[Page 593]

1. The nib of the pen scrawled for the final time: Judenrein! Bribe money, and the worn out whining will no longer suffice: What do they think of themselves, these better-type Jews, Judenrat and Police?! Finally! Everyone has been sent away… and well, now their turn has come. They were left for last…let them spy…liquidate! The last of the big-shots left behind to gather up [things] for the authorities And it is now… now comes the final payback for this: These last ones will be taken away to Belzec – For the final time, the Chief of Police goes and simply indicates with his finger: “You! You! You!” He speedily walks down the line, and he moves briskly. There are so many of them, and he – … the possibilities are few and circumscribed… His adjutant is tired and lazy…and yawns: “It might be enough… “There” they said”– – In a corner at the end of the row, a scrawny little girl wails: “Here Chief! Why not me?…Me! Me!! Me!!!” And her father, by her side, steps on her shoe: “If you are speaking up already – put in a good word for your dear father!” Only – he… a heavy mask! He stands downtrodden Just the thick lips suck on the fat end of the cigar… … to someone nearby he replies: “Well, now it is clear You must vanish, and there is nothing to be done about it!…” One can even still see the last fawning chuckle from the others: “And yet, if the Chief would only try one more time!…” But here, the other seethes, as if heated over a coal fire: “You are bags of garbage, all of you! When I say No! There is no more word! …and yet the masses stand – scrawny skeletons! – You are Jews, and therefore no one in the world will come to save you!” And the verbal exchange is – nothing…that a hope still exists! Maybe…every countenance is scrutinized and something is learned from it: “Look! He's upset! And is he the only one whose well-being is affected, you think?” A uniformed person runs from a distance…concerned, preoccupied: Hah! “Save them!” He said it! Do you, or don't you hear it!!!

[Page 594]

A shudder passes down and over the line: a paper…to…him…to the Chief! It hammers not only inside of one head… disturbing him in his sleep: The possibility that amused the daughter? Or the one with the diamond? Miracles on gilded rails can sometimes arrive! Quiet – – – deathly silent around… every tongue sticks ashamedly to one's gums – Everything that could be said was spoken… now, only – waiting! Except for the obstinate one, a stubborn Jew – He cannot be silenced: the paper is for him! For him! Immediately, an electric shudder passes through – a voice: “Rappaport Moishek step out of the line!” In the row, it is murmured: “Well, yes…they need him…” A stiff, scrawny personage pushed himself forward out of the line A frail feminine voice follows him through the rows: “Moishe!…I'm staying here… with the children…remember!” But – Moishe! It shouts within him, from the fortunate dispensation, He shouts something into the ranks…he will see, it means… That a piece of paper can work such magic, then…. the Devil knows! Two set of children's eyes look on sadly as their father disappears Into the dead ghetto alleys, without so much as a wish to “Be Well!” – – – In the distance, the very same street flickers for the last time, Over which searchlights carried forward the looks full of hate Feeling the protective walls of hundreds of years of “Life” underneath oneself. But for nothing! What do you want, man, from a little house made of brick and loam, When – hearts…when hand! When everything drives you, beats you and pursues, When even in your heart, it burns and consumes you – Your house turns over those loyal walls to others now, And you… go to the ends of the earth! Travel “There” and be incinerated! – – – 2. Dust…dust and fragments of bricks left of a city…[left of] generations! Vultures abound…undeterred at every stone and bed. Jewish walls – also the Jewish homeowners are driven from the city The peasants come together from the surrounding villages, The roofs are torn off the pitiful houses, The tables are dragged out, the walls, benches and beds. – The era of Jewish towns and Ghettoes is over! [Be done with] Jewish home property and small town wealth! – – – And it is not only once that the denuded streets relate From cellars…from ancient cellars! Where they searched for hidden gold, [Page 595] And they found there – trembling, wrapped in an overcoat, A young girl…who did not want to share in the fate of her kin… What? Did she really think that nobody would discover her? That she could hold out in this cellar, not daring to show herself? Becoming tortured by hunger and consumed by lice? No! Her dry, wracked breathing never know the enchantment, never know destroyed homes! – – – – The baker's oven spews out its smoke with anger in the night, Like a well-fed aristocrat, puffing on his cigar, Hey, the baked goods must be left on full heat! Presenting the work of the Jews, “Rappaport and Klein.” The only Jew left in the city – let him toil here! The S.S. barracks are hungry, and the hungry – must be fed! And every once prosperous small-town baker's oven Is full of bread flour, and the dream of rolls… Moshe…Moshka…Moses…you must have a different name for everyone. For “Moshka” you must smuggle, for “Moses” you must toil hard! At night, fingers knock at the back doors and at the windows; – Moshka, sell us a loaf of bread, don't hide everything for the Swabians![2] And occasionally, Moshka must – secretly bake a small sack of flour for a neighbor, And watch himself, and tremble, lest “Moses” not pack it away. And – Moshe..Moshe himself also has personal needs…concerns. In a subterranean cellar, where someone else lies hidden away, And one's heart…the wife and children left behind, and now – and now He carries away a loaf of bread into the cellar – his heart pounding, and pounding… Not far away there is a Jewish bunker, He stealthily steals an hour to go there, Except the Chief of the Gestapo, by whose graces he has remained alive, Once excoriated him in the middle of eating his meal as follows: “Foul Jew! I talk to you, and drink schnapps with you, And you… are still drawn to your old haunts.” And the Senior Chief adds: “The Jews in the bunkers, the last ones, “Even the locksmiths and chauffeurs, with the oversized overalls, Nothing will help even them to try and escape – – – “Moses” should be aware: all of them are being kept in mind… Only he – Moses – he is different – not like any other Jew! “He doesn't belong in any bunker! He will remain…at his post!…

