Martin Wasserman was born in Warsaw, Poland. He was fourteen when the war began in 1939. He survived several concentration camps and was eventually liberated by the Americans at Dachau in April 1945. His four siblings and parents were murdered by the Nazis.
PR Thank you for coming. I want to ask you your name, and when and where you were born?
MW My name is Martin Wasserman. I was born in Warsaw, Poland on June 12, 1925.
PR And you come from a family of four.
MW Right. I had three brothers and one sister. We all went to school and had just a regular school routine: going to school and coming home.
PR And that world ended in September of 1939. I wonder if you will describe for us that September in Warsaw.
MW The Germans came in on motorcycles and bikes, and we saw soldiers. We were surprised.
PR Did the Jewish people know what to expect from the Nazis?
MW We didn't know at first. We thought we'll go back to work and everything will be the same way. But they didn't let us work. They took away everything from us. They didn't give us nothing.
PR What were the first changes?
MW They put us in the ghettos and took me away from the family. One day I went walking around and listening to different things and the Germans picked up people and picked me up. And when I came there few were trucks waiting and they loaded us up and brought us to Radom. Picked up off the street and I couldn't even go back and see my family. I haven't seen them till now.
PR In Radom you worked in an ammunition factory.
MW I worked with ammunition. I used to make sights for carbines. There were two machines. We used to cut them out, and, another thing, if you break a tool, they say Asabotage,' and beat you up and take you away. They say you doing it on purpose. I saw that the blade was getting dull. I told them to replace it. I knew what I'm doing. The brick was too hot so I told them to change it. I saw people next to me having problems.
PR Was there enough food?
MW They give us a piece of bread and black water in the morning. At lunch time they gave us water with potato peelings. At night hot tea and piece of bread.
PR Was there any possibility of resistance?
MW No. Because they came in at night checking on us and in the morning. Always unexpected.
PR You were with your cousin at this point.
MW Yeah, I had my cousin. We were liberated in the same place.
PR You went through the war together.
MW All through the war, the death march, everything. We were together.
PR Did it give you strength...
MW He gave me strength. I give him strength. After the war we didn't want to go back to the place.
PR To the place?
MW To Poland. Back to Poland. He went to Israel. I haven't seen him until two weeks ago. I had a call. He called me. He's in Canada. So we supposed to meet soon.
PR Why were you not in touch with him before?
MW He didn't know I'm living. He was in Israel during the [Arab-Israeli] wars and he lost contact with me.
PR And there was one occasion in Radom when a German guard confronted you.
MW Yes. While we were walking, he had been beating some guys in the front, and I saw them beating them, and I got kind of upset and I just told him, the war will not last forever and as soon as it's over I'll be looking for you. I took the carbine, because carbine had a bayonet on it, and I grabbed the bayonet and I pushed it away, and he hit me right here, and I still have marks.
PR But it's extraordinary that you spoke back to him and he didn't kill you.
MW I know that. And I was wondering myself. Why? Sometimes you lose your mind and you get aggravated and you do things you're not suppose to do. And that's why I told him.
PR So from Radom you were transferred to Auschwitz.
MW We didn't stay there. We were standing in front and were lined up: right, left. I went to a labor camp.
PR And doing what?
MW Cleaning barracks. Working on highways. Whatever they find to get us to work. Crazy things we used to do: taking telephone poles from one place and putting them there. The Germans said didn't like it there. We had to put it back there.
PR Useless work.
MW Useless. Nothing
PR There was not enough to eat.
MW Not enough to eat.
PR And once you snuck into the kitchen.
MW It was dangerous. We organized a few guys who wanted to go. We went at night. There was a fence around the kitchen and we had to go underneath the fence. We sneak under the kitchen and pushed a board out. We lifted it up and went inside. We went into kitchen and took bread. Tied it up in pant bottom all around. And then come back out with all the bread and butter.
PR The place was well lit?
MW It was lit but the search light used to go around. And we waited to pass. It as close. And then we into the barracks. And we used to give it, divide it. Everybody got some. But one time it didn't work out too good. We went and the SS were hiding, and when we pushed the board underneath the kitchen, the foot on the head.
PR The SS man.
