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Rendered by Josef Bau |
The Hitlerist strategy was so organized as to conceal the bitter fate from the victims themselves; until the very end, they would attempt by every means, to mesmerize their hapless victims, so that they would not know, that they are being led to their death.
There is no doubt that the Nazis did not do this for any ‘humanitarian’ objectives – that the victims should suffer less. The real reason behind this tactic was – to create the illusion that they are being transported ‘to work,’ and that this is simply a ‘relocation,’ in order not to arouse the elements of a revolt or resistance. It is from this that the adopted ‘ceremonial’ found in almost all the camps was taken – of undressing, that is to say, to ‘bathe one's self;’ from the instruction to lay out the clothing in order, in order to be able to find them more easily later; from making marks on the baggage, in order not to lose track of them after bathing, and the other means of care, in order that the audience not catch on to what they really had in mind to do.
Despite this, news and facts, and even accurate pictures about the Hitlerist death camps spread among the Jews in the ghettoes and work camps. Those who escaped from ‘transports;’ those who managed, miraculously, to get out of the extermination camps; Christians from nearby villages; railroad employees, who caught on to what was happened to their ‘cargo,’ – all of these popularized the Hells of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, Sobibor and Belzec.
Belzec was already a name that inspired terror from the time of the German occupation. Although the total scope of this death machine was not known, its gruesome name had been spread among the Jews crammed into the ghettoes, and work camps in general, and in the Lublin District in particular.
The following materials are put together on the basis of a variety of documents and eye-witness accounts, scattered and spread in a variety of collections, and primarily from the following publications:
These facts which we bring further on, appear here in Yiddish, nearly for the first time. The largest part, and majority of the populace of all Zamość and its environs were exterminated in Belzec, and firstly, indeed, the Jews of Zamość about which an array of witnesses testify about, and other material in our Pinkas. Whether because of relevance, or because of the geographic circumstance (Belzec administratively belonged to Zamość) we felt it appropriate to incorporate the following facts.[1]
In reality, at different times, there were two separate camps in Belzec: – the first was a work-camp, that was put up in the first half of 1940. We tell about this camp in a variety of works in the Pinkas. On August 14, 1940, there were
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over ten thousand Jews in the Belzec work-camp from the General Government District. This camp complex had the following 6 points: Belzec-Yard; Belzec-Mill; Belzec-Train Depot; Ziszanal, Lipsko and Plaszow.
Then, the German authorities created a so-called ‘Gremium for the Issues of the Camp in Belzec.’ This ‘Gremium’ approached 57 Judenrat organizations about providing support for the camp inmates. It is necessary to understand from this, that the Judenrat organizations were approached in those cities from which the inmates had come. Only 9 Judenrats responded. On August 20, 1940 this ‘Gremium’ was transformed (by the Germans, it is understood) into a ‘Help-Committee.’
This specific work-camp existed for a certain period of time, and afterwards, it was dismantled. When this happened exactly, is not known, but seemingly in November 1940. There were a part of the German officials who didn't even know what had happened to this camp, where certain ‘occupants’ had come. It will be very characteristic to introduce the letter of the official division of the ‘Internal Management Settlement Oversight and Management Concern.’ The letter was written on October 21, 1940 and addresses the ‘Government of the General Government District’ in Krakow, to the hands of Dr. Fehl, the director of the ‘Division for Management Concern.’
The letter is a reply to the question about: ‘Resolution of the Jewish Camp in Belzec and the Mis-located Found There.’ The letter has the type of content that it deserves to be presented in its entirety:
‘Regarding your inquiry whether the Jewish camp in Belzec is already being rationalized, or had already been rationalized, I share with you that, it is regrettably not possible to obtain a snapshot of this matter currently, with suitable final clarity. The Labor Authority of the Jews in the Jewish Division have this matter before them in their hands. At the expressed communication of the director of this division, he declared to me that as a consequence of the absence of joint cooperation with the SS Brigade Commander, Globocznik[2], it is not possible to provide definitive information.The Jews in the camp at Belzec, who were to have been rationalized, were transferred to take on work in the area of the A u t o - P r o g r a m. This implies that the Jews of Warsaw and Radom will be able to return to their homes. The Judenrats are even willing to bring their racial kin home by themselves. However, a mysterious lack of clarity pervades the implementation of such a thing, because the correct cooperation from the organs of the SS and the police chief is not attainable in practice. The current factual situation is such, that the need for 8 trains is foreseen to effect the transport. Two trains have, in the meantime, departed. One train went to Hrubieszow with 920 Jews. It was escorted by 9 SS men, or self-defense men. Only approximately 500 of these 920 men arrived at the destination. What happened to the other 400 is presently not known. It does not seem likely that they would have shot so large a number. I heard the rumor that it may be possible that they bribed themselves out (and disappeared from the transport), but I underscore that this is no more than a speculation. The second train, with approximately 900 Jews went to Radom. With it, it would not have been difficult to take along the 300-400 Jews of Radom to send them out, but their wish did not materialize, and only 16 Radomers traveled (to Radom) with the transport. Apparently, a larger number of Lublin Jews will now be found in Radom, and it will be difficult for them to reach Lublin from there. The Sturmbannfuhrer Dolf refused to take the Lublin Jews off of this train.
At the upcoming discussion of the situation, this condition between the Labor Authority of the Jews with the present mis-detainees, to the SS and police chief, the characteristic expression, ‘circus’ is used, a word to which nothing else needs to be added….’
Up to here is the letter. As if it should not be word for word clear, that the existence of the Jewish work camp had come to an end.
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In the Fall of 1941, Belzec began to construct a new camp shrouded in secrecy. A wall of sand was shaken out around it, on which cut down pine trees were set up , set so thick, as to prevent anyone from seeing anything. A rail line, branching off the railroad was built, leading to its interior.
Transports began to arrive in this camp, in the Spring of 1942, first from the District of ‘Galicia.’ Later, also from the rest of Poland, and even Western Europe. The purpose of these Jewish transports was clear – they were being taken to their death. Belzec was the place from which Jews will no longer return.
Let an extract from an official German document be presented here, from March 17, 1942.[3] It is an official report, in which we read, among other things[4]:
‘I had a conversation with Hauptsturmfuhrer H o f l e’ this Monday, March 16, 1942, which took place at 17.30 hours. During the course of this conversation, the following was declared by Hauptsturmfuhrer Hofle:
In the volume of documents and materials about the camps, which we have previously mentioned already, we find a short declaration that the previously mentioned Rudolf Reder provided. His declaration is in Document Number 93 of this volume (pp. 221-224).
