The following passage was written by Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Auschwitz
concentration camp. The speaker at the beginning is a senior prisoner who is
advising other prisoners about how to avoid being selected for execution in the
gas chamber. As you read, underline the names or descriptions of specific
individuals, locations in the prison camp, and other details that you think
historians might be able to locate as they gather evidence to support personal
accounts of the Holocaust.
"Listen carefully to what I am going to say." (For the first time, I heard his
voice quiver.) "In a few moments the selection will begin. You must get
completely undressed. Then one by one you go before the doctors. I hope you
will all succeed in getting through. But you must help your own chances. Before
you go into the next room, move about in some way so that you give yourselves a
little color. Don't walk slowly, run! Run as if the devil were after you! Don't
look at the SS. Run, straight in front of you!"
He broke off for a moment, then added:
"And the essential thing, don't be afraid!"
Here was a piece of advice we should have liked very much to be able to
follow.
I got undressed, leaving my clothes on the bed. There was no danger of anyone
stealing them this evening.
Tibi and Yossi, who had changed their unit at the same time as I had, came up
to me and said:
"Let's keep together. We shall be stronger."
Yossi was murmuring something between his teeth. He must have been praying. I
had never realized that Yossi was a believer. I had even always thought the
reverse. Tibi was silent, very pale. All the prisoners in the block stood naked
between the beds. This must be how one stands at the last judgment.
"They're coming!"
There were three SS officers standing around the notorious Dr. Mengele, who
had received us at Birkenau. The head of the block, with an attempt to smile,
asked us:
"Ready?"
Yes, we were ready. So were the SS doctors. Dr. Mengele was holding a list in
his hand: our numbers. He made a sign to the head of the block: "We can begin!"
As if this were a game!
The first to go by were the "officials" of the block: Stubenaelteste,
Kapos, foremen, all in perfect physical condition of course! Then came the
ordinary prisoners' turn. Dr. Mengele took stock of them from head to foot.
Every now and then, he wrote a number down. One single thought filled my mind:
not to let my number be taken; not to show my left arm.
