(On the address side) Drop this postcard into the nearest letter box,
please.
(The postcard was probably thrown out of the train)⁷⁵⁹
Post stamp: Częstochowa 17 December 1942
My dearest!
We are passing through Częstochowa with the entire family. We do not
know where we are going.
I bid you farewell. Kisses,
G.F.⁷⁶⁰
The massacre in Węgrów.⁷⁶¹ The Jewish centre in Węgrów (12 kilometres
from Treblinka) numbering 14,000 souls did not escape its horrible fate even
though the Treblinka commandant most solemnly promised that the Jews
would not be hurt in any way. The entire town was surrounded on Tuesday,
22 September 1942. Formations of the SS, gendarmerie, and Schupo entered all
Jewish homes, sadly with the active help of the Polish Fire Brigade. 2,000 people
were loaded into boxcars, predominantly the elderly and the sick. All the
others had either escaped into the nearby forests or taken shelter. The thousands
of people who were dragged out of their hideouts were murdered then
and there. The clearing campaign took four weeks and it resulted in up to
10,000 Jews being killed immediately. The passive resistance of the 10,000,
who did not want to go to Treblinka to die, did not alter their fate in any
way. All flats, attics and cellars were splashed with the blood of children and
women. The four weeks of murder and fire are the Teutonic oppressors’ reaction
to the attitude of the Jewish population of Węgrów. There is no information
regarding the fate of the remaining 2,000 Jews.⁷⁶²
[77] But still. The fact of the liquidation of the ghettos in Kałuszyn and
Siedlce best illustrates the worth of German ordinances and dispositions
regarding Jews. It has now been stated that the population of the said towns
759 A fragment of an anonymous letter. See ARG II 358 (Ring. II/274/1).
760 A fragment of Guta Fuks’s postcard sent to Rotblat to Warsaw. See ARG II 360 (Ring.
II/274/4).
761 Węgrów (Sokołów Podlaski County).
762 See J. A. Młynarczyk, “Akcja Reinhard” w gettach prowincjonalnych”, p. 67; Encyclo pedia
of Camps and Ghettos, pp. 462–465.
