was born in Poland, also arrived at Auschwitz at the end of 1942. On his first day as a Sonderkommando he met an acquaintance, Shlomo Kirschenbaum, who was the Kapo in charge of the Sonderkommando team. He told Kirschenbaum that he did not think he could survive doing that work, and was contemplating suicide. "Kirschenbaum told me that he to felt the same way when he was sent to the Sonderkommando, but was able to adapt. He said that I too, would be able to adapt. He gave me two stiff drinks. I fell asleep, and after waking the next day I felt differently about it, and did not kill myself." According to Greif, the Nazis deliberately sent Jews to work as Sonderkommandos. "The Germans' typical sadistic streak found amusement in a system in which the victim suffered the utmost degradation prior to ending up in a cloud of foul-smelling smoke." As one of the survivors put it: "We did the dirty work of the Holocaust." Sonderkommandos were divided into several groups, each with a specific specialized function. Some greeted the new arrivals, telling them that they going to be disinfected and showered prior to being sent to labor teams. They were obliged to lie, telling the soon-to-be-murdered prisoners that after the delousing process they would be assigned to labor teams and reunited with their families. These were the only Sonderkommandos to have contact with the victims while they were still alive. Other teams processed the corpses after the gas