This declaration, that was taken down formally by the stenographer M a l e c k a in the Krakow Division of the Central Jewish Historical Commission, contains a very short overview about the death machine in Belzec. The same Rudolf Reder tells about this more extensively in the brochure named ‘Belzec,’ published in Krakow, in 1946.
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Rudolf Reder was born in Dembica on April 4, 1881, a soap factory manufacturer.[5] He lived in Lemberg at Poznanska Number 7. He was in the camp from August 17, 1942 to the end of November 1942. Here is what he relates:
…We traveled on (he is talking about the transport ‘evacuees out’ of Mielec. – Ed.), nobody uttered so much as a word. It was clear to us, that we were riding to our death, that for us, there was no rescue; we were apathetic, not even a groan was heard. We all thought about only one single thing: how to escape; but there was no possibility. The wagon, in which we were riding, was entirely new, the little window was so small, that I could not squeeze myself out of it. In other wagons, it seems someone may have knocked down a door, because we shooting after those who had fled. Nobody said anything to anyone; nobody attempted to comfort the women choked with crying; nobody tried to interrupt the children and quiet them. All of us knew: we are riding to a certain death. We wished for ourselves for it to be over already. Maybe someone of us saved themselves, I do not know… one could only try to escape from the train.
The train arrived at the Belzec station at around midday. This was a small sort of station. Houses stood around it. The staff of the Gestapo lived in these houses.
Belzec lies on the Lublin -to-Tomaszow-Lubelski line. It is 15 kilometers from Rawa Ruska.
On the Belzec station, the train was pulled up to the main road, and pushed onto a siding branch, which ran for yet another kilometer right to the gate of the death camp. Near the station, the Ukrainian train workers also lived, and the small post office building was located there. At Belzec, an elderly German, with thick black whiskers boarded the locomotive, – I do not know what he was called, but I would immediately recognize him – and he looked just like an executioner; this individual took control of the train, and drove it right up to the camp.[6] The time to the camp took two minutes. During the course of the entire four months, I constantly saw this same bandit.
The rail siding ran through fields. On both sides were completely open areas, without any buildings. The German that drove the train into the camp, descended from the locomotive, and ‘assisted’ (unloading the train), beating, yelling, he drove people out of the train. He personally went into each wagon, and personally took count to make sure no people were left behind. He knew about everything, and when the train was finally empty, and having been inspected, he gave a signal with a pot, and he drove it out of the camp.
This entire area of Belzec was taken under control by the SS Nobody was permitted to show themselves there. Civilians, who strayed into the area, were shot at. The train drove up to a place that had approximately a kilometer in length and width; it was surrounded by barbed wire, and with iron nets laid on top of one another, to a height of 2 meters. The wires were electrified.
At that place, one rode through a wide wooden gate, which was covered in barbed wire. A small guardhouse stood by the gate, where a guard sat by a telephone. In front of the house, SS staff stood with dogs, [and] when the train drove through the gate, the guard closed the gate, and went into the guardhouse. At that moment, the ‘transfer of the train’ took place. Several tens of SS staff would open up the wagons with the shout: ‘Out.’ With whips and rifle butts, they drove the people out of the wagons. The doors of the wagons were more than a meter higher than the ground. Those
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who were chased out with whips had to jump – all, old and young. Hands and feet were broken, and they were forced to jump to the ground. Children injured themselves, all fell, filthy, drained and frightened.
The so-called ‘Zugsfuhrer’ has utility beside the SS staff. These were the Jewish overseers of the permanent death brigade in the camp. They were generally dressed in the camp insignias.
The sick, the old, and the small children, and also those who could not go under their own power, all were put on stretchers and they were situated at the edge of enormous pits that had been dug out. There, the Gestapo official Jirmann, who was a specialist in the killing of old people and children, shot at them.[7] He was tall, with fine brunette hair with normal general appearance. Like the others, he lived in Belzec, beside the train station, in a little house – just like the others – without a family and without women.
He would come quite early to the camp, and he stayed there for the entire day, and received the death transports. Immediately after the unloading of the victims from the train, they would be gathered together on the camp square, which was surrounded by armed Askaris,[8] and it was here that Uhrmann would hold forth. It was deathly still. He stood close to the mass of people. Every person wanted to hear; a sudden hope suddenly rose among us – ‘If they are talking to us, maybe we will remain alive, maybe there will be some sort of work, maybe….’
Jirmann spoke very briefly and to the point – ‘You are now going to the baths. Afterwards, you will be sent to work.’ That was all. Everyone took comfort and felt fortunate, that after all, they are going to work. People applauded, ‘Bravo!’
I remember these words of his, which were repeated each and every day, at most three times a day, during the course of the 4 months that I was there. This was a minute of hope and illusion. People breathed easily for a while. There was absolute rest. In the stillness, the entire mass went on further – the men immediately, along the length of the square to the building, on which, in large letters was written:
The women went about 20 meters further, to a large barrack. Its length was 30 meters and it was 15 meters wide. In this barrack, the women and girls had their hair cut off. They went in, not knowing why they were being taken inside. It was still a time of peace and quiet.
Later on I knew, that when they were given wooden stools and lined up across the width of the barracks, when they were ordered to sit, and eight Jewish barbers, robots silent as the grave, approached them to shave their hair down to the scalp with clippers, the awareness of the whole truth hit them at that instant, and none of the women and also none of the men on the way to the chambers could have doubts any longer as to what awaited them.
All, except for the few men, who had been selected out as craftsmen who were useful there – all, whether young, whether old, children and women – were going to a certain death. Girls with long hair were driven to have their hair shorn. The little girls, with short hair, went along with the men, directly into the chamber.
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Suddenly – with the passage of hope in regard to the last doubt – tumults arose, screaming. Many women succumbed to attacks of insanity. Yet, many women went to death with complete sang-froid, especially the young girls. In our transport, there were thousands of intelligentsia.
