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136 THE WAR AND POSTWAR YEARS We arrived in Magdeburg and were immediately installed in a small slave labor camp attached to a munitions factory—Polte-Werke. In our part of the camp 500 inmates, mostly from Riga, were housed in two barracks. The camp was under the jurisdiction of KZ Buchenwald and was administered by the SS. Our commandant was Hoffman, and his assistant was Schuller. Both of these Germans had been on the SS staff of the commandant of KZ Kaiserwald, where they had been notorious for killing and beating inmates. I received a Buchenwald number: 95985.* Unlike our stay at Stutthof, we now were working, but otherwise our situation was unchanged —we were still on a starvation diet. At Polte we worked twelvehour shifts six days a week, alternating every other week between day and night shifts. The plant directly adjoined the camp, and from our barracks it was only a short march to the factory. At the factory I was assigned to a vertical extrusion press drawing 5inch -diameter artillery shell casings. The process started with a thick disc, first formed to a deep cup and then repeatedly extruded to make the shell casing. I was working on the final extrusion operation, drawing the shell from about a 1-foot length to the final 3-foot length. The die was not supposed to have any scratches because any marks would score the shell and make it a reject. To aid in the extrusion operation the shell was soaked in a tub of soapy lubricant. Placing the shell in the extrusion press required a rhythmic motion. I would take it from the lubricant bath and place it under the piston. The machine operated at a continuous pace, and I had to work 20 Polte-Werke—Magdeburg  *After the unification of Germany the records from KZ Buchenwald became public, and I was able to obtain a copy of my file. To my surprise I am listed as an automobile mechanic. POLTE-WERKE—MAGDEBURG 137 in step with the cycle of the press, always inserting the next piece before the piston descended. It was dangerous work. I had to be constantly alert and keep up with the movement of the piston. Inserting the shell sideways would cause the full force of the piston to hit the work broadside, damaging the machine and potentially injuring the operator. I worked with a German master. Even after several months of being together during the twelve-hour shifts, we did not develop a personal relationship . He may not have been a bad person. Occasionally, if I did something wrong, he became irritated, but unlike some of the other masters, he never hit me. Beyond instructing me about my assignment, we never talked. In previous contacts with Germans, mostly civilians and Wehrmacht soldiers but even some SS men, they had frequently shown casual interest and asked questions about my situation in particular and about Jews in general. I found my master’s attitude unusual and disturbing and resented being treated like a nonperson. For lunch I received the usual watery soup while he unwrapped his carefully packed sandwich and ate it without ever throwing me a crumb. He did not wear the party insignia and probably was not a nazi party member. But as far as I was concerned he was not human, just a nazi bastard. Each of the two men’s barracks housed members of one of the shifts. The leader of one of the barracks was Ignatz, originally from the Lodz ghetto. The professional skills Ignatz had acquired in the Lodz underworld before the war made him uniquely qualified to operate effectively in the corrupt camp environment. I had met him in Kaiserwald and quickly learned to give him as wide a berth as possible. At Magdeburg he surrounded himself with a gang of friends and cronies, many of whom were his longtime criminal associates. I was lucky to live in the other barracks with another leader whose name I do not remember. Our Jewish camp leader was David Kagan, a former boxer who was also from Riga. We had met in the Little Ghetto and had worked together at the Riga Dairy. In his book Max Kaufman describes Kagan as a sadist who made our lives miserable. My recollections do not bear this out. Kagan used his hands freely and could occasionally be fairly brutal. He could be relied upon when it really mattered, however, to use his limited power...

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