I was not "protected." I knew some people who were and was quite envious.
My life in the camp was one of desperation, hard work, hunger, disease, [and] being eaten alive by vermin. Instead of plush toys, small children played with live rats.
A typical day: I'd wake up (then living with 6000 other women on the unfinished, unheatable, vermin infested attic of one of the large barracks for women, not counting additional thousands in the rooms downstairs) from the noise and commotion of all the women around me trying to get ready for work. I would go downstairs and stand in line at the latrine or in front of one of the 6 or 8 toilet fixtures (two or three such set-ups for many, many thousands of women). There usually was no water for flushing or for washing. No separating, privacy affording stalls. No toilet paper. Everybody cussing and telling us to hurry up. Then, if there was time, I would rush to the food distribution center to fetch our assigned cup of imitation coffee (made from grain and chestnuts) for my mother and me. No other food was provided. If I had any bread left (usually I didn't) I'd soak a dry slice of bread in this brew.
Then I'd rush to report for work and march off to wherever our "Hundertschaft" was assigned to that day. In the evening, we would again line up for food. Three times a week this evening meal consisted of the same "coffee" with nothing else to accompany it. Other times it was a ladle of barley. Or some undefinable, tasteless, unflavored soup in which swam (if I was fortunate) a chunk of unpeeled, dirty potato or a bit of carrot or a slice of turnip. If I was extremely lucky (and/or if I knew the kitchen personnel, could persuade them to scoop my ladle from the bottom of the container) even two or all three of the above. That was heaven for an evening. We had an hour to fetch food, run errands (visit family or friends). If there was water, we'd try to find some to drink or even to wash. Again, standing in line for the toilet. At 8 PM we had to turn lights out.
I was a member of the hard labor groups called "Hundertschaft," because we worked in units of 100. Mostly cleaning (with very little of the standard equipment such as buckets, brooms, rags--and water was usually turned off centrally as added torture by the sadistic "Kommandant"). I was also assigned to work for the Czech farmers in the surrounding area, marching out early and marching back into the camp late. Always under Czech police guard. These farmers --who supposedly, now,-- "knew nothing" of what was going on, had contracted for our cheap labor with the SS commander. Then I was reassigned to the Youth Labor Distribution administration. After a near-fatal illness (diphtheria), friends arranged somewhat better housing for me and a job as caregiver to sick and orphaned children.
I had many illnesses: hepatitis, pneumonia, diphtheria, endless nose, throat, ear infections, impetigo, edema, encephalitis. I have no explanation how I survived them. In spite of the fact that (by nose count) the number of doctors in the camp at times was one per 7 inmates, most of the doctors worked at hard labor, like everybody else. We had no medication, other than some purple powder which served all sorts of purposes - as a mouthwash-gargle agent (useless, because our water supply was most often shut off). When I was diagnosed with diphtheria, I was carted into an isolation barracks, not to get well but to prevent that the 6000 women who "lived" (our own personal space was no more than the size of a coffin) on the attic of my barracks alone (not counting the rooms downstairs) would not all get infected also.
After [this] near-fatal illness- I worked as a youth care giver, nursing sick children, participated in the sporadic and secret, because it was forbidden, attempts at teaching the three R's. All children had to work starting at age 10. My immediate superior in this program was Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck of Berlin, whom the Nazis referred to as "The Pope of the Jews." I also wrote, directed and produced a theatrical production "Die Schwarze Hand" ("The Black Hand") which was credited with having helped keep a positive spirit among my charges.