I stood to the side, on the square, together with a group that had been selected to dig graves, and I looked on at my brethren, sisters, friends and acquaintances, driven to death. From that moment, when they drove the women, naked and shorn of their hair, with whips, as if to the slaughter, not counting – quicker, quicker – the men had already been killed in the camp. Shearing the women took about 2 hours, and that also is how long it took for the preparation of the murder, and the murder itself.
Several tens of SS staff, with whips and bayonet points, chased the women to the buildings fo the chambers through three steps, which led to a front house, and the ‘Askaris’ counted out 750 into each room. The women who refused to go, were stabbed through their bodies with bayonets by the ‘Askaris.’ Blood flowed from them….
I heard the way the doors were closing, moans and screams; I heard the heart-rending cries in Polish, in Yiddish; the pleading of women and children, which made the blood freeze in the arteries. Later – a terrifying general scream….
This lasted 15 minutes – the machine worked away for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, it became still. The ‘Askaris’ pushed the doors back open, from the outside, and I, along with the other workers like myself, who remained from the prior transports, without any marks or tattoos, began the work.
We dragged the corpses from these people, who had just been alive; we dragged them, with the help of leather straps, to the already-prepared mass graves, and an orchestra nearby played, played from morning until evening….
After a certain amount of time, I knew the layout of the camp very well. It was in the middle of a young pine wood. The forest growth was thick, but in order to prevent the light from penetrating, other (chopped down) trees were tied to the [standing] trees, and thereby made the cover doubly thick around the location of the chambers, and behind them (the trees) there was a sand roadbed, through which the bodies were dragged. The Germans covered the place with a roof made of plain wire, on which they spread out greens. They did this to shield this parcel from observation by airplanes.
Through the gate, one came to a large yard. On the yard there was a large barracks, in which women were shorn [of their hair]. There was a small courtyard by the barracks, which was enclosed in a thick wall of boards, without the slightest crack, 3 meters high. This large fence, made of large boards, led directly to the chambers. In this fashion, nobody knew what was going on behind the barrier.
The building, in which the chambers were found, was not particularly tall, it was long and wide, made from gray cement. It had a flat roof, covered with paste, and over it, was a second roof with a net, which was covered with greens. Three steps led to it from the small courtyard, a meter wide, without bannisters. In front of the building stood a large decorative vase with multi-colored flowers. On the wall, was written in legible and comprehensible writing:
The stairs led into a dark corridor, a half meter wide, but also very long. It was empty – four cement walls.
From the corridor, from both sides – right and left – doors led into the chambers. The doors, made of wood, a meter wide, closed together with the aid of a wooden handle. The chambers were always kept dark, without windows, entirely empty. In each chamber, all that could be seen was a circular opening as large as an electrical outlet. The walls and the floor of the chambers were made of cement. The corridor and chambers were lower than ordinary rooms in a dwelling – they were no taller than two meters in height. At the side opposite each chamber, there were also doors in the walls, that would close together, 2 meters wide, through which the dead bodies were thrown out, after gassing them.
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Outside of this building there was an addition built on, perhaps not more than 2 meters by two meters, where the ‘machine’ was located, the motor was fueled by benzine. The chambers were about a half meter higher than the level of the ground, the ramp and the door was on the same level as the chamber from which the dead bodies were thrown out onto the ground.
There were two barracks in the camp for the death brigade; one for the general workers, the second for those designated as craftsmen. Each barrack took in 250 workers. The bunks were two-level. Both barracks were identical. The bunks were bare planks of wood, with a small crosspiece of wood for head support. Not far from the barracks was the kitchen, further on, the warehouse, the administration, the laundry, the Neu-Wahrstadt[9], and at the end, the elegant barracks for the ‘Askaris.’
On one side of the gas chambers there were full or empty mass graves. I saw a whole row of filled graves, already covered in sand. After a set time, the (sand mound) would fall and become flatter. There always had to be one empty mass grave, in reserve….
From August until the end of November 1942, I was in the death camp – this was at the time of the greatest mass gassing of the Jews.
The few tortured comrades, the very few who had the fortune to hold out longer, told me that this was the period of the largest number of death transports. They came daily, without interruption, mostly three times a day. Every train totaled 50 cars, in each of which there was 100 people. When a train would come at night, the victims would have to wait in closed up cars until 6 o'clock in the morning. On average, ten thousand people would be killed each day.
There were times when larger transports would arrive, and also more frequently. Jews were brought from all over – and only Jews. There was no other [type of] transport ever, Belzec was used exclusively for the extermination of Jews. Gestapo staff and ‘Askaris’ would offload the Jews from the wagons, as well as ‘Zugsfuhrer;’ a few steps further on, at the place where disrobing took place, there already were Jewish workers, – in a whisper, they would ask: where are you from? And in the same whisper, they were answered: from Lemberg, from Krakow, from Zamość, from Wieliczka, Jasle, Tarnow, and so forth. I saw this day after day, three times a day.
The same thing took place with each transport that arrived as did the one that brought me. We were ordered to undress, to leave our things on the yard; it was always Jirmann who spoke in an imperious manner, and it was always the same thing. The people always were happy in that specific minute; I saw that same spark of hope in the eyes of the people. The hope that they were going to work. However, a while later – the young children were torn away from their mothers; the old and the sick were thrown on stretchers; men and young girls were driven with rifle butts through a cordoned off path further and further, on to the chambers; the naked women were driven brutally into the second barrack, where their hair was shorn off. I knew the precise moment when everyone understood what awaited them. In the fear, doubt, screams and frightful groaning, mixed into the notes coming from the orchestra. The men, stabbed with bayonets, were the first driven into the gas chambers. 750 men were counted off by the ‘Askaris,’ into each chamber. And before all 6 chambers were filled up, the people in the first chamber were already undergoing torture for 2 hours. It was only first, when all six chambers were stuffed full with people, and the doors were closed up only with great difficulty, that they put the (gas) machine into motion.
The machine was large, not quite a half meter by a meter; it was a motor with wheels. The motor made noise with larger time intervals, it ran very fast, so fast, that it was not possible to detect the motion of the wheels. The machine ran for 20 minutes clock time. After twenty minutes, it was stopped. The doors were immediately opened to the chambers, and from the external side, which led to a ramp, the dead bodies were tossed onto the ground; this consisted of an enormous mountain of bodies, several meters high. Upon opening the doors, the ‘Askaris’ did not observe any safety measures, we also didn't smell any odor, we also never saw any gas canisters, as well as no mixtures (chemical) that might have
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been introduced, – I only saw cans of benzine. Every day, 80-100 liters of benzine was consumed. Two ‘Askaris’ were employed at the machine. However, one day, when the machine broke down, I was also called, because they called me ‘The Knowledgeable Talented One;’ I examined the machine, and I saw glass pipes, which were connected to the wheels, which led to each of the chambers.
