Quotes from Willy Lindwer

Fascism was the evil. And it still exists! It is the worst evil in the world. Setting people against each other because of their skin color or because someone has a little more than someone else.

we had people who had authentic identity cards ask for the cards of people who had already died, but who had not yet been registered as dead by the registrar. This was a very safe way to help people get good identity cards. People who were seized often said that their card had been forged—which wasn't true—in order to protect the others.

After that, they simply beat me in a blind rage, but I was no longer interrogated. Had they kept it up, I might have said things that I didn't want to tell. None of us gave anyone away. I don't know whether you should pride yourself on that or not.

That day, we were all interned in the "S" barracks (the punishment barracks)—the Frank family, too. We all had our own problems, of course. I found my sister again there, and my parents and my brother, and we didn't pay very much attention to what was going on around us. But still, a family like that, with two children. We knew that they were there, that they had been in hiding. What a shame to have been caught at the last minute.

In the same way, we tried to be counted as political prisoners so that we wouldn't be put into a Jewish work camp. We knew that the Jewish work camp meant the end. The absolute end. We knew that. Although it was scanty, there was information about those camps. Then while we were being transported, we only hoped that we weren't going to Auschwitz, Treblinka, or Majdanek—camps that were already notorious.

Ironically, later we used the money that we were able to bring to the camp to wipe our bottoms. We simply didn't have any other paper. We tore ten-guilder notes into quarters and then we could use them four times. That was just fine, because it's not pleasant to have a dirty behind.

Near the bolts on the door, there was a hole through which you could look to see the landscape. If you were lucky enough to get a glimpse outside without being pushed away, you could breathe a little and put your thoughts in order.

Everyone knew immediately where we were. It was so insane—that moment of realization, Yes, this is an extermination camp.

We knew about the gas chambers. As soon as you arrived in Auschwitz, you knew about the gas chambers. How, I don't know. But we knew it. We saw that huge, black, smoky fire; we lived close by. We smelled the odor. You can never forget that.

And then, that Kapo behind you. You're just a poor wretch and there's a Kapo wearing a splendid woolen angora sweater and a short skirt and high boots and magnificently piled up hair. She follows you with a whip in her hand. I won't say that they were all like that, but yes, we had good reason to hate those Polish Kapos. To this day I don't like angora sweaters.

At that time, according to the conventional wisdom, girls didn't have to study; they had to learn a trade. Boys could go to high school. Girls got married, so it was a waste to spend a lot of money on them. They did have to know about a lot of things, though.

While I worked at the laboratory, I went from being a Zionist to becoming a Communist. Although the word, "Communist" isn't the right word. I didn't actually become a member of the party until the beginning of the war; and left it shortly after the war. "Marxist" is a better word, because Marx's idea, that all people should work according to their abilities and receive according to their needs, is actually a good solution; I still think so.

I had left the Zionist movement. I felt that we had to assimilate and that we belonged with the workers, not with the well-to-do upper crust; that we had to fight for a better society.