[Page 596]

“Nobody will know – he can be sure of it! – He is saved!” – – – and at night – there in the bunker – they roll around in the cramped beds: “Every day we have to anticipate “The Event!” And from other bunkers… terrible tales are heard! 3. A frightened fingernail scrapes on the window of the bakery: No, one of “Them” never knocks in that fashion! It is a plea and a warning; a cry and a shout for help… An angry rain pelts the empty streets with its rod-like wind, And it would be a sin to let even a dog out on the street… …leaving the entire work in the hands of the gentiles there, his assistants, And returning…coming home by himself. A shack near the bakery; the oven is lit, and in the house – there is warmth. Alone… And yet – As if someone has tapped on the window with the tip of a fingernail. Wherever he goes, the sound follows him…is someone signaling him? Looking already? With timid steps, he approaches the window to see what is going on: Pale fingers drum against the window pane…familiar fingers of a woman – Anger…fear…curiosity…everything mixes inside him with astonishment: Ho, the finger of a woman! The youthful woman's nail is like a spear in his heart… Wordlessly, he pries open the door…blindly, he takes a hand in his hand, In the darkness, he senses that the fingers are familiar to him from somewhere: Who? Who? Who? – – Everything within him roils with curiosity and desire. – Come! Come! [the words] rumble within him in all manner of language to the dark visage, And everything in the mind erupts in flame; boundaries to thought fall in one crash – “Tzivia!!! he cried out at the first shine of the light, How do you come so late without being seen?” And his one-time partner, his seventeen year-old daughter weeps on his bosom, She was certain she knew she would find him here; Hiding out in the forests, in ruined, abandoned cellars… Cooking food, after a fashion, on branches, sort of unseasoned, grass-like, And, here, it is already two days that she lies hidden this way in a hole, And with only another loaf of bread – she will manage to get through about another week – Tzivia! Did she become beautiful? Or is it the feeling of one's kin nearby, A face – nearby… young, and in its first blush – – – And the night is fierce and threatening, and the man in him is turning the grindstone! He knows: it is forbidden! But the shadow is cast across all of them – death, But she blushes with the first loss of redness;

[Page 597]

In the darkness of the night, in its toothless mouth, and by the fire of the oven, A minute of life is an eternity that beckons! Not to be squandered – – – 4. Someone with the arrogance of a master is rapping angrily on the door: “Who is in here?!” ------ “Hide yourself!” Everything in him cries out to her. A hailstorm of blows are already rapping, when she is already in the hideaway, But her breath still simmers in the air; the coverlet is yet warm from her. Through the open door, the Chief forces his way in, with his assistants, With the gleaming eyes of hungry, angry wolves: “So, Moses! We have disturbed your deep sleep!” – What is it? Has he already seen something? Heard something? “Drink! Let the Jew bring us something to drink!” But why is he so frightened, pale and enervated? Nothing, he'll drink a little with them, and keep them company somewhat… Interesting, he says finally, Moses is so pale, so pale!” – Is the Chief serious about this, or is he just joking? But the adjutant, the Oberleutenant, doesn't allow for protracted thought: “What is taking the Jew so long with the shitty drink?!” So… he drinks with, Moses… so he can show how a Jew really drinks! And another thing… he has to show them something else…that he is unconcerned! What is he doing standing there, what? Where is she, the “Rachel'eh” hidden? With his “Rachel'eh!”, with his “Rachel'eh”, that he always talks about, let him – Ho, look for her! And he – stretch himself out naked in a corner!” Ha! Why does he stand there so silently, and gasps out of fear! A hand gropes wildly towards the place where the girl lies. Are they just joking in drunkenness? Or are they crazy? …and so she finally stands in the middle of the house…hands tear off her last chemise. The voice of the Chief shouts out in anger, fiercely and in an alien manner: “And tear off everything from him…like ths! Like this! And now, Moses, show us now – – – of course, as is usual, with a woman! – – – Epilogue One day before dawn, the S.S. took four Jews from the bunkers there. Afterwards, the last spark in the oven was extinguished And gruesomely flickered on the two corpses intertwined in the middle of it…. …Silently each of the four stifled their last sigh within themselves