We were of the opinion that the machine operated at a high pressure, or creates a vacuum, or that the benzine produces a carbon oxide that kills the people. The cries for help, the screams, the bewildered groaning of those sealed inside and suffocated in the chambers, lasted for 10-15 minutes; initially, frightfully high, later on, the groaning grew stiller, until, at the end, everything became still. I heard confused cries and calling out in a variety of languages, because there were not only Polish Jews in there, there were also transports with Jews from outside the country. Among the foreign transports, there were especially Jews from France, and Holland, Greece and even Norway. I do not recall any transport with German Jews. There were, however, Czech Jews. They came in the same wagons as the transports of Polish Jews, but with baggage, well-prepared for the journey, and with provisions. Our transports were full of women and children. The transports from outside the country consisted mostly of men, very few children. It appears that their parents were able to leave them with their relatives, to protect them from this gruesome fate. The Jews from outside of the country came to Belzec in absolute ignorance, they were certain that work waited for them. They were very well dressed, and very well prepared fro the journey. The relationship of the German bandits to these people was the same as to Jews from other transports. They were killed by the same system of murder, with the same cruelty and confusion.
For the period in which I was in the camp, it was possible that one hundred thousand foreign Jews went through it; all of them were gassed.
When, after the 20 minute suffocation, the ‘Askaris’ pushed back the tightly closed doors, the dead bodies were in a stone-like position; the faces, as if they were asleep; unchanged, not blue, blood here and there from wounds produced by the stabbing they received with bayonets from the ‘Askaris;’ lips slightly open; hands curled up; often pressing up against the lungs. The bodies standing nearby fell out like dolls through the door that had been swung wide open.
All the women were shorn before they were murdered. They were driven into the barrack. The others waited outside the barrack in their row – naked, barefoot, even in winter on the snow. A hue and outcry, and a bewilderment reigned among the women. In that minute is when the screaming and rioting began. Mothers pressed themselves to their children, they literally lost their minds. My heart was cut every time, I could not stand the sight of this. The group of the shorn women was driven on further, and others stepped on the hair of varied colors, which was spread out like a puffed up divan on the entire floor of the huge barrack.
When all of the women from the transport were shorn, 4 workers with 4 brooms, made from linden trees, would sweep and push together the hair together in a huge, many-colored mountain, in the middle of the barrack. They packed it into sacks by hands, and turned it over to the warehouse.
The warehouse for the hair, undergarments and effects of the victims of the gas chambers, was located in a separate, small barrack; it was perhaps 7 by 8 meters. There, hair and other things were gathered together in the course of 10 days. After these 10 days, they were loaded into special sacks, the hair separately, and the other effects separately, and a train of goods would then come in, and take this plunder away.
People who worked in the office told that this hair was sent to Budapest. Principally, one Jew from the Sudetenland, a lawyer, Schreiber, who participated in the office work, conveyed this information. He was a totally decent man. Jirmann promised him, that when he would travel on furlough, he would take him along. At a specific time, Jirmann went to take a short furlough. I heard how Schreiber asked him: –‘Are you taking me along?’ And Jirmann replied: –‘Not yet.’ And it was in this manner that he duped Schreiber and it is certain that he was killed along with everyone else. That same person (Schreiber) told me, that every few days, an entire wagon load of hair was sent out, addressed to Budapest. Apart from the hair, the Germans sent full bags with golden teeth.
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On the way from the gas chambers to the burial pits, that is, a stretch of several hundred meters, several dentists stood, with small pliers, and detained each body being dragged; they opened the mouth of the dead person, looked in, and pulled out the gold teeth and threw it into a bag. There were 8 dentists. In general, they were young people, left over from the transports, who had to carry out this function. I knew one of these somewhat more intimately, he was named Zucker, who came from Rzeszow. The dentists occupied a separate small barrack, together with the doctor and the pharmacist. Towards evening, they would bring the filled parcels with the gold teeth into the barrack, and there the gold would be divided up, melted down, and recast into ingots. The Gestapo man Schmidt guarded them, and he would beat them if the work proceeded too slowly: one transport had to be completed in two hours. The recast gold ingots were one centimeter in thickness, a half [centimeter] wide and 20 centimeters in length.
On each day, the valuable items would be taken out of the warehouse, money, dollars. The SS staff alone would gather all of this, and place it in valises, that a worker would carry off to Belzec to the office of the commander. One of the Gestapo walked ahead, and the valises were carried by Jewish workers. It was not far from the Belzec train station. A 20 minute walk.
The camp in Belzec, meaning the Hell in Belzec, was under the oversight of the same commander. The Jews who worked in the administration told that the entire transport of gold, valuable possessions, and money, were sent to Lublin, where the senior commander was located, to whom the commander of the Belzec camp also reported. The torn clothing of the unfortunate Jewish victims, were taken away by the workers and were carried off to the warehouse, there were ten workers there, who had to go through each piece of clothing with great care, under the watch and whip of SS staff, who divided up any found money among themselves. Special SS personnel were also assigned to this control task, and it was always the same ones. The Jewish workers, who were involved in sorting of the clothes, and in their examination, were not able to take anything, and they also did not want to. Of what possible use would this found money or valuables be to us? We could not buy anything, we also had no hope whatsoever to sustain our lives. Not one of us believed in any sort of miracles. Every worker was searched very throughly, but very often we passed over dollars that had been thrown aside, which hadn't been noticed; we didn't even pick them up. It made no sense one way or another, there was no use for it. On one occasion, a shoemaker took 5 dollars on purpose and openly. He was shot, along with his son. He went to his death satisfied, he wanted this to come to an end already. Death was certain, so why extend the suffering any longer… the dollars in Belzec served us to make it easier to die.
I belonged to the permanent death brigade. We were altogether five hundred, only ‘craftsmen’ were two hundred fifty, but also of these, two hundred worked at jobs that did not require any specialists: digging the mass graves, dragging the corpses.
