Stories EXTERMINATION Camp – Found Photos of Lost Family

6 extermination camps were on Polish soil (in Germany were only concentration-labor camps) Chelmno (Dec.’41-Jan.’45) Belzec (March-Dec. ’42) Sobibor (May-July ‘42 and Oct. ‘42-Oct. ‘43) Treblinka (July ‘42-Aug. ‘43) Majdanek (Sep. ‘41-July ‘44) Auschwitz-Birkenau (March ‘42-Jan. ‘45)

In Auschwitz- Birkenau my mother sorted victims’ clothes by the crematoria. Women sorted women & children’s clothes, men sorted men’s; some men picked up boxes from the women. One day, a man from her small town who sorted men's clothes, recognized my mother in photos (probably taken out of her father garment’s pockets) he gave an envelope with 8 photographs to a deliveryman to give to my mother. My Mother told me: “I cried so much when I saw my family photos, it was a terrible feeling looking at it realizing they might not be alive anymore…” Knowing it might be her only memory from her beloved family… where could she hide it? The Nazi forbade holding photos or other belongings; they only let them keep food. My Mother told me: “I found a piece of cellophane to wrap the photos, spread margarine on the outside and put it between two pieces of bread, I was so happy I found the photos; I kept them during the whole war inside a sandwich…” That day my mother didn’t eat, her bread turned into “a treasure box”; fasting was also a symbol of mourning. Each day my mother took the photos out of the dry bread and put them inside the fresh one, she ate the old bread, bread with a taste of a secret.