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...I
stood in the line opposite my house in Wolynska Street, and
from there we were taken to Zamenhof Street. The Ukrainians
divided up the loot amongst themselves before our eyes. They
fought amongst themselves, valued and sorted everything.
Despite the great number of people there was silence in the
street. A silent and cruel despair fell upon all. Oh what
despair it was! They photographed us as though we were animals
from before the Flood. There were also some who remained calm.
I myself hoped that we would go home again. I thought they
would check our documents. An order was given, and we moved
off from our places. Woe to us! The naked truth was revealed
before our eyes. Railway cars. Cars that were empty. That day
was a fine, hot summer's day. It seemed as though the sun was
protesting against the injustice. What was the guilt of our
wives, our children, our mothers? What was it? The sun
disappeared behind thick clouds. It is beautiful, warms and
shines and does not wish to witness our suffering and
humiliation.
An
order is given to get into the cars. Eighty are pushed into
each car. The way back is sealed off. I had on my body only
trousers, a shirt and shoes. A backpack with other things and
high boots had stayed at home. I had prepared it because there
were rumors that we would be sent to the Ukraine for work. The
train was shunted from one siding to another. I knew this rail
junction well and realized that we were staying in the same
place. Meanwhile we could hear the Ukrainians amusing
themselves, the sound of their shouting and cheerful laughter
reaching us. It was becoming increasingly suffocating inside
the car, and from minute to minute there was less air to
breathe; it was all despair, blackness and horror... With
indescribable suffering we finally arrived at Malkinia. We
stopped there all night. Ukrainians came into the car and
demanded valuables. Everybody gave them up in order to
preserve their lives a little while longer.
...In
the morning the train moved and we reached Treblinka station.
I saw a train that passed us and in it people who were hungry,
ragged and half naked. They said something to us but we did
not understand them. The day was burning hot. The lack of air
was terrible. As a result we were very thirsty. I looked out
of the window. The peasants brought water and charged 100
zloty for each bottle. I had no money, apart from 10 gold
coins. Also a 2, a 5 and a 10 in silver, with a portrait of
the Marshal,** that I had kept as a memento. So I was forced
to do without water. Others bought it. They paid 500 zloty for
a kilogram of black bread. I was tortured by thirst until
midday. Then the future Hauptsturmfuehrer came in and
picked 10 men who brought us water. I assuaged my thirst a
little. An order was given to take out the dead, but there
were none. At four in the afternoon the train moved off. We
arrived at Treblinka in a few minutes. It was only there that
the blinkers dropped from our eyes. Ukrainians with rifles and
machine-guns stood on the roofs of the huts. The whole area
was strewn with bodies, some dressed and some naked. Their
faces were distorted with fear and horror. They were black and
swollen. Their eyes were frozen wide open. Their tongues hung
out, brains were spattered around and the bodies twisted.
There was blood everywhere. Our innocent blood. The blood of
our children, our brothers and sisters. The blood of our
fathers and mothers. And we are without hope, we realize that
we will not escape our fate....
There
is an order to get out of the cars. Belongings are to be left
behind. We are taken into the yard. There were two large
notice boards with orders to hand over gold, silver, precious
stones and all valuables. Failure to do so would bring the
death penalty. On the roofs of the huts were Ukrainians with
machine-guns. The women and children were ordered off to the
left and the men told to sit down in the yard, on the right.
Some distance away from us people were working: they were
sorting the belongings taken from the train. I managed to
steal over among the workers, and began to work; I suffered
the first lash from the whip of a German whom we called
Frankenstein. The women and children were told to take off
their clothes.
...When
we carried, or more correctly, dragged, the bodies away we
were made to run, and were beaten for the least delay. The
dead had been lying there for a long time. They had already
begun to decompose. There was a stench of death and
decomposition in the air. Worms crawled on the wretched
bodies. When we tied on the belts, an arm or a leg would
frequently drop off. We also labored on graves for ourselves
until dusk, without food or drink. The day was hot, and thirst
plagued us greatly. When we reached the huts in the evening
each one of us began to search for the people he had known the
day before in vain - they were not to be found, they were no
longer among the living....
Shana
be-Treblinka (Mi-pi
Ed Reiya) ("A Year in Treblinka by an Eye
Witness"), Jerusalem, 1945, pp. 5-14.
*
Wiernik took part in the uprising at the Treblinka camp. He
succeeded in escaping and reached Warsaw in 1944. He recorded
his evidence there, and it was first published by the
Underground in Poland.
**
The reference is to Marshal Jozef Pilsudski. |
