Oral History Interview with Herman Hillman

Lory Cahn1, nee Grünberger, was born May 17, 1925 in Breslau, Germany into a religious home. Her father was a lawyer. Her younger brother was sent to England in the 1930's, joined the British army and remained in England permanently.2 Lory's schooling stopped after Kristallnacht, 1938. The family's attempts to emigrate to Argentina failed. Because her father was a captain in the German army during World War I, he was able to buy his way into Theresienstadt and Lory was allowed to stay with her parents when the family was deported in the spring of 1941. Lory reports in detail the roundup of Jews, the transport by cattle car, and every aspect of life in Theresienstadt. She was treated for meningitis with medicine provided by the Red Cross.

In 1943 Lory was sent to Auschwitz after a two week trip in a cattle car. She survived a selection by Dr. Mengele. She describes living and working conditions of female prisoners and mentions the Auschwitz orchestra. Auschwitz was so overcrowded prisoners were exterminated before being processed. Lory witnessed many brutal acts.

In 1944 she was sent to Mauthausen after ten days in Buchenwald. Outside Buchenwald Jews in the transport were bombed during an air raid. She describes a brutal trip, guarded by SS, to Kurzbach, a labor camp in Silesia. Pointless labor and a starvation diet were designed to kill the prisoners.

After a death march to Gross-Rosen, in the fall of 1944 (which only 30 of the 150 in her group survived) they were taken to Bergen-Belsen. She describes conditions in Bergen-Belsen. Prisoners who reported sick disappeared. Due to extreme starvation, some prisoners resorted to cannibalism. Just before the war ended the SS guards gradually disappeared and the number of prisoners who died increased greatly. Lory survived bitter cold, typhus, and starvation and was liberated by British troops April 15, 1945.

She describes chaotic conditions in Bergen-Belsen and attempts to rehabilitate the survivors after liberation. Many prisoners died from eating regular food. At a Jewish information office in Hannover Lory learned that her mother was gassed in Auschwitz and her father was still alive in Theresienstadt. She went to Bavaria, in the American zone, with friends. American Jewish soldiers looked after them. One managed to find her father in Berlin. Her father joined her in Bavaria, April 1946. After some time in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany she came to the United States on April 17, 1947 and married one of the soldiers she had met in Bavaria. Her father stayed in Germany.

Arthur Stern served in Company E, 232nd Infantry, 42nd Division, U.S. 7th Army, during World War II. He relates a very brief encounter with a Jewish couple in hiding who were passing as Poles and had escaped from a work camp. He entered Dachau concentration camp on April 27th or 28th, 1945 to relieve another division. He was assigned to guard the women's area, then the gas chambers, until his unit left the following day.

He talked to some of the women in Yiddish and describes the physical and emotional state of the survivors. He was very impressed by an 18 year old girl he met there. She was from a well-to-do Czechoslovakian family, and despite her youth led and supported the other women. She told him how she managed to survive physically and spiritually.

He vividly describes his impressions when he entered the gas chambers and saw piles of bodies. Other soldiers told him about seeing box cars loaded with bodies and some survivors left to die by the Germans. He mentions why he can't believe that citizens of Munich didn't know what was going on in Dachau. He was part of the Army of Occupation e HHe in Austria after leaving the concentration camp.

Mr. Stern explains how he dealt with almost losing his faith in G'd after seeing the atrocities at Dachau. He feels that one redeeming factor were the few good people who helped. His own aunt and uncle, who lived in France, were hidden by French farmers, and their two children were sheltered in a convent.

Interviewee: STERN, Arthur Date: May 15, 1990