They tattooed a number onto our left arm. From that moment on we were just numbers. We didn't know where we were. Afterwards, the prisoners who had been there longer, they said, "You're in Auschwitz, in Birkenau." I went back to the barracks in the evening, and there was a woman called Czajkowska, and she was another prisoner. And she was ordered by the Nazis to set up an orchestra. And she said to me, "If you can play the accordion, then I can test you." I had to get out of the work column, so I lied. I said, "I can play accordion." She must have known 100 percent that I have never played the accordion before. But she also noticed that I was musical, and she thought, maybe, she can learn it. And then she took me into the orchestra. Later, the SS ordered us to stand at the gates of the camp and play when new transports arrived. They wanted people to go quietly, without opposition, into the gas chambers. And the people did not know where they were going to. But we knew. For us, the tears were pouring down our cheeks. We had to play. We could not refuse, because the SS were standing behind us with their guns. This situation was one of the most terrible things that I have ever experienced.

They tattooed a number onto our left arm. From that moment on we were just numbers. We didn't know where we were. Afterwards, the prisoners who had been there longer, they said, "You're in Auschwitz, in Birkenau." I went back to the barracks in the evening, and there was a woman called Czajkowska, and she was another prisoner. And she was ordered by the Nazis to set up an orchestra. And she said to me, "If you can play the accordion, then I can test you." I had to get out of the work column, so I lied. I said, "I can play accordion." She must have known 100 percent that I have never played the accordion before. But she also noticed that I was musical, and she thought, maybe, she can learn it. And then she took me into the orchestra. Later, the SS ordered us to stand at the gates of the camp and play when new transports arrived. They wanted people to go quietly, without opposition, into the gas chambers. And the people did not know where they were going to. But we knew. For us, the tears were pouring down our cheeks. We had to play. We could not refuse, because the SS were standing behind us with their guns. This situation was one of the most terrible things that I have ever experienced.