The Theory and Practice of Hell (46 page)

On July 20, companies o f the SS regiment “Reinhard Heydrich, ” part o f the extermination detail at Lublin, reached Warsaw under the command o f SS First Lieutenant Tumann. On July 22, 1942, the ghetto walls were surrounded by Ukrainian SS. A notice was posted: "All Jews
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men, women and children—who do not work in German factories or armament plants or in the ghetto administration must leave the ghetto. ” They were to be shipped to the east to help in rebuilding the devastated areas. The office o f the Civilian Commissioner was abolished. His place was taken by an SS Resettlement Staff under SS Second Lieutenant Brand, who established his of fice at 103 Eisengruber Street in the ghetto.

Every day whole blocks were surrounded and whoever

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was inside the line, whether in the houses or the streets, had to come along to the railroad station to be herded into freight cars
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I f the required quota o f ten thousand Jews had not been assembled by six o'clock, the SS resorted to other measures. They began to shoot and kill until the quota wasfull.

Signs called on the Jews to volunteerfor shipment to the east, where life was pictured as much easier than in the confined ghetto. The ghetto food supply was choked off, while six pounds o f bread and half a pound o f marmalade were issued to every volunteer To break the spirit o f the Jews, the water supply was also cut o ff These measures were not without success. The Jews began to “volunteer.
”

The SS established a Property Administration under SS First Lieutenant Conrad and District Governor Fischer, who employed two thousand young Jews and had them temporarily exempted from resettlement. Everything that was left behind—furnishings, valuables, clothing, linen—was collected, sorted and stored in the SS depot at

51 Wild Street, formerly Dr. Sonnenhofer Street. The SS members o f the Resettlement Staff got rich on the loot.

What was left went to the Nazi welfare organization.

Many o f the Jews tried to hide, since they foresaw the fate that awaited them. True, postcards arrived from Maljinka near Treblinka, reporting that the settlers were faring well. But the cards were almost identically worded, and it was instinctively felt that they could not correspond to the truth, merely representing the only chance to show a sign of life. There was no possibility o f escape from the ghetto, however, and resettlement was continued.

On August 9, 1942, there was a sudden official declaration that the program had been completed. Those that were still left were to be permitted to remain in the ghetto, on condition that they submitted to another registration. They were to assemble within the area bounded by Ostrowska, Dr. Sonnenhofer, Mila and Nalevki Streets. Absentees were threatened with death.

A glimmer o f hope pervaded the wretched ghetto in
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mates. Some 200,000 men, women and children answered the call and appeared at the appointed hour. In rows of five they had to march past SS Second Lieutenant Brand

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and his staff. The muster went onfor six days—and 50,000 new victims were selected! They were shipped o ff to the east. The others were issued a pass and were permitted to return to their homes.

The selection process was a nerve-wracking ordeal. I was forbidden to leave the area. Day and night the people cowered on the ground, withoutfood or drink. On August 14, it was my family's turn. Wepassed before the lord over life and death. Suddenly the lieutenant's glance fell on my father. A wave o f the hand ordered him to step out o f ranks. Before he could even shake hands with me or say a word, an SS corporal shot him down with two bulletsfrom his pistol. I stood paralyzedfor a moment, then caught my father in my arms. There was a small disturbance. I dragged away the dying man, accompanied by my mother and two sisters. A t least my father was spared the “trip to the east."

There was no news from those who had departed. We were prepared for the worst. Meanwhile, however, there were isolatedfugitives who had succeeded in escapingfrom Treblinka. A t a Jewish youth meeting, reports were made o f what members o f the recovery squads had seen and ex perienced at Treblinka
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massacres, shootings, gassings. It was decided to establish secret communication with mem bers o f the Polish Socialist Party. As a result some Polish Socialists went to Kossuv near Treblinka and confirmed what we had been told. The trains o f settlers with their Polish escort went only as far as the gate. No one except the victims got inside the barbed-wire enclosure. The smoke could be seen and the pungent odor smelled at con siderable distance.

Clandestine leaflets in Jewish advised the Jews o f War saw o f the deeds o f their "protectors." The Polish National party spread the news in Polish circles. The im pact o f these dreadful accounts gave rise to but a single thought: The next selection and shipment must be resisted!

