Small Riga Ghetto

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ing. The Americans were getting more "impudent" every day in their bombing
work and paying us their visits several times a day. Finally even the large cold
storage depots of Magdeburg, which were located only a few hundred steps
from us, were bombed. This caused tremendous damage. Because I did not
want to be classified as "unable to work" any longer, I decided to return to the
camp despite my weakened condition.
The next day – it was 11 April 1945 – we were sent to another place. We
were ordered to dig protective trenches behind the town. Besides us, Aryan
inmates from the prisons were also working there. On the way, we noticed that
armored cars had been stationed on the corners in preparation for street fighting.
We now assumed that our liberators were very close to the town. But we
didn't know anything more detailed than that. After finishing our work we
went back toward the camp. In the meantime, the armored cars had been
parked across the streets so as to block them. Our SS leaders no longer knew
what to do and led us up toward the cemetery. There they quarreled about
whether we should stay there or return to the camp. Finally they decided:
"Back to the camp!" On the way we met our murderers Hoffmann and
Schuller. They had all their luggage with them, and Jews were being forced to
pull it for them in a wagon. When the SS guards saw Hoffmann and Schuller,
they left us standing there and ran away. We threw our tools down on the
street and were free! We stood there paralyzed and couldn't grasp it at all.
I decided not to return to the camp and spent the night with two comrades in
a woodshed in the town. I didn't go back to the camp until the next morning.
On the way there, the civilian population was already giving us bread. In the
camp a great celebration was going on. All the gates stood open and everyone
was walking around freely. The Hungarian and Polish Jews had already disappeared.
All the food supplies had been plundered. In our barrack I was treated
to a holiday banquet. My comrade Senitzki and I found new sleeping quarters
for ourselves in the SS barrack. Because of a heavy bombardment by the
Americans, which we had always wished for, we spent a sleepless night. Early
the next morning an armed group of Volkssturm recruits appeared and ordered
us to line up. Many of us fled immediately and disappeared; many others had
stayed in the town and hidden in the ruins. We were put into a column together
with many women, and under heavy guard we were led out of the town and
across the Elbe. The dream of freedom had been brief, and we were prisoners
again!
One of the SS men, an Oberscharführer from Vienna named Mauser, had
put on a prisoners' uniform. He was seized and shot on the spot. We marched