Small Riga Ghetto

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moment a large cartload of sugar beets arrived. A colleague and I decided immediately
to organize a couple of sugar beets for ourselves. My comrade
Zalelsohn reached the cart, took a few for himself and got back safely. But I
had lost time because I hesitated for a moment, and I was discovered by Hoffmann
just as he was coming out. He took me with him into a small outer office,
ordered me to take off my glasses, and gave me a bad beating with his
rubber truncheon. He hit me so hard in the face and head that I felt I wouldn't
get out of there alive. Finally I had to carry a pail of food to the barrack all by
myself. How I managed to do this is still a riddle to me. For a long time I
went around with my head completely swollen.
At other times this sadist would beat us on our naked buttocks for every
small infraction. We would have to count the strokes of our punishment ourselves,
and if we tried to skip a count he would start again at the beginning.
Another punishment was to be locked up in a dark, cold bunker without food.
In addition to all these torments we also felt the heavy hand of our camp elder.
The first victim was a young fellow from Vienna who was beaten to death.
By now most of us were mere skeletons. We were absolutely exhausted,
morally, physically and emotionally. We clung to various news items that
seemed positive. Now and then Gottlieb the watchmaker managed to hear
something new on the radio, and his brother sometimes got a newspaper from
an Aryan in the factory. Afterward we would discuss the latest news in great
detail. I was convinced, especially toward the end, that our liberation was
bound to come. And I talked about this with all my comrades. I always led the
way with my optimism!
IV.
An infirmary was set up for the sick and the weak. It was headed by the nose,
ear and throat specialist Dr. Jakobsohn, assisted by Dr. Wolpert from Riga.
Because Dr. Jakobsohn did not get along with Dr. Wolpert, he replaced him
with Dr. Jaworkowsky Jr. The latter had a great deal of understanding for us
and helped us whenever he could. There was also a dental clinic, which was
headed by the dentist Kahn from Riga. He had hardly any instruments at first,
but over time he received the essentials. Before the dental clinic was set up,
the Buchenwald concentration camp had sent us an Aryan prisoner who was
allegedly a dentist, to "soothe" our toothaches. His entire battery of instruments
consisted of one set of pliers for tooth extraction, and his sole manner of
treatment was to pull teeth. He "treated" even people with sound teeth by extracting
their gold teeth. Because of our state of half-starvation, the heavy la-