Naomi Friedman
Bergen Belsen concentration camp
Naomi is sitting in an original cattle cart that deported Jews for concentration camps all across Europe
“I was born in Amsterdam in 1936. The middle child of three.
I had a wonderful childhood, but everything changed when the war began and with it the persecution of Jews. In May 1940, German forces occupied the Netherlands, and soon after, we were deported from Amsterdam.
My mother, older brother, baby sister – who was just four months old and I were crammed into a cattle cart not meant for human transportation and were deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany.
It was horrendous.
It was cold, we had no water, no food, and the cart was so overcrowded with other prisoners that we could barely move or breath. If we needed to use the toilet, there was only a filthy bucket in the corner of the cart where we could relieve ourselves in front of everyone. After a grueling 48 hours, we finally arrived at Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. We entered the cattle carts as human beings, but the moment we were shoved inside, our humanity was stripped away from us.
The Nazis treated us as sub-humans that were supposed to be obliterated – for them it didn’t really matter if will survive the deportation in those subhuman conditions.”