For the first time it appeared and was published in Hai Pa on 23/01/13
In the Eichmann trial which was held in the early sixties, the writer K. Chetnik (Yehiel Dinor) went up to the witness stand and gave his testimony The chilling until he lost consciousness and turned away from the hall. The concept he coined in reference to his description of what happened in the Auschwitz extermination camp was: another planet.
As much as the stories of Holocaust survivors are told, the stories are unimaginable and sound as if they happened somewhere else - not here. Often the stories are disconnected from anything familiar human and touch on surrealism and they make the listener wonder about the nature of fate and why one person wins and the other loses.
I heard one of these stories this week when I met with Naftali First, Haifai and a native of the city of Bratislava in Chechlosovka. Naftali, born in 1932, is tall, has laughing eyes and has an enormous joy of life that does not betray the difficult experiences he had in his childhood , told me his story about a subplanet: the children's block known as Block 66 that existed inside a camp planet The Buchenwald concentration. A story of rescue and concern to create a chance for the generation of children who might be able to get out of hell. Naftali tells the story of a very young boy who often survived by a thread and in surreal circumstances, until he was reunited with His parents and brothers after the war - a union that many others did not have. The day after our meeting, Nafatli went to Germany at the invitation of its government, to lecture and tell his story to his German students to meet with the President of Germany on the occasion of commemorating the day the World War ended The second is defined as the international score for the Holocaust and that war.

Naftali mentions words to which he treats with great sensitivity, two of them Holocaust and Holocaust survivors.
holocaust- a word whose use has become everyday to define various and unusual events with high frequency. So he does not find in it the proper strength.
Survivors - because he does not see himself as a survivor: "A survivor is a person who did not participate in the event, who was not there. For example , a Christian boy from Monaco or Switzerland, who did not know what war was.
The preliminary details in Naftali First's story bear a great resemblance to the reality experienced by many Jews whose routines were disrupted All at once the ravages of the Nazi occupation fell upon them. Naftali was six years old when the Slovak regime began to restrict the steps of the Jews and imposed discriminatory laws which Make it clear that the Jews are not welcome in the places where they have lived for hundreds of years. They were expelled from Bradislava and forbidden to live in big cities, their property was confiscated and the belt got tighter and tighter." In March 1942, the first transports started to leave Slovakia. At first we thought they were being taken to work. The sign of this was that they were taken first All young people.. the transports were carried out by the gardists, the Slovak guard corps whose men were called that (HLINKOVA GARDA) they were Those who did all the work of oppression in Slovakia. The Slovaks received a payment of 500 marks from the Germans for each A Jew who was sent to the East. The condition for payment was that he would not return. At this point we could no longer withstand the anguish of The persecutions. There was a feeling that maybe once or twice more we would manage to slip away, but in the end we were caught.
Everything was already dangerous: there was discrimination when traveling on trains, roadblocks and it was not easy to travel from place to place.
Then the father found out that a labor camp was being established and since his profession was wood processing and it was about setting up a huge carpentry , decided to volunteer and enter this work-quarantine camp. It is not clear, if he knew for sure, that it would be a concentration camp. The decision was made after an in-depth family consultation that came to the conclusion that maybe this way we have the most chances to be saved. This volunteering granted a "yellow card", which legitimized certain Jews to stay in Slovakia. It was usually given to Jews with professions that were essential to the state's economy and guaranteed protection.
This is how we stayed in Slovakia in 1942 when most of the country's Jews had already been deported. We moved to the Sered camp, which was used as a detention camp for Jews in preparation for the shipments to the East. Then the Gradists turned it into a concentration place for Jews to be sent to Poland. Here they were sorted, counted and from here every few days transports to Auschwitz left.
The camp was established near a town called Sred about 80 km from Bratislava, near railway tracks. Near the camp There was a hospital. Barracks, a large carpentry and workshops were set up in the camp. When we arrived we were given a room the size 3 x 4 m for the whole family. The room was in shack number 1, without toilets and without water in the rooms, and that's where we settled in. All the officials were housed in this shack: the director of the locksmith, the director of the carpentry, the director of the police etc. We began to adapt to very difficult conditions. Every transport that was collected and left, was a frightening and terrible sight.
