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Report by Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, two Escapees from Auschwitz (Late April 1944)

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We received soup in the morning. It was so thick that we had to eat it with our hands. A similar soup was served at noon, and in the evening we had so-called "tea" with 30 dekagrams of indigestible bread and two or three dekagrams of marmalade or synthetic fat, both of the worst quality.

In the early days we were taught to sing the camp hymn in an excellent manner, and had to stand around for hours and practice. The hymn is as follows:

Aus ganz Europa kamen
Wir Juden nach Lublin.
Viel Arbeit gibt's zu leisten
Und dies ist der Beginn.

From all of Europe came
We Jews to Lublin.
There is much work to do,
And this is the beginning.

 

Um diese Pflicht zu meistern
Vergiss Vergangenheit
Denn in der Pflichterfuellung
Liegt die Gemeinsamkeit.

 

In order to master this duty
Forget the past,
For in the fulfillment of duty
Lies community feeling.

 

Drum ruestig an die Arbeit
Ein jeder halte mit
Gemeinsam wollen wir schaffen
Im gleichen Arbeitsschritt.

 

So actively at work,
Let each one hold his own,
Together we want to labor
At the same work-pace.

 

Nicht alle wollen begreifen
Wozu in Reihen wir stehen.
Die muessen wir dann zwingen
Dies alles zu verstehen.

 

Not all want to understand
Why we stand in ranks.
We must then force them
To understand all this.

 

Die neue Zeit muss alle
Uns alle stets belehren
Dass wir schon nur die Arbeit
Der Arbeit angehoeren.

 

The new era must teach us –
All of us – forever
That we now only to labor,
Only to labor belong.

 

Drum ruestig an die Arbeit
Ein jeder halte mit
Gemeinsam wollen wir schaffen
Im gleichen Arbeitsschritt.

 

So actively at work,
Let each one hold his own,
Together we want to labor
At the same work-pace.

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