Page 130 - Witness

Have You Got the Bread?
“Around the 27th of April, 1945...we arrived in central camp, Dachau. I was exactly 17...and my father and I were together. But my father was dying. He was very weak, his legs were swollen from hunger and disease, and his eyes had that faraway look, that unfocused look. I knew the signs. He could hardly walk, and I knew I was
losing my father.
“And I was very sad because I knew...the war will be over very soon. Either they
will kill us, or we will be freed by the American army. We knew they were very close. “When we were in the camp, in the last days of the working camp, the commandant, who was a vicious man, saw that we were a bit happy, that we looked sort of expectant. And he assured us, ‘You think the war will soon be over, and you will be free? Forget it. We are keeping the last bullet for you; no matter how the war
will end, you will not come out alive.’
“And that’s what we believed might happen.
“...And the first day they came and brought food, at four o’clock in the afternoon
or so, and [my father] wouldn’t get up. I had to take his dish and pick up the food for him together with my own, and a piece of bread. And the next day, again the same thing, and I could see that he was getting weaker – he’s not going to survive.
“So, four o’clock, on the 29th of April, I’m in line. I pick up the soup for myself and I say, this is for him, and they gave me another bowl of soup, and another piece of bread. And I’m going to him, and he takes the soup, and at that moment, the prisoners are shouting, ‘The Americans are here, we are free!’
“I told my father, ‘Father, the Americans are here, we are free! The war is over!’
“So, he looks at me with that faraway look, and he says, ‘That’s good. Have you got the bread?’
“That was my moment of liberation.”
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—Elly Gotz