Dr. Izaak Schipper, leader o f the Polish Zionists, became the soul o f the resistance movement. A t a secret youth meeting he said: "If history and destiny have decided on our extermination, we shall die fighting. We shall not voluntarily go to our death in the east!" With the

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aid o f the Polish Socialist party, rifles were obtained. A resistance group was created under the leadership o f Laib Rodal o f Kielce. The metal manufacturer Abraham Gepp
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ner was thefirst to contribute one million zloty for the purchase o f arms. Many millions were collected. We paid 5,000 zloty for a pistol, 12,000for a machine-gun. We ob tained hand grenades; we built dugouts in the cellars. We succeeded in evacuating old people into the city, keeping mainly they young people and some o f the women and children who were determined to die at the side o f their husbands andfathers. My mother and one sister remained in the ghetto. My younger sister went to the non-Jewish part o f Warsaw. She wasfair and blue-eyed and unlikely to attract attention. I never saw her again. Weformed small combat groups. Assassinations were carried out—of the prison warden, o f the chiefof the Property Control Office, o f Gestapo collaborators seeking to save their own lives at the expense o f the Jews.

January 18, 1943 became a milestone in the martyrdom o f the Warsaw ghetto. The German police were given or ders to exact revenge for the assassinations. Again the ghetto was surrounded and the entire population was required to report. No one answered the call. The Jewish Council went into hiding. Instructions were issued by word o f mouth to offer no resistance for the time being. A search was conducted for four days. Many Jews were picked up with arms and shot out o f hand, as were those found in hiding in the houses and nooks. Some 18,000 men, women and children were killed. There was more work for the Property Control Office. The Jewish Council was ordered to provide burialfor the “bandits." We were but 40,000 Jews left in the ghetto, most o f us young people organized into small combat groups o f the Jewish youth organizations.

Passover was approaching—April 19, 1943. We learned from friends in the Polish camp that several SS companies had arrived in Praga, the eastern suburb o f Warsaw. On the second day o f Passover at four o 'clock in the morning, they surrounded the ghetto. Our boys hurried from house to house and a state o f alarm was announced. Everyone descended to the cellars, with arms and food. Groups o f

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the SS began to enter the ghetto. A t the comer o f Nalevki Street, at No. 42, a young man stepped from a door and halted a group o f twenty-five SS men commanded by a sergeant. He pointed to the third courtyard and said that ten Jews were hiding there. The SS detachment followed him. It had scarcely reached the third courtyard, when the young man drew hispistol and shot down the sergeant. The signal for battle had been given
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Shots crashed from the windows, hand grenades began bursting, and hell broke loose. The young man who fired the first shot was Mor-dechai Nutkowicz o f Ripin. He fell dead, but not one o f the invading SS men left the courtyard alive. The entire section flamed into revolt and fighting broke out at every corner. The SS had not expected this reception. They hastily withdrew from the ghetto. Quiet prevailed until the next day. Then tanks moved up andfired incendiary shells at the houses. We tried to put out the flames and to fight the tanks with hand grenades, but our forces were far in ferior. In the end we crawled into our dugouts. SS infantry pushed their way into the ghetto. They were received with a hail o f bullets and hand grenades. It was then decided to strafe usfrom airplanes. The ghetto began to burn at every corner. The fire lasted for four days. The dugouts were located by means o f listening devices and then blasted and destroyed one by one with mines and shells. Within two weeks the mopping-up operation had been completed.

The survivors were shipped to the Lublin concentration camp
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including myself, my mother and my sister. The shipment offered the familiar picture: one to two hundred persons herded into cattle cars, with neither food nor water; detrainment at Lublin; women and children to the left, men to the right. I can still see my mother and sister being led away with many others between Fields I and II. A small house swallowed them up. I never saw them again. They died by gas.

I remained in the Lublin concentration camp until July 24, 1943. From there I was shipped to Auschwitz. I soon contracted scabies, a harmless skin rash, was selected for liquidation, taken to Block 20 to be gassed the next day. I owe my life to Jusek Kenner, who somehow got hold o f a diamond ring and gave it to the Senior Camp Inmate. The