While preparing for the shipment, there were escape attempts, rescue attempts, and all kinds of operations that often ended in murders , torture and beatings. In the camp we met friends and families. We tried to save different people and failed. In fact, all the people who were in the camp, even if they were supposedly protected, were in danger of being sent, in case And there will be people missing for shipping or any other reason. The Gradists tried to make the deliveries on the Jewish holidays. On every Jewish holiday they tried to make a large and concentrated delivery. We remember Yom Kippur in 1944 when we were in the camp. We had acquaintances there and we were in the synagogue. Everyone prayed and the pious fasted and prayed all day. In the evening there was an order for the transport. Among those destined for the shipment was also a good friend of the family to the Mannheim Navy. To Mort, who was a good man, a devout and believing Jew, and despite fasting and prayers, he was sent on this shipment, hungry and humiliated . It was one of the largest and most difficult shipments. We inside the camp already knew in the summer of 1942, exactly where The Jews are sent, because guys who escaped from Auschwitz or another camp appeared there twice and gave a detailed report , about the way things are going in Poland. We weren't told everything, but the adults knew exactly.
In 1944, Germany was already in retreat, France was liberated. Most of Western Europe was liberated, some of Hungary was liberated, and in general, the powers were in a benign state. The political circumstances were, therefore, suitable for the Slovak rebellion that broke out, and after about two days, the Germans invaded Slovakia, in order to suppress him. In the meantime, the Sard camp fell apart as the Gradists fled the place and its inhabitants dispersed.
The parents decided that we should also leave Sred and looked for a car to escape with. Finally they managed to hire a taxi and it was decided to go to Piashtani, where our grandmother and uncle still lived. When we drove in a taxi towards Piashtani, the German troops were already driving in front of us, we really rubbed against them, car against car , we were scared to death that they would catch us.
As soon as they entered, the Germans began hunting Jews. According to an order, all the yellow certificates, and all the economic benefits and coverage that the Jews had managed to build up, were immediately cancelled. In time, an order was given that all the Jews of Slovakia would be sent to extermination.
We tried to find shelter and concealment with friends and acquaintances, we separated so as not to pose a threat and reunited again. In the end we all arrived again at the only place that was natural for us at that time, the shack where we lived We all met at the Sered camp and there: me, the eight-year-old, my parents, my brother Shmuel, who is two years older than me, and my grandmother.
Life in the camp became difficult and accompanied by unimaginable abuses. The goal was to survive at any cost and not to be sent to the extermination camps.
The commander of the camp was Brunner, Eichmann's deputy. We managed to take advantage again and again. The one time we were saved, at least for a while, will be remembered as one of the saddest days of our lives when we said goodbye to Grandma forever.
The four of us stood in line, Brunner himself made the selection. My brother and I were both blond and blue-eyed. Mother was beautiful, with a snub nose. Brunner could not imagine that there are Jews in the world with such an Aryan appearance. He approached, stood in front of us and asked: "Is it true that you are Mishling (from a mixed marriage)?".
Shmuel, with great resourcefulness and courage, answered him in German: "Yes. And we don't know why they keep us here so much time ! .
According to Bruner's orders, mother and the two of us were transferred to a group of mixed families. Grandma stayed put. We have a feeling that grandmother understood exactly what was happening and hinted to mother to go with the children so that we would be saved. If it was revealed that we were one family, all would be lost. Grandma was sixty-three years old, a very smart woman and at the peak of her strength. If they connected us all would be lost. Saying goodbye to grandma was very sad, difficult and unforgettable. An event of one moment, haunts you for a lifetime. Although it only made sense to say goodbye to Grandma and not be sent to certain death together. Mom was accompanied until the end of her life by the feeling that she sacrificed her mother.
We need to understand the power of our appearance. If they were looking for two brothers for a Nazi propaganda film, which would show an example of the future of the Aryan race being built and the German nation, That was us. We were well-developed for our age, tall, not too thin, tall and combed with a side part, blue eyes and we were Also very similar. Mother was also beautiful and that certainly had an effect. However, Bruner knew where the shipments were going. It's not that he was trying to save us, he just wasn't capable of killing us all on the spot. After a few days when there was an exit to the parade ground, we were among those sent in the transport. We walked without any hope, we didn't try to do any maneuver and escape.
The parents understood that we would be sent within a few days. Prepared for this and prepared us as well as possible. It was explained to us that we would prepare for very difficult situations. Father said - asked - commandment, no matter what happens, we must face all the hardships, go through the the period and survive. must!!!
This statement of father's was etched deep in our minds and accompanied us throughout the period and in all situations.
We decided that after the war we would all gather at the family of our Christian friend in Bratislava.
After a few days there was an order to select people for the shipment, we were among 930 people selected for this transport. This time we did not try to do any evasion exercise. It was clear that if we tried to be smart, we might be eliminated on the spot.