[Page 598]

As the went to lift up the two bodies that were like one – – – … and in a corner of the field on a leaden dreamlike night The terrified hands of Jews carved out a burial plot For Moshe Rappaport and Tzivia Elbaum – the last of the Zamośćer Marranos Skewered and shot through their private parts – – –

In April 1943

Men and women, old people and children – all were driven to their Last Journey. A fragment from the Zamośćers “Depredation”

1. See the note on p. 361 Return
2. An indirect reference to the Germans. Return

[Page 599]

The following writeup is taken out of a letter that R. Rosett sent from Paris on December 26, 1945. It was written freshly after the tragic experiences. We have omitted certain parts of this letter, which are covered in other memoirs, witness testimony, and materials.

…To record what I lived through in the six bloody years of the war, would imply writing a book. However, I will underscore the general sorrowful picture in brief segments:

Shortly before Rosh Hashanah 1939, the Germans took control of Zamość. You can well imagine what our holiday was like.

After only a few days, in which we did not lick any honey, the Germans fall back and their place is taken by the Russians. The joy is great, but regrettably not for long. After a few weeks, the Russians draw back to the Bug River, and the bandits return.

Many Jews flee with the Russians, among them also my husband, because the community activists are the first to be sent to the concentration camps.

Our troubles begin with the assumption of authority by the Germans. They immediately called together the Jewish community, and co-opted marginal people, among them Memek Garfinkel, as the president.

After paying in a large contributions, every day, Jews have to be provided for labor. A large number of young people are sent to camps for heavy labor, from which they return sick.

It is ordered that we wear the yellow badge. Later on, it is exchanged for a white armband with a blue Star of David.

In the City Synagogue, Ziftzer's factory is organized.

In the Old Cemetery, a vegetable garden is created; from the new on, all the headstones are torn out, and are used to pave a sidewalk.

Arrests and murders are daily occurrences. In this manner, Voveh Totengreber is killed, with his son Itzik, Leib Rosen, and others.

Jewish homes are requisitioned and furniture is taken away.

In the winter of 1941, the executioners issue an order, that all the Jews must leave the Altstadt with the exception of a small number of manual laborers, who remain living in Hona Eidelsberg's house, as ‘Needed Jews.’

We move to the Neustadt. A Jewish police force is created, and a Jewish post office. The overcrowding is great. Want reigns, hunger, cold, and the consequences of it are epidemic diseases which take their toll in a large number of people. However, those victims have the best of it. They have stopped suffering.

We are still privileged – we have a ‘roomy’ area, and it is possible to enter it. This does not last for long, and we are driven together to one side of the Neustadt, where can open ghetto is created, without barbed wire. But no Christian is permitted to enter. A shortage of life's necessities ensues.

The Jews would have perhaps been able to bear all of this, were it not for the modern slaughterhouses, which are created with the outbreak of the Russian-German War.

[Page 600]

In the beginning of the winter of 1942, all the Polish Jews are compelled to relinquish their overcoats for use by the German military.

On Purim of that same winter, the first large deportation takes place in Lublin, and a day after Passover, the same happens to us. 2000 Jews are sent to Belzec into the death camp. A certain number are shot on the spot, among them: Chaim Boxer, Berel Deckel, Hessia Goldstein, Elkeh Zetz, Yankel Hertz with his wife, Julek Goldstein with his wife and child, Ab. Inlander and others.

From this time forward, periodic deportations occur. One lives in a state of frightened panic and awaiting death each day.

After five gruesome deportations, an insignificant number of Jews remained, and then the Neustadt is also made Judenrein. We are all driven out to Izbica.