We dug huge ditches and mass graves, and we dragged the dead bodies there. Also the appropriate tradespeople, after finishing their special work, were compelled to participate in this work. We dug with spades, and there also was a machine, which loaded and pulled out the sand. The machine discharged the sand into mounds near the pit, and thereby create a mountain of sand, with which the grave filled with corpses would be covered.
Approximately 450 men were always at work in the vicinity of the mass graves. Digging out a mass grave took a week's time: The most frightening for me, was when we were ordered to pile on higher than the already full grave, and cover it with sand; the black, heavily blood-soaked mass would come out from the graves, and would cascade over the covering like a sea. We would have to pass through from one edge to the other, in order to come to a second mass grave, our feet would squish in the blood of our brothers; we stepped on the backs of bodies and this was the worst, the most frightening.
The bandit Schmidt guarded us while we were at this work, and he beat and kicked. If someone was not working – according to his definition – quickly enough, he ordered him to lie down, and he gave him 25 lashes with a riding crop. He ordered him (the victim) to count, and if that individual made a mistake, he gave him 50 lashes instead of 25. The
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whipped man could not take the 50 lashes; the victim could barely drag himself to the barrack, and would expire by morning. This would be repeated a couple of times a day.
Also, from thirty to fifty workers were shot daily. As a rule, the doctor would provide a note of those who were worn out; or the so-called ‘oberzugfuhrer,’ the chief overseer of those arrested (would provide) a list of ‘lawbreakers’ (which have to be shot); in this fashion, every day, thirty, forty arrested individuals were shot.
Every day, this list would be complemented with a so-called (new) number of selected people from the several transports that would arrive daily. In the office of the administration, former and newly arrived workers – were managed without evidence – and it was calculated that the number who should be arrested should always be five hundred. The evidence of the number of victims from the transports was not recorded.
We knew, for example, that the Jews had built this camp and installed the death machine. No one any longer remained from that brigade. It was a miracle if one of those, who had worked in Belzec, managed to survive for five or six months.
The machine was run by two bandit ‘Askaris,’ always the same ones. (When I arrived at the camp) I met them at their work, and left them at this work. The Jewish workers had no contact with them, as was the case with any other ‘Askari.’ When people on the transports pleaded for a bit of water, the ‘Askaris’ shot at the Jewish workers for bringing them water.
Apart from digging the pits, the mission of the death brigade was to drag out the corpses from the chambers, throw them onto a high level, and later, to drag them to the pits. The area was sandy. Two workers were needed to drag one body. We had leather straps with buckles that we would attach to the hands of the corpse. The head would often cut into the sand, and we would pull….we were ordered to throw the bodies of small children two at a time over our shoulders, and carry them away in this manner. When we dragged the bodies, we interrupted the digging of pits. When we were digging the pits, we knew that in the chambers, thousands of our brethren were being suffocated.
We had to work like this from morning until it got dark. Twilight brought an end to the workday, because this ‘work’ took place only during the daytime.
At 4:30AM, the ‘Askari-Post’ who would circulate in the barrack at night, would bang on the door and shout: ‘Auf Heraus!’ Before we even had a chance to get up, the bandit Schmidt would fall upon us with a riding crop, and chase us out of the barrack. We would run out with one shoe in hand, or barefoot. In general, we did not disrobe (to sleep), we would even lie down with our shoes on, because in the morning we would not show ourselves to get dressed.
It was still dark in the morning when we were awakened; lighting was forbidden. Schmidt ran through the barrack hitting left and right. We arose, so hapless, exhausted to the last degree, just as we were when we lay down to sleep. We were allotted one thin cover; we could either cover ourselves with it, or put it under us on the bunk.
From the warehouse, they selected old, torn rags for our use, at night we had light for a half hour; later, it was extinguished. The ‘oberzugfuhrer’ circulated in the barrack with a whip, and did not permit anyone to speak; we spoke among ourselves quietly. When someone as much as gave a sigh, he would get it in the face.
The brigade consisted mostly of me, whose wives, children and parents were gassed – many managed to obtain a prayer shawl and phylacteries from the warehouse, and when the barrack was shut down form the night, one heard the murmur of the Kaddish from the bunks. We recited the prayer for the deceased. Later on, it grew quiet. We did not bemoan our situation. We were entirely resigned. It is possible that the 15 ‘zugfuhrers’ continued to harbor illusions – but not us.
We all conducted ourselves as people who no longer possessed any will. We were a single mass. I know a couple of names, but few. It was without meaning; what he was, was past, and whatever his name was. I know there was a young doctor from outside Przemysl, he was named Jakubowicz. I knew the merchant Schlissel from Krakow, and his son.
[Page 652]
The Czech Jew, Elbogen, who had a business in wheels, the chef Goldschmid, known from the Carlsbad restaurant ‘Haniczka Brothers.’ Nobody took an interest in the other, we went through this frightful life mechanically.
We would get our midday meal at 12 o'clock – we would pass by two small windows: in one, we received a small pot, at the second a half-liter of hulled barley soup; that is, water, sometime with a potato. We had to sing songs at lunch – before the coffee, in the evening, we also were compelled to sing. At the same time we could hear the gasps coming from the chambers of those who were suffocating, the orchestra played, across from the kitchen stood a high gallows…
The life of the S.S. staff in Belzec and in the death camp proper was without the participation of women. The men carried out all of the work. That is the way it was until October.
In October, a transport arrived from Zamość with Czech women. This was several tens of women, whose husbands worked in the ‘death brigade.’ A decision had been taken that several women were to be held back from this transport. Forty were designated to do work in the kitchen, in the laundry, and in the neu-wahrstadt.
It was forbidden to visit with the men. I do not know what happened to them. It is certain that they partook in the same fate as everyone else.
These were women of the intelligentsia. They came traveling with baggage. A few of them even had bits of butter. They gave us whatever they had. And they helped if someone was working in the kitchen, or in proximity to the kitchen. They lived in a small, separate barrack, and they had a ‘zugsfuhrerin’ [sic: female] over them. At work I saw (I repaired the ovens everywhere, and was able to get around all over the camp), how these women spoke to one another. They did not become as devastated as we were. There work ended with twilight. They lined up in pairs, after soup and coffee. As with us, they did not confiscate their clothing, they were not given the ‘striped uniforms’ (the prison garb with stripes). For such a short time, it was not worth creating such a matching uniform.
