Friday marks the 52nd anniversary of David Fishel’s liberation from World War II concentration camps. However, the nightmare of those years still lives with him as vividly today as it did then.

One of only a few Holocaust survivors in central Iowa, Fishel, 67, spoke about his experience during the war to more than 300 people Tuesday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

Fishel was living with his two brothers, two sisters and his mother in Bedzin, which was on the borderline between Germany and Poland.

One by one, the Germans came and captured his brothers and one of his sisters.

Fishel was captured in January 1942. He said two guards came upstairs with guns and his mother said he wasn’t there, even though he was hiding under the bed. He was with his sister, her husband and their child.

Fishel said his mother would not let go of him, so the German soldier hit her with a rifle butt. Only 11 years old, Fishel said he was dragged out by the neck as his mother cried helplessly.

Six camps in three years

His experience during various camps during the war began at Bismarkshute, a labor camp with 250 people where Fishel made parts for the German army.

“We were making parts for things — parts of cannons,” Fishel said. “One day three people were missing.”

When two of the runaways were caught, one was burned and one was hanged, but the other was never found.

Fishel said the guards made them march by the hanged body every time they could to show what would happen if they didn’t follow directions.

In the summer of 1942, he was transported to Riegersfeld, another labor camp which was associated with a conglomerate drug company.

Fishel’s diet consisted of spinach in the summer and turnips in the winter. He, nor the other prisoners, were given any animal fat.

“We did get a piece of bread, but it was bad,” Fishel said. “The finest doctors in the world were there, but what could I do? I didn’t have medicine.”

His third camp was Blahema, a concentration camp with 5,000 people which he called a “subsidiary of Auschwitz.”

“We had a bombardment every two months,” Fishel said. “I dug out bodies. We did what we could. The British had first-aid and saved a lot of people. They didn’t even thank us.”

In December 1944, the remainder of the prisoners in Blahema was evacuated to Gross Rosen, Fishel’s fourth camp.

During the transport, the stench from the dead bodies in the snow was extremely strong, he said.

“When somebody died there was no place to fall,” Fishel said. “The stench was so bad, you couldn’t believe it.”

His only food was grass and, at one time, the slush from hogs.

“I was desperate,” Fishel said. “It the was the first meal I’d had.”

Fishel told about a soldier walking along the line of prisoners asking who didn’t get bread. People would call out, “I, I.” Instead of giving them bread, the soldier responded by killing them one by one — about 16 altogether. The emotion of that memory brought tears to Fishel as he told the story.

“It was like a skeleton dropped down. I don’t know why they killed them. Animals don’t even get treated like we were,” Fishel said. “Every morning we had to go out and be counted. I don’t know why we had to be counted. We were dying.”

Fishel weighed 80 pounds when he was transferred to his fifth camp, Buchenwald, where he stayed for three weeks.

When he got to his sixth camp, Langerstein, Fishel lived with about 60 other people.

One of these victims was a young boy who died in the arms of his twin brother.

“It’s hard to talk about those things,” Fishel said, recalling getting sick. “When you pass blood you’re finished.”

Liberation

United States and German fighter planes flew over the camp several times at Langerstein, he said.

“I could see the face of the men,” Fishel said, recalling the American pilot waving at him and turning away.

“I wish they’d killed me. Living like this was hell. Nobody should endure this,” he recalled.

On the third day in the camp, he heard the fire of machine guns, so he covered himself with dead bodies in a mass grave. Once again he ate grass to stay alive.

Soon after, Fishel was liberated by Americans on April 11, 1945.

He rode in a tank to a nearby village bakery where he got four loafs of fresh bread.

“I was so hungry for so long,” he said. “As you can see, I’ve had a lot of meals since and didn’t have to die. People were dying even after the war.” About 25 prisoners died a day after the United States came, according to a film Fishel showed after his speech.

Within a month after his liberation, Fishel found a cousin and brother. But he said he often asked himself, “Why was I spared from death?”

“You had to be strong in order to survive. Very strong,” he said. “You looked out for yourself. What could I do? I had nothing to give? It affects me everyday. I wish it would go away. I could sleep better.”

Ames resident Beth Holden said this was the first time she heard a Holocaust survivor speak.

“I’ve heard a lot of atrocities that were committed, but I learned about more different atrocities,” she said.

Holden recalled how Fishel spoke about all humanity deserves equal treatment, yet talked about the Nazis as animals.

“When people are so dehumanized, it becomes difficult for them to retain their belief in the value of all humanity,” she said.

“What I went through, I wouldn’t wish on a dog. I’ve seen so many killings for nothing,” Fishel said. “God, don’t punish this way. This was cruel punishment man to man.”