The march there, under the oversight of the SS bandits is terrifying: It is Sukkot, it is cold, snowing. The weaker ones, who cannot keep up so rapid a pace, are shot mercilessly. In this fashion, the following were killed along the way: Ziota Inlander and her 15 year-old daughter, Freyda Ehrlich, Henya Grossman, and others.

On arriving in Izbica, each individual tried to obtain quarters wherever they could, and here the same form of evacuation starts up – one deportation after another.

On a certain day, we learn that Memek Garfinkel has run away. We reason from this, that our final liquidation is arriving. Then, each person attempted to save themselves by whatever means was possible.

I am of the opinion, that since my husband is in Russia, I have a hope that possibly I may see him again, and I have Aryan papers created for me.

On November 4, 1942 I flee Izbica under the threat of been recognized and shot. I come to a family of my acquaintance in Radom.

After six weeks in Radom, I become aware that my situation is becoming dangerous. My acquaintance declares to me that she cannot keep me any longer, because she is under threat of a death sentence for concealing a Jew.

And I must go away – but to where? Solitary, alone, in a foreign hostile world. To whom shall I turn for help?

My Christian acquaintance advises me to go to Czestochowa.

I am prepared for the worst, and similarly to my future fate. I take up my bundle and I go.

Arriving in Czestochowa, and after long searching, I found a furnished room for a hefty enough price. I obtain the room only with a condition – only to spend the night. I may not be in the house the following day.

And where am I supposed to spend entire days?

It is winter, cold, and I must walk the two streets of Czestochowa, which is laden with danger of being recognized and not to be hurt for it.

So I stand on a different street each day, in the lines for meat, sugar, and when the cold becomes unbearable, I go to the railroad station to warm up, where I am under threat every minute, because for the slightest suspicion, one is arrested and shot by the Gestapo agents.

[Page 601]

After two weeks of tiring myself out like this, my protector declares that I can no longer remain here, because she is not prepared to give her head for me.

What does one do, then?

I had enough of this dog's life, and decided to return to my brethren, the Jews and let be what will be.

I decided on this the same day, and under the triple danger of death, I went into the Czestochowa work camp, which was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by SS bandits.

Life in the camp is one long chain of hunger, need, cold and pain. At six o'clock before dawn, the gates of the camp are opened, to let out the workers, like a flock of sheep, each marked with a number, under very tight watch, to go to work. At six in the evening, we return, deathly tired from the labor, in the ammunition factories, and the gates are locked behind us. At nine o'clock, with a special signal, all lights must be extinguished until 5 in the morning.

But even this wretched dog's life is not begrudged to us by the bloodhounds. I had not even turned around to survey my surroundings, and the old familiar deportations start up again, with their terrifying incidents.

Death reigns almightily. On Purim of 1943, the executioners took out all of the intelligentsia, with the exception of a few, and all are bestially murdered.

I lived wretchedly like this for five months in the camp. It becomes known that in very few weeks, the camp is to be dissolved; there will be a selection – the younger workers will be held in the factories, and the older ones? Sent to the gas chambers and crematoria.

It is imperative to save one's self. With the help of an acquaintance, I once again create Aryan papers, and I flee the camp to the ‘Aryan’ side.

On May 22, 1943, I am deported, as a Christian, to Germany for labor. I come to Lottringen, where I work for a German firm for 40 months, doing heavy hard labor. In the end, on August 1, 1945, the Americans liberate me, and at my wish, they send me to Nancy and afterwards to Paris, where I am found now for 11 months….

[Page 602]

1. There are people in the city who say, That we don't look bad; Let them come to us in the camp Their souls will fly from them out of fear, Refrain: Hup, hup, just like this, The flies fly on the straw (2 times) 2. The Judenrat says to our parents That we have enough bread; Let them come to us in the camp They will wish on themselves death. Refrain… 3. We work for the entire day We are hounded and harassed; Every low-life that has the power Orders us to sing, and then beats us. Refrain… 4. It would be the highest time That we should work in our land; And it would be even better If Yoskeh[1] were not our commandant. Refrain… Communicated by: Jekuthiel Zwillich. (The Central Historical Commission 229)

This song appeared in Number 6 of the periodical for the history of Jewish life during the Nazi regime ‘Fun Letzten Khurbn,’ that appeared in Munich. The periodical (pp. 77-78, Augist 1947) offers the following note:

This song was sung by a group of young people, who were put forward by the Zamość Judenrat in a locale barrack for labor. Marching every day to work, under German guard, they were forced to sing. Mostly, they sang this song to the tune of ‘Oyfn Boydem Ligt a Dakh.’