Straight from the wagons, dressed, and without a shorn head, they were sent into the work locations and the kitchen. Through the windows of the kitchen and the neu-wahrstadt they watched the death transports arrive daily.
Day in, and day out, the death camp was redolent with mass murder. Every day was a chain of mass terror and mass murder. But apart from this, there were separate incidents of personal beatings. I lived through and saw this as well. In Belzec there never was any roll call. It was not necessary. Gruesome scenes occurred without any prior announcement.
I must tell about the transport from Zamość. It was around November 15. It was already cold, snow and mud lay on the ground. It was in such a snowstorm that a large transport, one among many, arrived from Zamość. The entire Judenrat was in this transport. When everyone was already standing naked, in accordance with the usual array of events, the men were driven to the chambers, and the women, to the barracks to be shorn of their hair. The President of the Judenrat[10] was ordered to remain on the place.
The ‘Askaris’ drove the transport to the extermination, and an entire group of SS staff stood themselves around the President of the Judenrat. I do not know his name, I saw a young man of middle age, pale as death, and entirely calm.
The SS staff ordered the orchestra to relocate itself to the place, and to await the orders. The orchestra, which consisted of 6 musicians, usually played on the stretch between the gas chambers and the mass graves. It played without stop on instruments that had remained behind those who were murdered. At that time, I was working nearby at a wall construction site, and I saw everyone. The SS staff ordered the orchestra to play the melody:
[Page 653]
‘Es geht alles forüber,
Es geht alles derbei.Drei lilien, kommt ein röter
Gefahren, bricht drei linien.’
They played on fiddles, flutes and harmoniums. It lasted for a certain interval of time. Afterwards, they stood the President of the Zamość Judenrat against the wall, and beat him bloody with riding crops that had metal edges – first around the head, and in the face. He was beaten by: Jirmann, the fat Gestapo man – Schwarz, Schmidt, and a few ‘Askaris.’
The victim was ordered to dance, and to jump between the blows and the music. After several hours, he was brought a quarter of a loaf of bread and he was forced to eat. He stood drenched in blood, indifferent and serious, I did not hear a single groan from him> The torture of this man lasted for seven hours. The S. S> personnel stood and laughed: Dos ist ein hochere Person, President des Judenrats, they laughed, with a loud hooligan's guffaw. It was first at six o'clock in the evening, that the Gestapo man Schmidt drove him to the pit, shot him in the head, and pushed him onto the mountain of gassed corpses.
There were other special occurrences. Not long after my arrival in Belzec , among others from one transport, I do not remember what city (not always did we know from where the transport came), a youngish little boy was detained. He was a model of good health, strength and youth. He caused us to wonder at his good-natured spirit. He looked about him, and asked, almost happily:
– Has anyone escaped from here yet?
That was enough. One of the Germans heard this, and the child was nearly tortured to death. He was undressed, hung on the gallows with his head down; he hung for three hours. He was strong, and he was still alive. He was taken down (from the gallows), put on the sand, and sand was pushed into his throat with sticks. He expired.
It used to happened, that transports arrived which were larger than ordinary. It happened that instead of 50 wagons, 60 or more would come. Not long before my escape, in November, it was necessary to set aside 100 men from such an overfilled transport, already naked, for the work of digging pits, because the Gestapo staff had calculated that the permanent brigade will not be able to inter so many suffocated [corpses] into the pits in so short a time. Only young men were set aside. During the entire day, they dragged the corpses to the pits, driven with whips, they were not given so much as a drop of water, naked in the snow and cold – in the evening, the bandit Schmidt led them off to a pit, and shot them with a Browning [automatic rifle]. He did not have enough bullets for part of them, so he killed one after another with the handle of the weapon. I heard no groaning, I only saw how they exerted themselves, in the row of the dead, to be first, one before the other.
Helpless splinters of life and youth.
The entire camp was under guard by cordons of armed ‘Askaris’ and several tens of SS troops. But only a few in number (of the SS) were active. A few of them demonstrated their cruelty at every opportunity – literally bestiality. Only a few of them killed and beat in a ‘cold-blooded’ manner, others with relish; there would be a smile on their faces. I saw how gleeful they were, when they gazed upon the naked people, skewered by bayonets, who were being driven to the chambers.
They looked upon the confused and resigned forms with great pleasure, especially that of the young people.
We knew, that the senior commandant of the camp lived in the nicest small house near the train station in Belzec. This was an Obersturmfuhrer whose name I cannot recall, despite the fact that I exert myself to try and extract this
[Page 654]
name from my memory.[11] He would rarely come into the camp, he would only come down in the event of an incident. This was a bandit who was tall, coarse, approximately 40 years of age, with an ordinary visage – that is generally what a born bandit looks like. He was literally an animal.
At a certain time, the death machine broke down. On receiving the news about this, he came, he ordered the machine to be repaired, and did not let the people out of the suffocating chambers: – let them suffocate and expire for another couple of hours. He was beside himself with murderous rage, he roared and literally became disassembled. In view of the fact that he appeared so rarely, he was a irritant to the SS troops. He lived alone with an orderly, an ‘Askari,’ who served him. The ‘Askari’ would bring him the reports daily.
The senior commandant and the Gestapo staff did not have ongoing contact with the camp. They had their own dining facility and chef, imported from Germany, who cooked for all of the Germans. No one from any of the families ever approached them; non of them lived with wives. They raised gaggles of geese and ducks. People related, that in the spring, they would be sent entire cartons of cherries. Boxes of hard liquor and wine were brought each day.
I repaired the oven there. There were two young Jewish girls there, who flicked the geese, they would throw an onion to me, and something of a beet. I saw a village girl that worked there. Apart from this, all that were there, were orderlies.
Every Sunday, in the evening, they brought the orchestra, and they arranged a drunken binge. Only the Gestapo staff would gather there, and they gorged themselves and swilled. The musicians were thrown the scraps from their eating.
When the commandant would show himself in the camp for a few minutes, I would see how the Gestapo staff and the ‘Askaris’ would literally tremble with fear.
Apart from him, – four other bandits – carried on with the Gestapo staff and had an oversight and directed all of the murder. It is difficult to conceive of bigger murderers.