On November 2, 1944, they put us in the train car. It was hard inside and so crowded that a riot immediately started. Some of the people in the trailer had been free until a week before, living completely normal lives, perhaps hiding or Lived under special permits, they did not gain experience of living in the crowded prison or camp life. It was also a very difficult experience for us. They put eighty or ninety people in a car, so that it is not even possible to sit down. In addition to overcrowding, shouting, stench, arguments and yelling. We thought of running away from the train, but this plan could not be carried out, and so we had a difficult journey in non-existent conditions describe and on November 3rd we arrived in Birkenau.
As fate would have it, on November 1st, it was decided to stop the murder of the shipments of Jews that arrived straight from the train. They were not up to the number of murdered people and the incinerators were still working to burn the bodies that had been piled there from the gas chambers. We were the first shipment to arrive at Auschwitz and were not sent to death.
We were thrown at once into the reality of life in an extermination camp about the hunger and the difficult survivals and especially the fear.

A picture from the camp. We were with father for a short time. Then came the instruction to transfer the younger ages to "Kinder" block. It was a most terrible and fearful instruction, for the place was notorious. As long as the gas chambers were in operation, it was used as a human warehouse. As soon as there was a shortage of people for the amount needed to fill a gas chamber, they took children and included them in the shipment. The supervisor of the block was a Ukrainian or Belorussian named Oleg, who was known for his cruelty. It was not possible to do Talk about this. We were transferred to block 29, the children's block. Knowing clearly, that father stayed in the same camp and separated from us. Terrible fear and severe separation. Once a father appeared at the porthole of the block and informed us that he was leaving Birkenau with a shipment. That was enough to say and parted.
From there we were moved to another camp where we worked in hard labor and then we were taken out on a death march in the snow and winter cold of Poland without complete shoes and in clothes that failed to protect us in the slightest from the severe cold. Thus we marched for days without food and water as we memorized to ourselves that we must survive. After 4 days of walking we arrived in the city where they loaded us onto open train cars and drove us for another two days Whole day and night in the bitter cold when all around us people are falling to their deaths. After a journey that lasted as mentioned between After two and a half days, we arrived in Buchenwald (at the time we did not know where we had arrived). The train went right into the camp, on a track specially built to transport the prisoners inside. We were pleasantly surprised because they brought us into a bright and large hall, where the conditions looked much better than they were in wagons But almost immediately they took all our clothes - we begged and cried. Then they left us the shoes and gave us other clothes. Over time we began to feel that it was a different place from Auschwitz. Something in the approach to the prisoner, in talking to him, was different and more tolerable. After some time, it became clear to us that a strong underground was operating in Buchenwald, which affected the treatment of prisoners. The period was already January 25 or 26, 1945 and the front was already very close.
The next step was registration. We thought they had a previous registration on us, it turned out not. Everyone got a new number, clothes in good condition and a hat. Also, we got a star color coding. We received a black-red star, which means: "Political Jews".
We were put in a huge barracks, populated by prisoners who had been in Buchenwald before us, people from all countries and of different ages. We got a place in an upper bunk, that is, on the fourth floor. The hut itself was dark and the conditions there were extremely difficult, hopeless. Our physical condition was already very poor, I was already very weak and sick. To Shmuel my brothers froze the toes. There was almost no food and the thefts between the prisoners were intolerable.
After about three weeks, they started sorting people for deliveries. Why and where we did not know. One day one of us was chosen for delivery, which meant that we were destined to part ways.
I told that we always made efforts not to break up, but this time we were helpless, we didn't know what to do and how prevent the separation. During the day it turned out that there was another pair of brothers in the barracks, with the same problem. The oldest among them suggested to Shmuel to change names and identities and thus solve our common problem - the separation of brothers. We accepted their offer and allowed them to choose between staying in the camp and going on a mission. After some deliberation, they decided to go out on a consignment. This accidental decision sealed their fate for death and for us the continuation of life. In the evening, they were taken to the city's train station and loaded onto the cars. In the evening, the Allies bombed the station and this whole group was killed. There were rumors that some tried to escape, and then the Germans shot them, so that no one was left alive.
After a while, my brother and I found ourselves in Block 66. What was called the children's block, was located at the end of the camp and was watched over by a trusted German whose name was Kalina who was actually our good guardian - the children and the boys.
The Germans received information that these children were very sick with diseases such as typhus and other serious diseases, which discouraged them from approaching the block.

