Tzvi Cohen
Holocaust survivor, Theresienstadt concentration camp
“I arrived at Theresienstadt concentration camp two days before my twelve birthday and as a birthday present, I got to collect abandoned corpses from the street. The corpses were already naked as prisoners in the camp already stripped them from their belongings. I never saw a dead body in my life and it was an unbearable shock to see and collect them but I kept on doing that. Saying no to the Germans wasn’t really an option. I was in a state of survival. I knew that if I want to live another day I have to collect those corpses and bring them to cremation at the camp crematorium.
The crematorium in Theresienstadt was composed of four ovens and was unique in the way we’re each body was individually incinerated. After a body was consumed the remaining ash would be collected and poured into a box which later on was archived at the ‘Ash archive’ of the camp with the full name, date of birth, and day of passing of the prisoner.
In the Winter of 1944/1945, when the Germans realized they are about to lose the war they decided to try and conceal the evidence of their horrific crimes. The Red Army was moving closer so they decided to vanish the ‘Ash archive’ of the camp, So I and other young prisoners were ordered order to take all the boxes of ashes and dispose them at a near bay Eger river.
While we were collecting the boxes, to my amazement, I came across the boxes of my Grandparents:
Gustav Heller and Athel Heller which were placed side by side. I felt like I was struck by lightning as all the fond memories of my beloved grandparents came back to me. I never thought that I will ever ‘meet’ them again.
I knew I couldn’t bring my grandparents alive but at least I could have given them a personal farewell… I didn’t want that my grandparent’s ashes would be scattered with all of the other prisoner’s ashes so I took their boxes with me.
When we came to the river bank we poured all of the other boxes into the river which created a huge dark circle of ash. After that, I took my Grandparent’s boxes to a different part of the bank river and scattered their ashes into it.
I got my hand into the river, mixed their ashes, said farewell, and send them away into the Atlantic Ocean.
In my farewell, I didn’t pray or even cried because I knew they are no longer suffering and that they are hopefully in a much better place. The Germans did everything in their power to dehumanize and crushed their individually.
At least, in their last farewell from this world, I managed to rehumanize them.”