One of them, Fritz Jirmann, a person of close to 30 years of age, a Stabsfuhrer[12] was the quartermaster for the camp; he was a specialist in shooting the old people and children. He would carry out all the most gruesome murders with stony silence, would keep to himself inscrutably, and quietly. Every day (at the arrival of the transports) he would be the one to speak to the victims, telling them that they are going ‘to bathe and then to work.’ This was a scrupulous criminal.
The Oberscharfuhrer[13] Reinhold Feix carried out his brutality in a different manner. Feix practiced cruelty in a different way. It was said he came from Gablonz on the Neisse and was married and the father of two children. He spoke the way intelligent people speak. He talked quickly. If someone failed to understand him at once, he beat him and screamed to the high heavens like a madman. Once, when he ordered the kitchen painted, and a Jewish doctor of chemistry was doing it, standing right at the top of a ladder just under the ceiling, Feix ordered him to climb down every few minutes and beat him across the face with his riding crop, so that the man's face was swelled up and covered with blood. That was how he did his job. Feix seemed abnormal. He played the violin. He ordered the orchestra to play the Polish melody ‘Highlander, have you no regrets?’ until they dropped. He commanded people to sing and dance and he toyed with them and tortured them. The beast went amok.
[Page 655]
I do not know which was more of a murderer or more brutal – was it the previously mentioned Feix, or the fat, bloated dark-haired murderer Schwarz (who came from the Lower Reich). He was in charge of the ‘Askaris,’ determining if they were being sufficiently bestial towards us and if they were beating us vigorously enough. He kept watch over us at the time we were digging pits, that means, he didn't give us even a minute to rest. With shouts, with the whip, he drove people to the chambers, where mountains of the dead already waited, for their continuing journey to the pits. He drove us off there, and ran by himself to the pits. At the edge of the pits, with mixed gazes, and moods, there stared – children, the old and sick, into the abyss. They waited for death. They were given ample opportunity to look at the dead bodies, at the blood, and to absorb the odor of decay, in order that in a few minutes time, they also would be killed by the shots from bloody Jirmann. Schwarz constantly beat everyone. It was forbidden to cover one's face when receiving a lash. – ‘Hände ab!’ (Hands down!) He would roar and he assaulted his victim with relish.
The Volksdeutsche, Heni Schmidt, apparently a Latvian, got even more pleasure from his bestial mission. He spoke German in a peculiar fashion, instead of an ‘s’ he would say a ‘t’ (not ‘was’ but ‘wat’). He spoke Russian with the ‘Askaris.’ He did not want to leave the camp on any single day. Nimble, quick, thin, perpetually drunk, from 4 in the morning until nighttime, he would be running around the entire camp; he would beat people, he would peer intensely at the torturing of the victims, and would take great pleasure in this picture. – This is the worst beat – those who were arrested would whisper among themselves, and would immediately add: – ‘All of them are the worst.’ There, where people were tortured most severely – he would always be the first. He was always there when the victims were driven into the chambers, and he would eavesdrop on the penetrating screams of the women, which would pierce through the nightmarish chambers. – he was the ‘soul’ of the camp, the lowest of the low, most frightening, and bloodthirsty.
It was with great pleasure that he would gaze upon the exhausted, extinguished faces of the workers, who were at their last limits, who would return at night to the barrack. He would dish it out to each of them, with his entire strength, with the riding crop over the head. When any of us made an attempt to avoid the blow, he chased after him, and had to beat him.
These Gestapo staff, and other, more subordinate, who would not show themselves – were true monsters. None of them was at all humane for even a minute.
From 7 in the morning until dark, they beat thousands of people in a variety of ways. In the evening, they would return to their houses near the train station. The ‘Askaris’ manned the night watch at the ammunition dump. During the day, the death transports were greeted by the Gestapo staff with ‘fanfare.’
The greatest holiday for these animals was the visit of Himmler. It was in the middle of October. From the very early morning, we saw how the Gestapo criminals were moving about furtively. On that day, the entire procedure for the murder of thousands of people was abbreviated. Everything happened more quickly. Jirmann announced: ‘Es komt eine hohere Person, muss Ordnung sein.’ (A high-level person is coming, so there must be order). He did not say who, but everyone knew, because the ‘Askaris’ bruited about it silently.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, Himmler arrived with General-Major [Friedrich (Fritz)] Katzmann, the chief murderer of Lemberg and its environs, with an adjutant and several tens of Gestapo staff. Jirmann and others escorted the guests into the (gas) chambers, from which, at that precise moment, the bodies were being thrown out on a large mountain of young people, of very young children. The arrested ones were dragging the corpses. Himmler looked, and continued to watch for a half hour, and then traveled away. I saw the glee and the exalted approval of the Gestapo staff, I saw the considerable extent to which they were satisfied, how they laughed. I overheard how they spoke of advances.
I cannot describe the sort of circumstances in which we lived, we the arrested ones, who were exhausted to the point of death, and what we felt, day in and day out, about the screams and pleading of the suffocating people, the cries of the children. Three times a day, we saw thousands of people, who were close to losing their minds. We were also close to insanity. We managed to get through day by day, never knowing how. Not for a minute did we harbor any illusion (that we would remain alive). We would die a little every day, along with all of the transports, who would live yet for another short minute through torture and disappointment.
[Page 656]
Apathetic and resigned, we would not even feel hunger and cold; each of us waited for his turn; he knew that he will be killed and tortured in the most inhuman fashion; It was only when I hear the children cry out: Mamusiu! Ja przeciez bylem grzezny! Ciemno! Ciemno! (Mama! I behaved myself! Darkness! Darkness!) Our hearts would be rent into pieces. But later on, we stopped feeling anything.
At the end of November, it was already 4 months that had passed of my unbearable tenure in the hell of Belzec. On a certain morning, the murderer Jirmann told me that there is a need for tin in the camp, a lot of tin. I was then swollen and blue, suppurations were oozing from my wounds. The Gestapo man Schmidt had beaten me with a stick on both sides of my face. Jirmann said to me, with a poisonous smile on his face, that I am to travel, under an escort, to Lemberg, after metal: – ‘Don't you get loose!’ (He warned me).
traveled to Lemberg in an auto with 4 Gestapo staff and a guard. After a whole day of loading up the tin, I remained in the auto under the watch of one bandit – the others went off to take their leisure. I sat for a couple of hours, thinking nothing, and without moving. Fortunately, I observed that my guard fell asleep and was snoring. Automatically, not taking any time to think, I eased myself out of the auto; the murderer slept. I stood myself on the sidewalk, and gave the appearance of being occupied with the tin, and a little at a time, I eased myself out onto the Legionov Gasse, where there was a lot of movement. I pushed my hat down further; It was starting to get dark on the street, and nobody saw me. I thought about where a Polish woman lived, my landlady, and I went off to her. She hid me. She nursed the wounds all over my body for twenty months. Not only the wounds. The images of the horrors that I lived through followed me constantly. In dreams and about the truth, I heard the groans of the tortured martyrs; the calling of the children; the thrum of the motor. I could not tear the criminal faces of each of those Gestapo men out of my mind. I held out until the moment of liberation.
