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Little dark humor sorry. No, toilet paper was provided and sadly many could have used it as they died of Dysentery. Female Hygiene Products, no but sadly it was okay in a sad way, as they were so severely starved that issue or need came to an end very fast.
Bread as Jews we cannot eat during Passover as it has to do with the flight from Egypt. So the only days in the year that bread was served was during Passover and no one ate it even though they were starving. On the major Holidays we normally Fast and on Yom Kippur, it is for certain, nothing to eat or drink from sundown to sundown to next day. So naturally a feast was served after sundown at the beginning of the holiday and of course no one ate it and dinner the next day came well before sundown so no one ate it.
The place was filled with lice and beg bugs and all kinds of vermin. They never said how often they got to wash or clean themselves but the water was like ice. They slept in a single gender barracks and to stay warm many people slept in a bed together to stay warm which of course spread the lice and bed bugs.
Many mornings you would wake up to one of your friends or family members dead and sad to say the “Campers” stripped them of their clothing very fast to add another layer to try and stay warm. There was some sharing when this happened like Sarah, take her gloves you have non, but some just went crazy getting all they could.
About 100% had or have a hot water heater that is at least 150 gallons. The Bath Tub was always an ocean going sea vessel.
Then came the bed. Their bed was custom made as was the furniture as they would never be “squished” again and yes they were short in stature, This bed was about a king and 3/4’s and they slept intertwined in it in the middle of the bed every night
Sometimes as a child, I would see them before they woke and you could feel the love radiating from them. Sometimes I slept in bed with them on my grandmother’s side and we would hold hands all night and I suspect my grandfather had her other hand.
So now for the funny part, at some point Germany had to start paying all of the people who had been in the Camps and not just the Jews, as there were Priests and Nuns there who got caught trying to save Jewish children or spoke against the Nazis, people who were LGBT all kinds of people. So one day their first checks arrived and they didn’t need the money at all, they took it because it was theirs and they wanted to give it to charity. So family pow wow at the kitchen table, the three of us as my father was gone before I was born. They had no real idea what to expect and they decided to open them at the same time and they did.
They both got the same amount and then they looked more carefully and covered their mouths as they were trying not to laugh. The writing was of course in German on the stub but the amount was in dollars. They learnt German, spoken only in the Camps but Yidish was their and my first language so they were pretty certain what it said so my grandfather asked me to read it to them and so I did and it said, deduction for room and board. We started laughing so hard we were crying and my grandmother said, we have to pay for the lice and the bed bugs? And my grandfather said we have to pay for decent food on the days we could not eat it and the rest of the days it was watery swill? I said I guess so, leave it to them to charge you for that.
So the next day my grandparents and I went to the German Embassy for pure Sport. As I speak perfect German as I attended University there, I asked about the deduction and said what they had said and translated to my Grandparents ( who did not need it but for fun) into Yidish just to watch them squirm. Of course the deduction stayed but they had the banking information of a group in Israel who cares for Camp or as we say Shoah survivors who live in extreme poverty and of course my grandparents wanted the Germans to pay the money in Sheckels so the charity would not have to pay the exchange.
They were not happy but they had to pay it and where and how the recipient wanted it. My other friends, many of their parents or grandparents just stuck their checks in the bank for their grandchildren or whatever but it was not money for play.
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