from various social strata – went past two or more SS-men⁹²³ standing on
both sides of the stream. Some of those capable of physical labourg were sent
to a Dulag (Durchgangslager),⁹²⁴ from where they were deportedg⁹²⁵ to various
labour camps. Holders of valid Ausweises, usually after vigorous interventions
of workshop directors, were released, while the rest of the people (at least
90 per cent) were directed to boxcars⁹²⁶ waiting on the siding. During the first
days of the Aktion the Germans selected those⁹²⁷ “incapable of labour” and
executed them in the Jewish cemetery. The intention was to convince [14] the
Jews that unlike those incapable of physical labour who were killed as useless
ballast, everybody else would really be deported.
The number of people loaded into one cattle car was usually one hundred.
The loaded boxcars were locked from the outside. The transports
always headed in the same direction – the murder site in Treblinka was their
destination.
The second period of the Aktion began with the first combined blockade
of the residential buildings on Nalewki and Gęsia Streets conducted on
Wednesday 29 July, under the command of SS-men. The blockade was accompanied
by shots and casualties, which was so characteristic of the entire later
period. That day as a result of this Aktion a series of workshops and small
factories were closed, while all the workers including masters were incorporated
into the group escorted by the ghetto police. The rights of certain
groups of workers began to change. IDs of the Municipal Help Committee,⁹²⁸
some departments of the Judenrat (Department of Education), and a number
of factories actually become invalid. It becomes a rule that all handicraft
workshops are considered superfluous and useless to German industry.
Consequently, people begin to storm the “safe companies” such as Többens,
Schultz, AHAGE⁹²⁹ etc.
923 In version (b): “SS officers”.
924 (Ger.) transit camp.
925 g–g This fragment in version (b): “escorted to a Dulag (Durchfuhrlager), from where they
were deported”.
926 In version (b): “boxcars”.
927 In version (b): so-called.
928 A reference to the ŻSS.
929 The AHAGE-Zimmerman paper industry workshop was located at Miła Street 43. In the
first half of 1942 it employed 1,000 people.