MW Yeah, and he told me, We caught you this time. We've been waiting a long time. Now you going to suffer. He put me on the side: drop everything. He took me and two or three others to a bench in the yard. The whole day they hung us from our hands and then they took us down and gave us another twenty five lashes. And told us to go back to barracks. We couldn't even stand up.
PR When they gave you twenty-five lashes, did you lose consciousness?
MW Well, I was strong. I don't know how I didn't lose consciousness. But when they hit me in head, I seen stars. But it was like this: they gave me twenty-five lashes and I walked off like nothing happened. They called me back. And said, I didn't feel nothing, and they have to give me more. I couldn't eat nothing. But I got food anyway because my friends, everybody give me a little bit from theirs. They gave me theirs. They had a little.
PR And then you were moved to a German labor camp near Stuttgart. There you were beaten with iron pipes.
MW Yes, because we didn't walk out. It was reveille. Loos. We couldn't get out fast enough. Everybody came out. He hit me over the head. I had a split right here. This is when I seen the stars.
PR Did you think you were dead?
MW I'm falling down, but I put myself together like nothing happened. And I came into work and put a patch on it. I never saw a doctor. I don't understand why. I never got sick one day.
PR At this same German camp there was a good guard.
MW I know one good one. When we came to work he would take bread and put it behind a post. He couldn't give it to us, but we would go there and find something. There was half a loaf of bread. We wrapped it and brought it in the barracks and spread it so everybody get some bread.
PR What explains him? On one hand there are brutal guards. On the other you have one guard who...
MW I don't know. He was nice to me. I don't know. He always checked on me.
PR Was he helping other Jewish slaves?
MW I don't know. I couldn't see. The only thing I know: he helped me.
PR And then you were on a death march to Dachau. And that was in the winter of 1944->45.
MW We were in a train pulling military behind. There was a red cross on top. We were in the front and the military in the back. The Americans bombed the train. When they bombed the train, the door opened and I seen some of our peoples' legs people. We couldn't help them. I needed help myself. We went out and afterwards they us on a death march. A death march was: anybody who couldn't walk, stayed back and they shot him. No question. I had two friends who fell back. I told them, Don't go to the back. Stay in the front. That's the best way. I was holding them up and carrying them for a long time. And finally the Germans tell us to go into a field. And we stayed in the field overnight. They had machine guns all set around us. In the morning we had to get up. No food. No nothing. Just marching again. Meanwhile those friend were saved.
PR So you saved them by holding them up during the march?
MW Right.
PR They were weak.
MW Yes. We wish I would know where they are. We got split up.
PR What gave you strength to carry them?
MW Well, I was strong. I thought I could help. I never stayed in the back. I always was in the front. I did everything the best I could, and it looks like it did help.
PR In Dachau, when they would take you out, you would go to German civilians and knock on the door.
MW Yeah, I used to volunteer for work. I don't know. They felt sorry for me and they gave me food.
PR And they knew you were a Jewish slave?
MW I spoke German.
MW They knew you were Jewish?
MW They knew, but they told me to go. Not to stay. To go.
PR Did they know what Dachau was?
MW Oh yeah. They told me.
PR What did they say?
MW They feel bad about it. They hope it soon ends. It is bad. But what can they do? They can't help me too much. They gave me a little courage, I know.
PR How did they give you courage?
MW Because, you know, when they give you food, I felt like somebody wants to help you. If they don't give you no food, I feel like nobody is worrying about you. If they come out and give you something, I felt like they really worry about me.
PR One reads that in the camps it was a survival of fittest, but you have told us of many examples of people helping one another.
MW Yes, they did. Not everywhere. But in some places they did.
PR What sort of person is it, in a death camp, who thinks about others before himself?
MW I don't know what the reason is.
PR You were liberated at Dachau in April 1945.
MW Right. The last day, I remember, I was standing on the side watching because we knew something happened. We didn't see guards. Some of them left and then I saw a tank or something coming in. We hollered, A Tank's coming in. When it came in everybody was quiet. The American brought food. The whole kitchen was open. Everybody can eat now. But plenty people eat too much. Everybody was pushing, and put their head in the vat. You couldn't go and eat too much at first. Plenty of people died.
