Tel Aviv, 2017
Burning the bodies… that was my job for two months. Every day I felt like… I wanted to quit life…
One day, I started for work. I saw a truck with men over there and were short of one. This German calls me: “komm, komm, schnell” [come, come quickly]. Where did he take me? Burning the bodies, that was my job for two months. Every day I felt like… I wanted to quit life. Life was unbearable but it was not my permanent job there yet. One day, I began work around three, four in the morning. I went out again and went to that place. When I was there, all of a sudden, a truck stops and a German starts shouting: “komm” [come]. I look around, I see no one, he comes and grabs me and tells me “get in the car”. They take me back with all my brothers, all of us together. Kissing, hugging. Meanwhile, they were to send us to work and asked us “how are you called?”, calling us by our number, not our actual name, not like “what’s your name”, they called us by our number, echad schmona [“one eight” in Hebrew], one, eight, one, six, and they wanted professional painters. Being just a kid, despite my brothers shouting “you fool, lo” [“no” in Hebrew]. I say ani [“I” in Hebrew] and raise my hand, Maler, Maler [“painter” in German]. My brothers are dragging me away and the German noten li gam maka [“also hits me” in Hebrew]. That’s how I was saved from death.