As the Historical Commission in Trontstein, which had presented this song in the Central Historical Commission explained, this song had 5 additional stanzas, but I do not remember the others any longer. – Ed.

Editor's footnote:

1. Yoskeh Bukas from the Neustadt was some sort of a leader in the work camp. Return

[Page 603]

Cut off from the greater outside world, from time-to-time, a bit of news would work its way out about the horror of the Nazi bestiality in those areas that were occupied by the Hitler Army. Through underground channels, the details about the murders would come to outside lands, of bestial slaughter as well as news about resistance. The underground movement. Which fought against the Nazi occupation, would communicate details facts and events, through a variety of channels (couriers, radio), that the official German information sources would not pass through. It was from this news that the world truly became aware of the immense German cruelty in regard to the occupied lands, and first and foremost about the extermination campaign against the Jews.

We take the following news briefs from ‘Unser Zeit,’ the organ of the expatriate representation of the Bund in Poland, which appeared in New York. In this periodical. There was a permanent heading, ‘News from Poland’ where details of the war and the resistance were presented, of the destruction and extermination. News of hundreds of Jewish cities and towns; from the camps and extermination locations.

From this source, we bring here those news items, that have a relation to Zamość, and its close-by areas. We maintain the order of the original publication.

‘Unser Zeit,’ Number 5, (28) May 1943:

In the vicinity of Krasnobrod, not far from Zamość, in the time between the 1^st and 2^nd of February, armed fighting took place between German military and Polish divisions. The fighting began when the Germans began to search for Poles that had hidden themselves, during the time that they wanted to deport them to Germany to work. The Poles, mostly peasants, organized divisions in order to better oppose the Germans. They took away the weapons that had been hidden in the fields, and went to obtain help from the secret military organization.

A regular battlefield evolved between the Germans and the Poles. The Germans brought approximately 2000 troops, airplanes, tanks and artillery. In the clash, the Germans lost over 50 dead, and many of them were wounded.

In reprisal, the Germans torched several villages, many people were shot, and their homes were flattened to the ground.

As it appears, the Germans deported the population en-masse, not only for forced labor in Germany, but also to settle German colonists in place of the Poles. Part of the colonists had already arrived, and the action of the armed Polish divisions was directed also against the foreign colonists.

In the Zamość vicinity, Polish children were taken away from their parents and they were sent away to a variety of places. A transport of children in a frightful condition arrived in Warsaw. Many had frozen hands and feet, many were just plain sick. The children told that everyone who was over the age of 13 was sent to do work in Krakow.

‘Unser Zeit,’ Number 1, (36) January 1944:

We have received the following account from the leadership of the P. P. S. from Stockholm:

In July 1943 a Jew from Poland came to Stockholm (a second person, after Khatzkel Litman, who had previously arrived illegally from Germany on a Dutch ship). The one who had just arrived is named Severin Freint, a

[Page 604]

merchant from Zamość. From the beginning of the war, until the fall of 1942, Freint was in Zamość. He was a wealthy merchant from the manufacture of bronze, son of the owner of a factory.

When separate designation was instituted for Jews, Freint obtained papers for 8,000 zlotys under the name of Jan Wisotsky, and he had freedom of movement as a Pole. He tells, that in the summer of 1942, terrifying reports reached the Jews of Zamość about the murders in Warsaw. In Zamość, (at the time?) There was no ghetto; there was just a Judenrat. The Jews did not live badly in a material sense. The relationship of the Poles was not friendly, in the best case – it was reciprocal. It was possible to do quite a bit with money. It was in this manner, for example, that Freint secured a hiding place for his 19 year-old wife for the sum of 12,000 zlotys. This was the summer of 1942, when they had begun to liquidate the Jews of Zamość. The Jews were driven out of their houses onto the marketplace, and many were murdered immediately right at the houses. The remainder were arrayed in columns, and led off to the forests 8-10 kilometers from the city, where they were all shot. Freint tells that often, the Germans would force the Czech Jews to help drive the Zamość Jews from their houses, and later they suffered the same fate.

In one instance, 8,000 Jews were taken out of Zamość to be killed, at the time that Zamość had in total 17,000 Jews.

The hiding place of Freint's wife was compromised; when he came there at one time, he found her already shot. In the room, there was a veritable mob of local residents, who snatched up the belongings that remained from the murdered individual. Also, Freint's father was murdered by the Germans.

