Camp Guards in Mauthausen

[Text: Chaim was imprisoned in Auschwitz for four days before being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp. He describes the dehumanizing treatment by the camp guards.]

Chaim Kornfeld: We’re asked to line up. And they announced to us that we are not human beings. “Er seit keine menschen, er seit häftlingen.” And from now on, they were told, we were told that you are not humans, you only have a number, from now on you are a number, not a human being, and even, were teasing us: “Do you see those chimneys? Those are your parents burning.” Because whoever was left there was already there, so to speak, the fittest, in their estimation, because they eliminated already, in the first two days, all those that they felt were not fit enough.