Q.) How did you
end up at Dachau? How old were you?
Q.) How did you
end up at Dachau? How old were you?
A.) November
9, 1938 was Kristalnacht--The Night of Broken Glass - The night Synagogues
were ransacked and burned, Jewish owned shops destroyed; I guess you could
call it the night the fires of hell engulfed the soul of humanity. I was
arrested November 10, "for my own personal security." I was 21 years old.
My parents were arrested and ultimately died in a concentration camp in
France. I was released from Dachau in 1941, under the condition that I
leave Germany immediately. This was common procedure before the "Final
Solution."
Q.) What
did you think when you were sent to Dachau? What did you know about Dachau
beforehand?
A.) My first
thoughts were those many others: "The world has gone mad." I knew that
the life expectancy at Dachau was relatively short. I knew beforehand that
inmates were abused. The horror of Dachau was known throughout Germany.
People (Germans) use to frighten their children, "If you do not behave,
you will surely end up at Dachau." A famous German comedian, Weiss Ferdl,
said "Regardless how many machine gun towers they have around K.Z. Dachau,
if I want to get in, I shall get in." The Nazis obliged him; he died at
Dachau.
Q.) How did
you accept the fears of Dachau?
A.) Due to
the constant hunger and extreme cold weather, one becomes too numb to even
think of fear. A prisoner under these conditions becomes obsessed with
survival; nothing else matters.
Q.) What
were the living conditions like in Dachau?
A.) We were
issued one-quarter of a loaf of bread. That was to last three days. In
the morning, we picked up, at the kitchen, a cup of roasted barley drink.
There was no lunch. At dinnertime, sometimes we got a watery soup with
bits of tripe or some salt herring and a boiled potato. Our prison clothes
were a heavy, coarse denim. They would freeze when they got wet. We were
not issued hats, gloves or underwear.
The first
night, about 500 prisoners were stuffed into a room designed to hold 50
(believe me, it is possible). Later on, we were forced to sleep on straw.
As time went on, the straw disintegrated and we became louse infested.
The guards delighted in making weak and ill-clothed prisoners march or
stand at attention in rain, snow, and ice for hours. As you can imagine,
death came often due to the conditions.
Q.) Do you
have residual fears? How do you feel about German re-unification?
A.) I have
nightmares constantly. I recently dreamed that a guard grabbed me. My wife’s
arm touched my face, and I unfortunately bit her severely. German re-unification,
in my opinion, will be the basis for another war. The Germans, regardless
of what their present leadership says, will want their lost territories
back, East Prussia, Silesia, and Danzic (Gdansk). My family history goes
back over 700 years in Germany. I understand all too well what the politicians
do not want the people to be thinking about.
Q.) You mentioned
you were shot and stabbed several times. Were these experiments, punishment
or torture?
A.) They
were punishment. I very often, in a fit of temper, acted "while the brain
was not in gear." The sorry results were two 9 mm bullets in my knees.
Fortunately, one of the prisoners had a fingernail file and was able to
dig the slugs out. In another situation, I was stabbed in the washroom
of room #1, Block 16. Twice in a struggle where I nearly lost my right
thumb. A German prisoner Hans Wissing, who after the war became mayor of
his home town, Leinsweiler, witnessed the whole situation. We stayed in
touch until a few months ago, when he died.
Q.) Do you
remember some of the steps taken by the Nazis to de-humanize people and
to make them feel hopeless? How were people robbed of their dignity?
A.) If you
had treated an animal in Germany the way we were treated, you would have
been jailed. For example, a guard or a group of them would single out a
prisoner and beat him with canes or a club. Sometimes to further terrorize
a prisoner, the guards would form a circle around a prisoner and beat him
unconscious. There were cases of a prisoner being told to report to the
Revier ("Hospital") and being forced to drink a quart of castor oil. Believe
me, this is a lousy, painful, wretched way to die. You develop extreme
diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and severe dehydration. If the Nazis wanted
you to live and suffer more, they would take measures to rehydrate to victim.
Q.) What
was the routine like at Dachau?
A.) Three
times a day, we were counted. We had to carry the dead to the square. Each
time, we had to stand at attention in all kinds of weather. We stood wearing
next to nothing, had weak bladders, while our tormentors had sheepskin
coats and felt boots. The bastards really enjoyed watching us suffer. I
remember how the guards had a good laugh when one of them "accidentally"
let loose with a machine gun, killing about 30 prisoners.
Q.) What
did people do to try to adjust to Dachau? Keep their spirits up?
A.) There
were some actors, comedians, and musicians among us. Sometimes they would
clandestinely perform. One of the musicians got hold of a violin and played
for us. To this day, it remains a mystery how he got his hands on a violin.
I still keep in touch with other prisoners. I am a member of the Dachau
Prisoners Association. Each year I go back to Germany to visit.
Q.) Did people
ever successfully escape? Do you remember acts of bravery?
A.) Nobody
escaped, only in the movies does the "hero" escape. Guards received extra
leave time for killing prisoners that got too close to the fence. I do,
however, think all prisoners were heroes in their own way. Especially the
German prisoners, for they would not acquiesce to the Nazis. They suffered
greatly too.