Later on, Freint found a place for himself to conceal himself from the Germans, for which he paid with 22 pieces of linen from Widzew, worth 500 zlotys apiece. The owner of the dwelling sheltered him for six weeks. He was treated well, and he would sit at the table like a member of the family. When not a single Jew remained in Zamość, the homeowner advised him to travel to Germany for work, because he was afraid to shelter him further, hiding him at his home. He left; he was seized on the train, and sent for labor in Hamburg. After a number of months, he was taken to Norway, along with other workers. In Oslo, the Norwegians helped him to cross the border illegally to Sweden. He was taken part of the way on bicycles, and part of the way on foot. Ixty kilometers from the Swedish border, he encountered a German patrol. He was shot at, and was wounded in the hand. However, he was fortunate in being able to escape, and he came to Sweden.

‘Unser Zeit,’ Number 6, (41) June 1945:

After the ‘Evacuation.’ – This is what remained of the Jewish Community of Zamość

‘In the course of two years, the Germans did not institute any kind of ghetto there. The Jews were permitted to live in their houses, except for a few houses that were vacated for use by the German authorities.

The extermination began in the summer of 1942. In the month of August, an order was issued to the Jews to leave their homes, and to gather in the marketplace. There were members of the Gestapo gathered there, soldiers and police. They began to shoot at the mass of Jews. A large number were killed.

During the time that the shooting was going on in the marketplace, we could also hear shooting from the Jewish houses, because anyone who had remained behind there, was shot on the spot. Later, 8000 Jews were arrayed into rows and they were marched off into the forest, that is approximately 6

[Page 605]

miles from the city. There, they were all shot with machine guns, and buried in graves that had been previously prepared. Their clothing was taken from them before, and loaded into wagons, to be transported to Germany.

Immediately after this, the Germans took a second group of Jews from the city, and killed them in the same way.’

We have included this information from the three issues of ‘Unser Zeit’ as they appeared there. Part of these stories are also related in the memoirs of the survivors, which appear in the Pinkas. These news items arrived in ‘the heat of the moment,’ right after the events took place, and confirm again, and yet again, the facts related by those that remained.

The last two chronicled news items are almost identical, and perhaps are derived from the same source (Severin Freint). However, in the second one, there are facts that are missing from the first.

[Page 606]

At 2:00PM on July 22, 1941 the Germans entered Ludomir and on the morning of the 23^rd they removed 20 Jews from the Kovler Gasse and shot them, among them were two people from Zamość, Shepsel Tuchschneider and Elyeh Birkman.

On the third day of their occupation they began to seize people for work, but they did not yet begin to seize women. I was sitting at home when three storm troopers came in and began to beat me because I was sitting at home. I was led out to a group of 200 Jews. After forming us into 4 in a row, we were taken about 3 kilometers from the city. They beat us the entire way. The work consisted of loading ammunition, which was in autos, in the middle of the field. We were beaten again while at work.

After work, we were again arrayed in rows, again beaten, and led back into the city, and along the way, the beating did not stop. Before coming to the city, we were subjected to a lecture, that on the following morning we will no longer be seized to come to work, but we were to come by ourselves. Whoever wore a beard was to shave it. Before dispersing us, we were again beaten, and we fled.

The city saw that the Jews were running, but thet did not know what had transpired; in great fear, they began to close their houses. We got to our homes, barely alive.

In the end, a Judenrat was created. The Judenrat provided the workers to the extend demanded by the Gestapo.

On a certain day, the Judenrat received an order to provide 100 men at the train. As always, the Judenrat carried out the order, and sent over the 100 men asked for. Among these, was also one person from Zamość, Heschel Kalechstein (Chaim's son).

After the work, they were told to go home, but 10 men were detained, and they were ordered to dig a pit. When the pit was completed, the Germans gave an order that the ten men should get into it, and they were ordered to dance and sing. In the middle of this dancing, they were shot. Among those who were shot, was also Heschel Kalechstein.

Someone came running to the Judenrat with a shout and told the frightful occurrence, that the 10 Jews were shot. The Judenrat was shaken by this misfortune. They ran to the train. The grave was found already filled in. The Germans ‘explained’ that these Jews didn't want to work.

The Judenrat immediately intervened with a request to permit these 10 to be buried in the Jewish cemetery. The negotiations took two days. In the end, permission was given to disinter those that were killed, and to transfer them to cemetery. But, five coffins had to be provided (one coffin for every two martyrs). In transferring those who were murdered, only 8 men were permitted to go along to the cemetery. From the people of Zamość, two were at the cemetery – myself and Schwertschaf (Leibl Shpizeisen's son-in-law). I did not recognize Kalechstein any longer. It was only by the sweater that he wore, that I was able to recognize that it was him.