PR Because their stomachs were unable to absorb the new food.
MW I did eat. Nothing bothered me.
PR Was there resistance in Dachau?
MW Resistance? After the war, yes. Afterwards we used to look for the SS. Anybody we could find. The SS had marks underneath their arms.
PR Jewish survivors went looking for the SS?
MW Not only us. We had prisoners from all different countries. The survivors. Anybody who can catch a Nazi, they used to beat them. Even if the survivor was on crutches, he said, Let me hit him one time.
PR And the Americans gave you three days.
MW Three days. We could do anything.
PR What did you do?
MW We did all kinds of things, trying to get revenge. For three days, anything we wanted, we could do. And we felt better. Once we did what we could do. The Germans were scared, you know, when we had power. They were scared. When they were in power, we were scared. They were so scared, they even asked us, Please, I have a mother and father and children. They didn't ask me if I had a mother or father or children.
PR Did you ever hear what happened to your family?
MW I don't know. I had a cousin before the war. When they went back to Poland, they didn't find nothing from the family. Nobody. I had uncles, father, mother, from mother's side, from father's side. Nobody.
PR You're the survivor. Then you joined the U.S. Army.
MW I joined the U.S. Army. I made Soldier of the Week. I really enjoyed it. I really appreciate all that American did for me. I did everything I could do. I joined the service and did my share. I trained troops.
PR And you learned English.
MW I learned English.
PR And one of the first words you learned...
MW Hamburgers. Yeah. And then when I went to order the hamburger, he told me, Oh, you want a hamburger. I said, No, I don't want a hamburger. I want a hot dog.
PR You came to New Orleans in 1950.
MW Well, they sent me here. I wanted to go New York. I had an uncle there. They sent me here. They had a job for me.
PR You arrived in New Orleans with ten dollars in your pocket.
MW I paid seven dollars for my room. And three dollars left to have in the morning when I left for breakfast and lunch.
PR You had many struggles here in the United States.
MW Well, I had to struggle. I didn't want nobody to give me nothing. I work. When I came I was working for a company and then I find out I can do it myself.
PR Carburetors.
MW Carburetors. I open my own business. I still have it. But I'm retiring. I go every so often. I work maybe a week and take off a week. I don't have to work now.
PR And you didn't tell your children about your experiences.
MW No, I didn't tell them. I didn't want them to know because they will feel sorry for me, and I don't want nobody to feel sorry for me.
PR When did you finally tell them?
MW My friend Shep Zitler said, Why don't you tell your story to somebody? People should know. This is when I started going to schools, so young people know what it means, and to think more about us. How we suffered and all that.
PR Is that what you want the young people to learn?
MW To learn about us, how we suffered, and it should never be repeated.
PR But you not only suffered, Martin, but you survived and came here to a new world where you didn't speak the language and you become an American success story.
MW Well, nothing comes easy. I had to work for everything what I have. Nobody helped me. I didn't ask for nobody and I'm pretty good on my own.
PR And your faith in God?
MW First, I didn't think there is a God in heaven after my family was lost and all that. You know, I was fourteen. I didn't do nothing to nobody. Why should I suffer? I didn't believe in God, but I do believe now. You got to think about yourself and everything for the future. I think that there is somebody over us.
PR Do you ever want to go back to Poland and see your homeland?
MW I didn't want to hear nothing about Poland. My wife says, Why not go back? I don't want to go to see the place. To memorialize what I lost. Family and all that.
PR Have you gained happiness since the war?
MW Oh yeah. My children, we go out three wheeling. We do all kind of things together. Even with their wives, we go to the spillway and spend plenty time there three wheeling. We even take the neighbor's children and teach them to ride.
PR You left this world that was destroyed by racism, and you arrived here in the South that has its own race question and race problem.
MW Sometimes I think I want to talk to David Duke. I wish he would come and tell me why he hates me especially. I didn't do anything. I want to talk to him.
PR It's more than David Duke.
MW He's the leader. You got to talk to the leader. Ku Klux Klan and he's a Neo Nazi.
PR And he said it didn't happen.
MW And he says it didn't happen. This the reason why I want to talk to him.