Small Riga Ghetto

185
I said farewell to my mother's grave and the unknown graves of my wife
and my family.
We drove through the city of Riga, which was now in half-darkness. I didn't
grant it a single look.
The city in which I had spent the best years of my life and which had drawn
me back repeatedly, wherever I might be, no longer interested me.
All of us had only one thought in our heads: Kaiserwald, Kaiserwald, Kaiserwald!
XVI.
We saw from afar the lights of the small town of Kaiserwald, and in a few
minutes we had passed through the gate of the cruel concentration camp. Our
truck drove up to the large "reception barrack", and we started to unload the
things we had brought with us from the ghetto. When our chewre (young men)
saw the new guests, they fell like wild beasts on our possessions. Of course the
notorious Vilno boy Zorechke was among them, as always.
The zebras also showed up immediately with the registrar, and our registration
began. We stood in long lines, and each person had to endure a body
search. Everything we had hidden or carried on us was taken away from us
and was lost to us forever. Then the SS man Brüner, who headed the labor deployment
department, came and announced that all valuables – gold, money
and the like – had to be handed over. Disobedience would be punished by
death. Finally it was my turn to be registered: I lost my name and now was
called
Prisoner No. 13122.
The camp elder also came to inspect us. I used this opportunity to make contact
with him, using the agreed-upon code word (see the chapters on the satellite
camps and the billeting department). He explained to me that he was in the
know and that everything was all right. However, at that moment I did not
have much faith in him, for he was drunk, as always. But in time he did do
some things for me, after all.
Because it was already late, we were not sent to be deloused; thus we
avoided a beating and were able to keep our own clothes. Now we went directly
to the roll call; the reader already knows well enough what went on
there. After that we were chased into our barrack. I was assigned to Block No.
4.
In the barrack it was a veritable Sodom and Gomorrah; everyone was
screaming as though it were a railroad station. Most people were standing up,