On the 1^st of August 1942, the Gestapo came to the Judenrat and indicated that it needed 1000 workers the following day to be taken to Fatidin, which is approximately 7 kilometers from the city, where they will have to work on the construction of an airfield for aviation. They also need two engineers, to control the work.

The work consisted of digging a massive pit. The pit needed to be rectangular, and had to have steps at each of the four corners in order to get into it. During the first few days, the Germans were believed, that this was, indeed, a ‘lotnisko’ – an airstrip. The people who worked there, were satisfied, because each day they were sent home with provisions that

[Page 607]

contained good food, even with meat. On departing for home, the workers would take their shovels home with them. On the following morning, the workers would go to work of their own volition, and they were really satisfied.

After 15 days of work, the workers began to talk among themselves, saying that something didn't seem right to them about this ‘airstrip;’ that in fact they are digging a grave for themselves and all the Jews of Ludomir. This suspicion grew stronger every day. However, there was no choice. They went to work as they had done before.

The day that the work at the ‘airstrip’ was completed, all the Jews that lived in the villages were driven into the ghetto in Ludomir. At that time, the Zamość men, Yankel and Abish Goldgraber also came. By that time, they had been living in a village. They had traveled to their brother, Joseph Goldgraber. I went to them, and we talked about the tragic situation.

Hat very same evening, when the workers returned from work, they encountered a guard of Ukrainian militia at the ghetto gates. They ordered the Jews to lay down their shovels in front of the ghetto gates, and go into the ghettos without them. This was Sunday, August 30, 1942.

We already had a premonition that something was going to happen tomorrow. People ran around as if they were crazed. Bunkers were sought. We were not prepared for the ‘news.’ Those who tried to jump over the barbed wire around the ghetto perimeter were shot by the Ukrainians. There were Ukrainians in transport trucks arrayed all around the ghetto.

On the following day, September 1, 1942, the pogrom began. Whoever had a good bunker, temporarily saved themselves. The pogrom lasted for 15 days. During those days, masses of Jews would be transported daily to Fatidin. In total, approximately 18 thousand out of the 22 thousand Jews that were then found in the Ludomir ghetto were shot and killed.

On September 16, 1942, the area commissar created a second Judenrat, because the first was eliminated with the 18 thousand, who were taken to the slaughter. The commissar indicated that the Judenrat has to persuade the Jews who are in hiding outside the ghetto to come into the ghetto. He indicated that a new life would begin, which would be normal. Whoever remained alive to this point would remain living. I came out of the bunker along with others.

The Judenrat indicated that it was necessary to be dressed cleanly, and shaven. A kitchen was created, and food was provided. One went to work, and one began to believe that perhaps we really will remain alive.

At that time, I met with our landsleit, Gershon Inlander, and Hirsch-Chaim Brokh, and his wife. They told me the following about what they lived through in the 15 days in a bunker. Brokh got a fever, and screamed that he should be let out of the bunker. He wanted to get something to drink. They attempted to make him understand that people are being seized, and that it is dangerous to go outside. He argued that he didn't want to hear anything of this, and that if he is not allowed to go out, he will start to shout. There were many people in the bunker at that time. Everyone became fearful that he could, God forbid, condemn all of them. So, his wife led him out of the bunker, and led him into a house. There was no potable water. There was a pail full of loam, and water stood above it. Brokh drank that water. After that. His wife led him back to the bunker, where they held out for 15 days.

The area commissar had a secretary (called Fraulein Jana, may her name be erased). Her dearest mission was to kill Jewish children without the use of ammunition. Apiece of iron rail track was dug into the ground, and this ‘Fraulein Jana’ would take Jewish children up to the age of two, and kill them on the piece of rail track.

On November 13, 1942, the second pogrom began. At that time, Jews were taken to be killed in a different direction. It was three kilometers from the city. About two thousand Jews were taken there. It was said that there, they were shot in their clothing, and afterwards burned. I personally do not know this to be so.

The second pogrom lasted a longer time. In the ghetto, only those remained who had ‘permits,’ that they are craftsmen. I was not a craftsman, and therefore lay in a bunker. From time to time I would sneak out, in the middle of the night.

[Page 608]

In order to find some form of sustenance. In the ghetto, in the houses, there was sufficient abandoned produce. It was about a kilometer from the bunker to the ghetto.

In the ghetto was the storekeeper, Yossel Scharf, from the Neustadt. He would give me produce to the extent that I was able to carry. I was compelled to return to the bunker, because in the ghetto, only those with the ‘work cards’ were allowed to be found. If an individual was found without such a card, he was threatened with danger. Also, a demand was issued that whoever in the ghetto would permit a person without a ‘work card’ inside, will be shot. Therefore, the Jews in the ghetto were indeed afraid, and did not permit those [without cards] entry.

