Small Riga Ghetto

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half-Polish, which reassured them. We heard screams and shots in the distance.
The clothing depots and all the workshops were being looted. Thick
smoke was pouring out of the chimneys of the office rooms.
Now it was our column's turn, and we marched out of the camp. Before we
did so, each person received a whole loaf of bread and a piece of Tilsit cheese.
We were happy, overjoyed. A whole loaf of bread! How long it had been since
we had held a whole loaf of bread in our hands! I had wished for this for
years!
Thus we left the cruel concentration camp that is known to the world as
Sachsenhausen.
We marched on...
The Road to Freedom
(The Liberation)
We marched out through the great gate of the Sachsenhausen camp. Many SS
men in uniform who had been assigned to the individual marching columns
were already waiting for us on the other side. One column after another began
to move. They traveled along a great variety of routes but all of them had the
same destination: Rostock. I no longer thought about anything at all. I only
held my loaf of bread, which was my food ration for four days, in my trembling
hands and gradually I began to eat it. Because of my raging hunger I
couldn't stand to wait any longer, and it was impossible for me to save these
provisions for later. I had to strengthen myself in order to survive; if I hadn't,
I would have simply fallen over. I marched and I ate, looking neither left nor
right. Slowly my strength seemed to return, and I felt that perhaps I would
make it after all. We knew nothing about recent political events, but we realized
clearly that the situation was very tense. The SS divisions forced us to
march between fifteen and twenty kilometers a day; time seemed precious.
In the mornings it was still cold, but by noon it became warmer, sometimes
even hot. We threw away all the blankets and similar things we had with us, to
lighten our loads. The whole road was already covered with the things discarded
by the columns marching ahead of us. I replaced a few of my things
with other ones and wound a towel around my head. On the way we met comrades
who had collapsed. They were lying in the roadside ditches and waiting
to be picked up. Many of them had already died.