Helen Teichman

I was 16 and a half years old when the German’s came in to our town. The Germans were outside of the house and called by a microphone that all of the boys should come at to the brick factory at 7:00am, so they all went. I had 8 brothers but only 4 of them were home. They all had to go there to work. They worked there for 5 days. They built something like a toilet from wood. The kids asked the Hungarian army “who these people are and what they are for?” They said that they were making these toilets for the animals. The animals were the Jews.

It took about 3 days. It was Easter, and all of a sudden.. the same thing..… Everyone had to pack themselves and their belongings. What they could not get would be sent to them. They took us to the brick factory. We were there for 4 or 5 weeks. We slept on the ground in the factory and we had little blankets which we brought. After that we didn’t know where we were going. We had to walk about 10 miles to the train and they stuffed us in, people with babies, with everything. For 2 or 3 days we were there. There were no bathrooms. Kids were crying. Kids were throwing up, going to the bathroom in their pants. My parents knew something was wrong when we were in Germany.

We were in Aushwitz, a concentration camp. Everything was built of wood so people didn’t know what was behind and inside the camps. They opened up the wagons. There was a guy that was in striped clothes that told the women to give their babies to the grandmothers. They took the mothers, babies and grandmothers and brought them straight to the gas chambers. They said they were going to a transport and getting bread. They went to the showers and died instantly. We asked where the women were and they said they already had bread and butter in the sky which meant they were dead. We were there for 3 months. Most people got tattoos, but we didn’t because we were in the gypsy lager, so we didn’t- they didn’t get tattoos there. They were sending people to the crematorium or another lager.

About 5 months later we went to a transport and my sister was following me. I had a toothache. I passed the inspection and about that far into it, I hear the Nazi woman named “Gracie” from far notice that my face was swollen. She yelled at me and I had to sleep. My sister stopped. She didn’t want to go, so they asked her and they asked me who she was. I said she was my “swesther” my sister. There was someone next to Gracie and I was learning how to sew from her mother, and she let my sister go back to the Auschwitz camp. We were there for another 3 months.

Then, we went to Robinsberg, we came there and we were 6 in a bed and all the windows were broken out purposely and it was so cold. Someone threw a coat over the fence, I don’t know how, but I grabbed the coat. 10 girls went over me to try and get it. One tore the sleeves and I wouldn’t give up. I held it tight. I wouldn’t give up. Finally they let me have it, but it was empty, without sleeves. There was a girl next to me that was sick that called to me “Helen come to me cover me up”. The next morning we woke up and she was dead. They made me take her body to somewhere to bury her because there was no crematorium. They were trying to help in that camp. So, I was dragging the dead body to the plot, so they gave me wood shoes to reward me. They used to call us every night and every morning and they called “Cellapill” meaning they are counting the persons to make sure they weren’t running away. Meantime, we came there outside and my sister got sick. She threw her gum out of her teeth and her whole gum and her teeth went into her throat. She couldn’t talk. They took away her for 4 hours, and they came back and tried to put it back. They didn’t let me see her, they always said that they tried to fix it. I was scared that they were going to kill her. They didn’t kill her but they were laughing at her. They tried the fourth time, and they didn’t fall out. She was ok. I was glad to see her. We grabbed onto each other and always stayed next to each other. Then we went to Frankfurtamayem. This camp was an old military barracks for the German Army. It was decent. It had beds to sleep, heat, stoves, and military blankets. It was the best one, but still, the Germans were very bad. They were so strict. They really gave us a hard time. We walked 10 miles to work, and we were cutting huge trees (the girls). One day came a big storm. It was raining, pouring, so the German guard said “you are gonna go back” so we walked back 10 miles, and we had to wait till they could count us. We took off our clothes and we put it by the stove to dry out and all of a sudden (not even 10 minutes) a German came in and said we had to go back because they didn’t count us. We took the wet clothes and had to go out another 10 miles. The German man said “it’s good for you because you want the war. That’s how I lost my son.” We had to work in wet clothes for punishment because we went into the camp without being counteds. There was a little hospital and we went to work and there was a girl and she found and picked a mushroom. The mushroom was wild and she went out of her mind and didn’t know where she was. They had to wait 3 days until a doctor came to visit her. The doctor came and put her in the camp’s hospital. She was there for 2 weeks. The doctor helped her after a few days, but she was guarded by the Nazis by the fence. She opened the window and they were talking to each other and had sexual relations outside the window. The German saw that that he was climbing through her window and the two of them were punished very badly for having intimate relations with a Jewish girl. From then on she was pointed at for what she did. So, she was miserable.

