DOCUMENT 27.4: Ruth Webber Interview, 1992

DOCUMENT 27.4

Ruth Webber Interview, 1992

Ruth Webber (b. 1935) was born in Ostrowiec, Poland. She was just four years old when the Germans invaded. Her experience of World War II took her first to the Ostrowiec ghetto, then to a labor camp, and ultimately to Auschwitz. In this 1992 interview, she described how, hidden in an outhouse in the Ostrowiec labor camp, she watched as four Jewish prisoners were forced to bury alive the participants in a failed escape attempt.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

  1. Question

    Given Webber’s description of her own desensitization to death and human suffering, why might this particular episode have stayed with her?

  2. Question

    What might explain the decision of the camp officials to force Jewish prisoners to carry out the punishment of the escapees?