Give us a Chance!

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In December 1943, Toman Brod, his mother and older brother were put on a transport from Terezín. They were sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau where they lived together in the so-called "Family Camp" (camp BIIb) for six months. In June 1944, they went through a selection which separated them forever. At that time, Josef Mengele came to the camp, and after the war he was one of the most wanted Nazi criminals: “He was always wearing an elegant uniform and white gloves. Nobody would say he was a mass murderer. He was stroking children's heads and asking them if they had enough food.” What followed is a mystery, but a legend says one of the boys had the courage to go to Mengele and ask him: “We are a group of boys who are not even sixteen. We are strong and healthy and willing to work. Give us a chance.” If it really happened, Toman Brod does not know for sure but after that there was an unexpected selection among the boys up to the age of sixteen. Under ordinary circumstances these boys were considered to be unable to work and were sent to die. “We already knew what it meant when he said: ‘Out.’ We knew what it was meant by: ‘Go to the right. Go to the left.’” Brod and other boys, about a hundred, went through the selection. In October 1944, he was deported from Auschwitz to the labour camp Gross-Rossen where he stayed till the end of the war. His mother and brother did not survive. After the war those boys who went through this unusual selection in June 1944 started to call themselves the Birkenau boys and still regularly meet each other.

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Toman Brod

Toman Brod was born in Prague on 18th January, 1929 in a Jewish family. In July 1942, he was deported to Terezin with his mother and brother. In December 1943, all were assigned to a transport heading to Auschwitz. He survived there in the so called "children's block" B2b until June 1944 when he luckily passed trough a selection performed by Mengele. He was then assigned to a so called "men's block". In November 1944, Brod passed trough another selection and was sent to a forced labor camp Gross-Rosen, in Germany. There were even worse living conditions than in the "men's block" of Auschwitz. Both his brother and his mother didn't survive the Holocaust. After the liberation, Brod fell ill with typhus. After he had arrived home in Prague he fell ill with tuberculosis. Brod became a member of the Communist Party before 1948. His complicated destiny is marked with his cooperation with The State Security between years 1959 and 1965. Unlike others he doesn't deny or downplay his role. At the end of the 1960's Brod changed his mind and defied the totalitarian regime. He was fired from work and expelled from the Communist Party. He made his living as a drawer of water and a taxi driver. He put his signature to Charter 77. Brod is a well known Czech historian. He wrote a book about his life called "Ještě že člověk neví, co ho čeká" (Better not to Know What Lies Ahead).

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Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Available in: English | Česky

Construction on the second of the three Auschwitz concentration camps began in October 1941 at the village of Birkenau (Březinka). Hundreds of thousands of prisoners from all over Europe passed through these places. On 7 October 1944, Jewish prisoners of the so-called Sonderkommando revolted – although the uprising was stopped with brutal force, they managed to destroy one of the crematories. Over a million people, mostly of Jewish descent, were killed in the gas chambers of the three Auschwitz concentration camps. In 1947, a museum was established on the premises of the camp in honour of its victims.