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There was a group of us All Jews All prisoners We were forced by the threat of our own lives to aid in the disposition of the as chambers

Today marks threenumb to it, but I reh I wish I could forget

We stood outside the creest roo about it reeked of cold and death

Before we could start, the SS officers waited for the gas to take effect, checking through a peephole to ensure everyone ell and truly dead before they started the ventilation syste in and clearing the air Once the noise died, ere instructed to go in and collect the corpses

An instant punch of relief hitfor our own deaths, as I had i for the extermination of others

I shuffled inside, along with the other Jews hand-picked to help with this task, into a large room comprised of brick, stone, and plaster, unsure of what to expect

My iination couldn’t have done the horror justice Piles of bodies lined the stone floor, round At the time, I had no idea how many Hundreds perhaps?

A terrible, acrid suish between the scent of the gas and the smell of the corpses combined with human excrement

My eyes watered I fought the urge to cover iven instructions Several Sonderko the hair froold teeth The hair was rumored to be used for old was used as merely another way to fill the German officers’ pockets Nazi cruelty, it seemed, knew no bounds

Once they finished, two prisoners were charged with loading the bodies onto the hoist that sent the and the crematorium ovens, where I waited

These as cha on their size, it was possible to load between seven and ten people on the hoist If they were new arrivals, their bodies were larger and heavier, yet to beof prisoners, however, allowedbut skin and bones

On the floor above, I waited with another prisoner We collected the bodies, then sent the lift back down for reloading

I reht of the first lift The hoist had no door, but a wall blocked one side When it arrived, a pile of flesh greeted us I gagged, but I pushed ht sick We had a job to do, so I sed over the bile in ot to work

When I touched the wrists of the first body, I dry-heaved Still warht to pull this nameless person off the hoist onto the floor in front of the ovens As I worked, I dare not take in their faces, instead finding my job less painful to only look at the bodies as I worked

We laid theroup placed the dead head-to-foot on so a stretcher It took two men to lift each stretcher, while a third held the handles that would push the corpse into the furnace