Q.) Did the
camp inmates ever bring up the topic, "If only we were armed before, we
would not be here now"?
A.) Many,
many times. Before Adolph Hitler came to power, there was a black market
in firearms, but the German people had been so conditioned to be law abiding,
that they would never consider buying an unregistered gun. The German people
really believed that only hoodlums own such guns. What fools we were. It
truly frightens me to see how the government, media, and some police groups
in America are pushing for the same mindset. In my opinion, the people
of America had better start asking and demanding answers to some hard questions
about firearms ownership, especially if the government does not trust me
to own firearms, why or how can the people be expected to trust the government?
There is
no doubt in my mind that millions of lives could have been saved if the
people were not "brainwashed" about gun ownership and had been well armed.
Hitler’s thugs and goons were not very brave when confronted by a gun.
Gun haters always want to forget the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which is a
perfect example of how a ragtag, half-starved group of Jews took up 10
handguns and made as**s out of the Nazis.
Q.) Did you
have any contacts with the White Rose Society (mostly German students against
Hitler)? Did anyone try to hide you from the Nazis?
A.) I did
not, but my local friend, Richard Scholl, had two cousins or nephews who
were members. Both were executed in Munich (I believe) for standing up
for decency and freedom. Not enough people knew about the White Rose Society.
There were many non-Jews who were not anti-Semitic and were very much opposed
to Hitler. It was impossible to hide people from the Nazis in Germany -
it is so densely populated and food was rationed. Another point that many
people fail to understand is that in Germany, you had a situation where
the children were reporting to their teachers if their parents listened
to the BBC on the short wave radio, or what they were talking about at
home. If a German was friendly to a Jew, he was warned once. If he failed
to heed the warning, he would disappear and never be heard from again.
This was known as "Operation Night and Fog."
Q.) Do you
think American society has enough stability that Jews and other minorities
are safe from severe persecution?
A.) No. I
think there is more anti-Semitism in America (some of it caused by leftist
Jewish politicians and organizations who promote gun control schemes) than
there was in Germany. This may stun some people, but not all Germans hated
Jews.
My best and
devoted friends in Germany were Christians. I perceive America as a very
unstable society, due to social tinkering of the Kennedy/Metzenbaum-type
politicians. When I first came to this wonderful country after World War
II, America was vibrant, dynamic and promising society. There really was
an American dream, attainable by those who wanted to work. Now, due to
the curse of Liberalism, America is in a period of moral decline. Even
worse, corrupt criminals hold high political office, and you have police
officials who don’t give a damn about the Bill of Rights. They just want
to control people, not protect and serve. When you study history, you see
that when a country becomes an immoral manure heap, as America is rapidly
becoming, all minorities suffer, and ultimately, all the citizens.
Q.) What
words of warning would you like to give to young people who will soon be
eligible to vote?
A.) Vote
only for politicians who trust the people to own all types of firearms,
and who have a strong pro-Second Amendment voting record. Anti-gunownership
politicians are very dangerous to a free society. Liberty and freedom can
only be preserved by an armed citizenry. I see creeping fascism in America,
just as in Germany, a drip at a time; a law here, a law there, all supposedly
passed to protect the public. Soon you have total enslavement. Too many
Americans have forgotten that tyranny often masquerades as doing good.
This is the technique the Liberal politicians/Liberal media alliance are
using to enslave America.
Q.) What
message do you have for ultra-Liberal organizations and individuals who
want America disarmed?
A.) Their
ignorance is pitiful - their lives have been too easy. Had they experienced
Dachau, they would have a better idea of how precious freedom is. These
leftist should leave America. These Sarah Brady types must be educated
to under-stand that because we have an armed citizenry, that a dictatorship
has not yet happened in America. These anti-gun fools are more dangerous
to Liberty than street criminals or foreign spies.
Q.) Some
concentration camp survivors are opposed to gun ownership. What message
would you like to share with them?
A.) I would
like to say, "You cowards; you gun haters, you don’t deserve to live in
America. Go live in the Soviet Union, if you love gun control so d*** much."
It was the stupidity of these naive fools that aided and abetted Hitler’s
goons and thugs. Anti-gunownership Holocaust survivors insult the memories
of all those that needlessly perished for lack of being able to adequately
defend themselves.
Q.) It appears
the Liberal left in America is tolerating, and sometimes espousing anti-Semitism.
Why do you think so many Jews still support the leftist form of Liberalism?
A.) It is
for this very reason that I firmly believe that we harbor more stupid and
naive people in our midst, than any other group of people. It amazes me
how Liberal Jews have such short memories that today, they would be so
supportive and involved in setting up the mechanics of gun control, so
that a Holocaust can happen again. All they’re doing is playing into the
hands of the very clever communists who are masters at conning Americans.
Q.) Why did
you join JPFO?
A.) I feel
every Jew should be armed to the teeth, as should every American. I joined
JPFO because as a group, we can stand up to Liberal Jewish gun haters and
also to Gestapo-minded anti-gun police who want total control of the people.
I wish JPFO was in existence years ago. I believe the Jewish involvement
in gun control would not be anywhere close to what it is today, but better
now than never.