Translator's footnotes:
by Yaakov Schwartz
Given by a scion of our city, Yaakov Schwartz, who appeared as a witness in the War Crimes Trial in Dachau, March 7, 1946.To the High Court!
In the name of the six and a half million slaughtered Jewish martyrs, and in the name of those who remained alive, the Shearit HaPletah, I have taken upon myself the sorrowful but sacred duty to articulate our point of view about the executioners of our people.
The minutes, and in general, the days of this sacred process are great and fruitful in an unprecedented way, which to me is the greatest occurrence in bloody martyr's history.
Great – because, with my own eyes, I have lived to see the rebirth of justice, in the avant garde of humanity; and fruitful – because that is on me, in particular, someone who survived, a totally broken weakling, that the immense burden has fallen to be the accusing witness for millions of innocent souls, who were brutally slaughtered and shamed, at the hands of the Nazi murderers.
To the High Court!
I am a Jew, and I was born a Jew, and this was my single crime. This was the sole reason why I was tortured, beaten, shamed, slaughtered and butchered. Only for this single sin, was I physically and spiritually bloodied, and I was tossed about for 6 years in the Nazi hell. Because we were Jews, we were subject to mass extermination!
It is self understood, that I will try to read into the 'Juridical Boundaries' precisely to answer if I have seen this one or that one (of the murderers) committing murder with my own eyes.... however, I want you representatives of justice to know the following. I accuse, in the name of all the exterminated Jewish souls, not only those accused cannibals, also the entire 'SS' and other hyenas that bathed in our blood, and robbed us of our assets – all those who right along with those who directly or indirectly took part in the greatest pogrom of all time, against us. In addition to this, they derived a sadistic mehpistophelian satisfaction, as well.
Seeing as we are always presented by our enemies as 'seekers of vengeance,' you, men of justice, of best knowledge, that we are not so, and were never such! To the contrary, we Jews have been the first, to give humanity the Holy Ten Commandments, which to this day, serve as the foundation of justice and will do so for all eternity!
But here, nothing has to do with the feelings of vengeance. We detest vengeance! We reject it. Here we are dealing with two physically ghostly creatures! Murderers of my little sisters who were close to my heart! Of my mother and father! Of my people, and of all freedom-loving people!
And while the cannibals were, and still are the roots of my tragedy that cannot be healed, and of the global cataclysm, it is therefore entirely the same to me whether the accused has a criminal 'number' or whether the free Nazi has a document that allows him movement in the street.
Whoever wore the Death's-Head, was the devil incarnate!
My heart, sadly ran blood on that day, when I heard the question that was put to the American witness, among others that were answered:
– 'What would have happened to that guard, who had the civilian under detention if he had not shot him?'
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The answer of the witness was:– 'They would have put that person in a bunker, or subjected him to some other punishment.'
My answer, however, is thus: Such an instant never took place! I have not yet lived through such an incident! Since I came to know the Nazis, I have from them not detected, nor heard, nor seen and of the most elementary human feelings.
The only who simply wore the 'SS' uniform, only sought the opportunity to murder. The conversation was only around when he would become a guard at a concentration camp. There, he already obtained a free hand over the lives of the civilians in general, and over our Jewish ones in particular. Here, he felt like a fish in water. Here, not only could he unleash his animal instincts, but also earned additionally for someone shot 'on duty' 10 cigarettes, or a medal!
The posted guards I think of as partners, as co-murderers of the people who were killed. These were the pillars, the ground on which the entire murder apparatus sustained itself! It is not true that they were compelled to do so! This was a band of accursed bandits in whom the higher bandits had full faith! Himmler could depend on them in complete tranquility!
Who exterminated the thousands of ghettoes in the East?
Who exterminated the Jewish people?
Who shot us 'while on duty?'
Who murdered the civilians during the camp evacuations?
Who killed up to 60 percent of the fifty thousand civilians while they were marched on the way to Mauthausen?
Who washed the roads of Europe with our civilian blood?
All the post guards! 'The innocent watch personnel, forced to do their work...'
And now, our fate, the bloody fate of we Jews in the Mauthausens, Dachaus, Buchenwalds, and others. We suffered three times as much as other civilians!
First, we were recorded with the letters R. U., which means 'Rickert Unerwunscht.' – This person is not required to come back!Second, we were trodden under by the vulgar caprices of the bloodthirsty Kapos and block leaders, who did with us as they desired! Who received compliments and distinctions for every smashed Jewish head!
And third – the worst of the worst. The 'selektionen,' that terrifying nattering in the head, that I am, at any time, at any minute, a candidate to go into the crematorium. This beat us down so badly from a morale standpoint, that we became crippled before our time!
And the cannibal-doctors, like the Kraftsbachs, Jabsts, and their like. Before our eyes we saw the most beautiful and shining of our youth torn out of us – boys and girls – who with complete awareness went either into the burning ovens or the murder factories, the so called 'Revier!' Or such 'Medikers,' who carried out various murder-experiments on us, as if we were rabbits.
Therefore my concluding word is:
High and Sacred Court!
[Page 659]
May the sacred right of your human hearts triumph!Let the mass-murderers on the bench of the accused, and those who circulate about freely know:
That – the world is not a place of chaos!
That – the world is not a saloon!
That – from tears, rivers are formed – seas, and from seas a flood, that will take revenge for all the murders perpetrated!
Let them know: that freedom and right is God-given; that no man has the right to humiliate another man! And every transgression of this ends on the gallows!
In the name of all the Jewish lives that were taken; in the name of all the exterminated, freedom-loving people; in the name of justice, I demand categorically:
A death sentence for the accused executioners!
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