Pavel Werner with Ludek Klacer

In this photograph, I'm with my friend Ludek Klacer (the dark-haired boy on the right), who was two years older than I, in the park in Pardubice. The inscription behind us says: Truth shall prevail.

I'd say that I'm about four years old. I knew Ludek from childhood, we used to attend secret Jewish classes at the synagogue after the Germans forbade us, as Jewish children, to attend normal schools. 

Ludek was with me at Auschwitz-Birkenau as well - we had a so-called commune, which meant that I found him something, he organized it further along, he in some fashion offered the goods to some fat-cats, and in exchange got from them perhaps a piece of bread, a bit of margarine, or other things. We split the end result fairly between ourselves, half and half. Ludek always cleverly organized something, whereas I wasn't as capable, so he always gave me hell that I hadn't stolen anything. Ludek returned from the concentration camp and then emigrated.