I, along with Nahum Stern went to get produce in this fashion a couple of times. On February 20, 1943 I went once into the ghetto and did not then return to the bunker ever again. That is because, it was no longer possible to remain there.

The commandant of the Jewish militia in the Ludomir ghetto at that time was Leibl Feldstein. I met with him secretly, and asked me what I should do – return to the bunker, or remain secretly in the ghetto. He told me that if I have a good location in the ghetto, where no one could see me, I should remain in the ghetto. He also told me, if I can receive protection from the president of the Judenrat, that he should have me sent for some sort of work, I will then receive a ‘work card.’ The president does not have to know that I am already in the ghetto, however, so that it appears that I am located outside of the ghetto.

I got such protection. The president was told that I am found in a bunker, where I no longer am able to sustain myself. They then went to intervene, and after 3 weeks, he ordered me to come to the ghetto and go to work. I was at that time fortunate, that I was able to attain this – to be in the ghetto! No longer needing to lie in a bunker, in constant fear. I had food and I ‘was at liberty!’

At Passover time, we baked matzos legally, lead by Herschel Adamczyk's son-in-law (Rov).

During Hol HaMoed Passover, 20 men were taken into the city to work, and I was also among them. The work consisted of tearing out the headstones from the Jewish cemetery, and to smash them up into little pieces. The Ukrainians came riding, and took this away to their houses and made sidewalks out of it beside their homes. This work lasted for five days.

Later, 300 men were taken and they worked at disassembling the empty houses, from which the Jews had been driven out, and exterminated. That meant that the enemy could still be hidden in these houses. The front was still far away, they had already seen the enemy – they were planning for their own defeat.

On December 12, 1943, it was a Sunday, the area commissar arrived in the ghetto. It was a rarity for him to come this way. He observed the ghetto, looked around, and nobody knew the reason for which he had come. He was there for a while, and then immediately left. Everyone got scared, and went to the president of the Judenrat to ask what this might possibly mean. The president replied that this was noting that, God forbid, was bad. He had just come from a meeting, and everything is ‘in order.’ Hearing such words from the president, enabled everyone to go to bed in peace. In total, we were about a thousand people in the ghetto at that time.

On December 13, 1943 the last pogrom began. Very early, the Gestapo and S.S. troops surrounded the ghetto, and shot into the air, in order to prevent anyone from running away. The panic, however, became frightful; people began to flee, and eyes looked about. Itcheh Stern (Nahum's son) jumped over the ghetto wire, and therefore he was shot there. I found myself about 300 meters from my bunker. In the ghetto, it was boiling like a pot. I had about 150 meters to reach my bunker. In front of me, the members of the Gestapo had detained a number of Jews, and they also called me to them. I turned off into another direction. I reached my bunker in peace. Two meters from my bunker, Nahum Stern had his bunker. Nahum began to open the little door to the bunker, and wanted to get in, but the Gestapo bandits took note of him, and shot him on the spot, together with his daughter Sonya.

[Page 609]

The Zamość families of Reisfeld and Bergerson were with me in the bunker. We sat in the bunker for eight days. We could not remain beyond that, the bunker was two meters and a half on the side, and there were ten people inside; we had no means of sustenance. One kilometer from the ghetto, we had prepared a second bunker, and we decided to transfer ourselves there. This bunker was on the property of a Pole. We arrived at the second bunker peacefully. Do understand, that the Pole extracted a tidy sum from us. This bunker was 3 meters from the Pole's cellar. We remained there for eight months. We did not know when it was day or night. Twice a day the Pole would bring us food. He took enough money for it.

Finally, we survived, and Ludomir was taken over by the Soviets. That was on July 23, 1944.

About 200 Jews came crawling out of holes and bunkers, of which 20 were from Zamość. That is what remained from the 22 thousand Jews that were [originally] found in the Ludomir ghetto.

Three weeks or so after the liberation, we rode out to the huge mass grave in Fatidin, to see the extermination place of our martyrs. It was not easy for us to find the place, because the earth had already been smoothed over, and it had absorbed the blood of the thousands of martyrs. In the end, a shovel brought up a tuft of hair… you can imagine what happened at that point. People fainted, had spasms, the weeping reached the hearts of heaven. We cordoned off this sacred place with wire. We recited a couple of chapters of the Psalms, recited Kaddish, and took leave of our martyrs.

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