Stepping into my bedroom, I had no idea what awaited me. In the end, it proved not to be a bedroom at all.

The most horrible stench you can imagine- no, beyond that- permeated the quarters and everything within a two mile radius. I did not yet know that all this urine and excrement was here because it had to be; I was young and naive, eight years old, in fact. I distinctly remember asking my mother why there were so many stinky people here, why they didn’t just use the toilet…

And that wasn’t the worst of it. Bugs, awful critters, crawled around my face, trying to find warm spots to burrow into. Children were crying. Feces stuck to the walls, and more than that was destroying my nostrils. Sweat lingered on the backs of all the Jews, most especially the men. Everyone, everywhere, was suffering. I couldn’t sleep.

And you haven’t heard anything yet. At 4: A.M. we were awakened for a lengthy roll call, and that’s when the unbelievable terrors began for real. But I was only eight years old. I had no idea.