Anne Frank Remembered Page #8

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On September 3, 1944, they loaded|many of the Jews in Westerbork...

...onto the very last|transport to Auschwitz.

...amongst them, the group|of eight from the secret annex.

For most, it was to be their|last sight of Holland.

Darkness...

...is the first thing I think about.

Being cramped in.

Too many people.

No room enough.

Luggage.

No possibility to lie.

Sitting for three days.

Now and then standing.

You were like in a trance.

You didn't realize.

You realized that very bad|things were to happen...

...and to be completely powerless.

Sometimes we stood up. We got up...

...and looked through cracks...

...when we were at a station|when the train stopped.

Because we still had no idea how we|went and where it would end...

...and how long it would take.

People cried, and on the other side,|they told stories to each other...

...to try to sleep,|to sleep standing.

There was not enough food and drink.

We were, I think,|about 40 or 50 people...

...in that cattle car.

We were standing.

Sometimes we got to our knees|to rest a little bit.

Urinating and other things.

I don't remember what we did, but|there was nothing there, nothing.

I think we just let it go.

And it was like an endless journey.

And even that was better than that|there would have come an end to it.

Because the end was not good.|That, we felt.

Your imagination stops...

...at certain moments.

You refuse to imagine the worst.

On September 5, the train from|Holland reached its final destination:

Auschwitz death camp|in southwest Poland.

All those lamps.

Terrible, terrible hard.

The color was so terrible.|It was yellowish.

And we came there,|men, women, children alike...

...on the platform here.|Don't know where exactly.

Yeah, I see there, the rail.

We were astonished.

I really thought I passed away,|and this was hell.

Really, I thought, "I'm already dead."

We were driven one way or another way.

After all, was the one way|to the death...

...and this was to a kind of life.

I remember very well too...

...that you were naked before men...

...and I was educated chastely...

...in the values of my people.

And I got a shock.

I knew that from this moment on...

...all your norms and values...

...were of no importance anymore.

And that there was a quite new...

...set of values to be learned.

And if you didn't learn it,|you would be dead.

I remember that I realized|it in one second.

And I was only 18 years old.

According to Auschwitz records, more|than half the people on that train...

...were gassed on the day after|their arrival, September 6.

...every child under the age of 15.

They told us right away what was|waiting for us: death.

"All of your people, they're going to|the chimneys. Maybe tonight already."

It was just a death factory.

We knew.|We saw that terrible pipe...

...burning day and night.

The smell. I thought that|when it should come here...

...that I should have had|a penetrant smell. But no.

I was sure that I should smell it|because sometimes I smell it.

The smell of the disinfection,|the smell of the burning flesh...

...and the smoke.

Anne, Margot and Edith Frank,|and Mrs. van Pels...

...were among the 212|women from the Dutch train...

...who were granted entry into that|hell they called Auschwitz-Birkenau.

They were placed in Women's Block 29.

It was no life.|It was no life at all.

We were degraded...

...to even less than beasts.

Less than animals.

We were standing outside,|and I saw a wagon on the first day.

"What's he throwing on there?"

Dead bodies. Oh, my God!|I could hardly look.

The next couple of days|later, I saw it.

"Oh, there's that wagon again|who picks up the dead bodies."

The next time, I didn't pay|any attention to that wagon.

So your brain starts|functioning differently...

...because if you didn't--|You didn't do it on purpose...

...but then you couldn't|go on living.

In Auschwitz-Birkenau, Edith Frank|and her daughters...

...were drawn together|as never before.

A very important survival...

...for all the people|in concentration camps...

...were the forming of groups.|Support groups.

And of course, as mother|and children and daughters...

...you were a natural support group.

And I think everything|from the past was faded away...

...against this scene of Auschwitz.

It was of no importance|anymore, I suppose.

Was there any sign|of the previous antagonism...

...between Anne and her mother?

I think it was all forgotten.

They were always together.

You can have the luxury...

...of a struggle with your mother|in normal circumstances.

These circumstances were so...

...bad. Not only bad...

...but like a ghost writing...

...that everything fell away.

I'm quite sure about that.

The last time I saw Anne|and Margot and Mrs. Frank...

...was when there|had been a selection...

...for a working camp.

But you never knew for|what the selection was.

But Anne and her mother were told...

...that Anne was not allowed|to go with our group...

...because she had scabies.

Her mother and Margot|decided to stay with Anne.

We went to a labor camp where we...

...didn't get food and worked hard...

...but most of us survived.

There were few deaths,|and there were no gas chambers.

Had she not had the scabies...

...and had they gone|with our transport...

...they had had a better|chance to survive.

So because Anne suffered|from scabies...

...and her mother and sister|stayed with her...

...they lost their chance to leave|Auschwitz for the work camp...

...where many of the Dutch women|saw out the remainder of the war.

As for the men, when they had first|arrived at Auschwitz, September 5...

... Otto Frank, Hermann and|Peter van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer...

...together with the other 254 males|who had not immediately been gassed...

...had been separated from their women|and taken to the nearby Auschwitz I.

This, the original death camp created|from an old Polish army barracks...

...may have been smaller than|Auschwitz-Birkenau...

...where the women had remained|within sight of the gas chambers...

...and three crematoria, but life|here for the men was no easier.

Mr. van Pels was the first to wither.

We told him, "Don't give up."

He did, and it was just like|he melted away. It was two weeks--

Two days, he was gone.|He gave up.

That was it.

No one knows exactly when they took|Hermann van Pels to the gas chamber...

...but it was only a few weeks|after his arrival at Auschwitz.

Otto Frank and Sal de Liema resolved...

...to keep up their morale|by whatever means.

People around us...

...Iike we all were,|of course very nervous.

Talking about food all the time.|Talking about clothes...

...that we didn't have any,|practically no clothes.

Only the striped clothes that we had.

The food was just a piece of bread that|they'd give you. It was really bad.

So Mr. Frank and l--

We knew each other from Westerbork.

He said, "We should get|away from those people...

...because if you start talking|about food and everything...

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