They were giving us food to eat… it was like sweet grass. They added something to this lousy food and we didn’t get our period. This was good because there would be a lot of sickness and filth around. We were blowing up just like we were pregnant from the lack of nutrition. We were in Frankfort for 3 months, then to Mallhoffer, another camp. There were not so bad, but the housing was better in Frankfort. We were there another 3 months and all of a sudden outside they were giving us a care package from the red cross. Inside was milk powder, a couple crackers, some chocolate, some kind of cereal. Everyone got the package, and the next day after being chased we got to Brandomberg- The German guards told us we could go wherever we want, and the Nazi’s ran into the woods, changed closed and we never saw them. They were speaking Hungarian. We started to walk and got to Norbrandenberg. The Russians invaded and we went into a chicken coop and we slept there, 5 of us. In the morning we heard that they were speaking Russian. We told them “We are Ivrey” (We are Jewish). They didn’t touch us. They were very nice. A couple days later they told us we could go wherever we want. We started to look for a place and a way to go home. We were free. My sister and I were walking. I felt sick on the way. We were eating dead horse meat because they were shooting the horses. We went in the woods. They didn’t believe that we were sick. They put us into the hospital. We were there for 3 months. I used to wake up and run into the woods looking for my brothers. It was so bad. I didn’t know where I was. I had a high fever. I had head and stomach typhus. My sister saw that I wasn’t in the bed so she ran to the nurses and they caught me in the woods. Everyone was already home and we couldn’t go home because we were sick. When we were free someone said they were sending us to Siberia. We were crying “we are Ivrey”. We saw a Jewish captain who put us on a train and we went to Romania with an open wagon which we got sick from the drafts. We saw everyone and took a plane home. I found someone who said my brothers are waiting for us. Then I came from Czechoslovakia, from the block where we used to live. My cousin was there and the next day I went to Budapest. My 4 brothers were waiting for us. Meantime the brothers find out that we were in Usharod. One came to pick us up. My sister was by my cousin and I were in Budapest. I saw my uncle and my brother by the fruit market. I knew because when I was 10 my uncle took me to Budapest for a summer. We all came together, 6 of us then we went back to Germany and we went to a Dipi camp. We tried to do the best. We filled out papers to go to the United States because I had an uncle, Aunt and Cousin there. That was my life story. We fought and we came to the United States. We didn’t come together. I came with one brother and one sister. My brother Sam was the first. 4 weeks later another brother, and then 4 weeks after that another brother. We were 11 kids. 4 boys and one girl didn’t come back. My sister’s 2 kids didn’t come back. They were all killed. That is the end of my story.

Helen Klein-Teichman

Mother’s Day 2007

TEICHMAN, HELEN

Holocaust Survivor, Helen Teichman, nee Klein, of Chicago, IL. Devoted wife of the late Armin Teichman; loving mother of Michael (Donna) Teichman and Frances (Barry) Soskin; cherished grandmother of Lori (Brian) Jorbin, Linda (Dustin) Knoll and Heather, Brian and Rachel Soskin; adored great-grandmother of Bradley and Leah Jorbin. Funeral services will be held Friday, July 22, 9 am at Weinstein Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd, Wilmette, IL, 847-256-5700. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Helen's memory may be made to Counsel for the Jewish Elderly, www.cje.net. www.weinsteinfuneralhomes.com.