Auschwitz Report

Auschwitz Report

By Primo Levy with Leonard DeBenedetti

Translated by Judith Woolf

Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 1/27/45. 12,000 enslaved laborers, mostly Jews were kept there under appalling conditions. Two men, Primo Levy and Leonard DeBenedetti – a doctor, both Italian and Jewish survived and this is their story.

Both men arrived on same train on 2/26/44. They came on a four day journey from a detention camp in Italy. 650 men, women and children were crowded into the cattle trucks. They were headed to Auschwitz. Only on brief stop was food or water provided. The cold was unbearable. The floor of the trucks were soaking wet on which we sat. We reached Auschwitz on 2/26/44. We were immediately divided into three groups; women in one group; children, sick and elderly group two and men able to work in group three. The second group was believed to be taken to Birkenau and gassed. The men were taken to Monowitz a labor camp. It housed 10 – 12,000 men. The majority were European Jews, the rest Germans, Polish, politicals and saboteurs.

As soon as we arrived at the camp we were disinfected, shaved of head hair and beards. We were put in the shower room and locked up. We stood up all night with water from the pipes at our feet. Our minds were tormented with forebodings. Next day we were rubbed down with a Lysol solution, given a hot shower and clothes. We received a woolen coat, a cap, a shirt, a pair of pants and a pair of boots. No extra clothes. Our clothes were exchanged in 50 day intervals. We were responsible to fix our own clothes if they ripped though we were given no needle and thread. The pallets we slept on were filled with wood shavings reduced almost to dust. We were given two blankets and had about 2 people per bed.

Bed bugs were a big problem as were lice. Prisoners were inspected for lice upon return from work as to avoid an epidemic of typhus. No measures were taken for other diseases.

Food was inadequate in quantity and inferior in quality. Running water came from the river and was not filtered. Showers were two to three times a week with very little water and seldom did we get soap. We were forced to do hard manual labor, unsuited to the physical condition of those condemned to it. We