” with regard at myself. I was born as a Jew and discriminated against at school, in the army and at work. As a Jew I was dispossessed, as a Jew I was forced to work in labour camps and, as a Jew, I was deported and had to spend almost two years in a concentration camp and in a ghetto. Like it or not, I was always a Jew and a second-class citizen.
I have never been religious and I am not religious now, but I respect those who are. But I am not the only one to say that there is something specific about Jews, something that is not negative, that cannot be covered up or denied. It is not based on race (I strongly disagree with racial theories) but on their life in a Jewish environment and on the necessity of surviving in a hostile environment, and probably on other reasons.
Shortly before his suicide, in December 1935, Kurt Tucholsky wrote in a letter to Arnold Zweig: “I resigned from Judaism in 1911, and I know that you can’t do that.” Heinrich Heine, who was baptised but did not consider himself Christian, made a similar statement in a letter: “I make no secret of my Jewishness which I haven’t returned to, because I never left it.”
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