Photo outside Block 66 The block was inhabited by approximately 900 children aged 11-15 who lived in terrible overcrowding, but the conditions were Better than they were in other parts of the camp. The agreement with the Germans was that the person responsible for the count hands over the number of children and they receive it. There was no need to stand outside, in the wind and cold. It was a great achievement. Although the food was not different, it was distributed reliably and accurately. There was treatment for the boys: bathing, haircuts, etc. In the evening the hut was heated. There were Arabs where they gathered the children, taught us Hebrew and told them about the war, about what was happening in the world , encourage the children and keep their spirit and attachment to any normal life in order to get through one day after another.
My strength was gone. I became very ill. I was actually very close to dying. In one consultation with Kalina, my brother decided that it would be better to take a risk and send me to an orphanage in the camp instead of languishing and dying In the block. I was lying in a difficult situation. A Polish guy who was a student took care of me. He kept trying to calm me down. After ten days or two weeks my condition improved and I felt better. So they announced at the hospital that some of the patients were moving to Bordel and I was among them. I asked what it was, because as a child I knew that a "brothel" was something unorganized - messy.
Two beautiful women, well dressed and made up, were waiting at the entrance to the shack I arrived at. I was very scared. This was not a normal sight in an extermination camp. I thought, and I was afraid that they were going to perform experiments on us or something similar.
When I entered, I heard them say in German: "He's so beautiful and blond, it's a shame he's so small." So I didn't understand exactly what they meant. Inside the hut were furniture and carpets, like in a normal house. It turns out that we were put into a concentration camp that operated inside the Buchenwald camp. Probably in order to disguise him. They brought us into a large hall, laid us down on mattresses and thus I found myself living a completely new reality at home shame The women liked me. I got an explanation from them about the place: what is a study and where is a bedroom. I got a pair of pajamas that were a bit torn, I remember the pants were red with colored stripes. I started to feel good and really recovered. At one point there was concern that I had water in my lungs. The doctor tried to pump water out of my lungs with a huge syringe, which he inserted between my ribs and straight into my lungs. I was in a lot of pain, but there was no water. I remember fondly the hug of the nurse, one of the women working there, who tried to calm me down. The attitude was great. The food is excellent, and I even received chocolates and cakes from the women. Unbelievable how from hell, I suddenly came to heaven.
I stocked up on food and chocolates for Shmuel in anticipation of the day I would meet him. We were isolated and I didn't know what was done outside. It turns out that the Americans got close to Buchenwald and the Germans started organizing to evacuate the camp and the brothel with it.
Indeed, there was some activity of packing and preparations for departure and the Germans no longer visited the barracks
On April 11, 1945 in the morning we started hearing gunshots. The front was getting closer. The prisoners revolted and that day Buchenwald was released. To this day I say that as a 12-year-old boy, I was released from the concentration camp in a brothel.
The camp actually liberated itself because of the uprising and the escape of the Nazis.. Only a few hours later the Americans arrived to liberate the camp once and for all.
Immediately upon release, I went looking for Shmuel. I met people who knew him and it turned out that the night before he was sent on a journey, which was one of the most difficult and cruel . I expected and hoped for a renewed meeting. I saved chocolates and good things for Shmuel, but Shmuel was not here. Thus I was left alone in the liberated Buchenwald.
Shortly after, groups began to organize by country, to return home. After about two weeks, the Czechoslovak group was driven in military trucks to Czechoslovakia. We reached Bratislava. There I was received by the already organized Jewish community.
I started to find out who survived and who didn't. I was told that there was no news about my family and I was the first to return.
I was offered to go to my uncle who lives in another city. They gave me money for the train and I left for this town. On the train someone recognized me and told me that my other uncle and aunt live in nearby Pishtani, I decided to get off at the station and walk to them I arrived at the same place where the Gradists caught me. I knocked on the door and said I had arrived. I told my uncle and aunt a little about me and the family, whose fate was still unknown. They were shocked and also happy that I was back.
The uncle and aunt took care of me with devotion.. After a few weeks, we received a message that Shmuel was saved and he is very ill in a hospital in Ferg. In Pishtani we heard the radio announcement that Mother was released in the Lipstadt camp. After a few days we learned that father had also been saved and was about to return.
I went to Bratislava, to the Christian family of friends where we arranged to meet after the war. When I arrived, father was already there. That day, mother also returned to Bratislava.
we got together It is difficult to describe the exciting meeting I experienced. To meet my parents after the war.
In 1949 we immigrated to Israel and I established my life in Haifa, where for years I had a driving school, My home was born and I live in it to this day.