Summary
Highlights
Lydia Tischler introduces herself and her survival from Auschwitz. She describes the crowded conditions of transports to Auschwitz and the infamous selection process by Mengele, where she was separated from her mother, who was sent to the gas chambers.
Lydia describes the dehumanizing process of having their hair shaved and the uncertainty of facing either gas or water in the showers. She recalls the clear hierarchy of nationalities in the camp, with Jews and Gypsies at the bottom. She also talks about working in market gardens and ingeniously smuggling food like cucumbers and potatoes back into the camp.
Lydia shares a surprising aspect of her experience in Terezín, where she encountered a rich cultural and intellectual life among the prisoners, hearing music like Verdi's Requiem for the first time. She reflects on the human tendency to deny horrors, drawing from her later study of psychology, and how difficult it was for people outside the camps to believe the accounts of survivors.
Lydia emphasizes that she doesn't seek revenge and doesn't see herself as a victim but as a survivor. She asserts that while the Nazis took away almost everything physical, they couldn't remove her soul, integrity, or inner self. She concludes by reflecting on the human capacity for sadism and destructiveness, believing that individuals are born neither good nor bad, and that childhood experiences shape their moral development.