was no work for such a large group. Nevertheless, no one was released. Some
of us remained at the railway station, while others were taken on a truck [?]
to Kopernika Street, where they cleaned the windows of the hospital with
newspaper. Everyone received a cigarette, and there was a meal for everyone:
a tasty soldier’s krupnik¹⁹² with pieces of lard, served in elegant aluminium
bowls. Keen to go home as soon as possible, everyone gratefully declined the
meal. The soldiers politely insisted that we all eat, as payment for our work.
We all had the impression that we were treated properly, indeed, ‘humanely.’
The German troops really did treat Jews decently. The tragedy began if you fell
into the hands of the SS! The ‘black dogs,’ as we called them, inflicted torture
in various outlandish ways, of which there were a million. The fact that the
same methods were employed at different SS work sites shows that the units
must have undergone a special training in oppression and torture. At the Łódź
Gestapo headquarters, Jews seized for work were employed in heavy manual
labour demolishing walls or carrying bricks, and were systematically beaten
several times a day. The beating was done by Volksdeutsche (mostly by the
janitor, Bitzer), but on the orders of SS men.
My purpose here is not to collect a smaller or large number of instances
of torture, which has attained huge proportions, [3] but to consider it from
a social perspective. I have had occasion to observe that the attitude of a given
German individual to Jewish issues is quite different, more decent, than the
attitude to the same issues on the part of a group of Germans in which
the same individual finds himself. Individually, every German greeted and
shook hands with the Jewish foreman, which he would never do in the presence
of another German, whether of higher or lower rank in the military
or party hierarchy. I had occasion to speak about this with an important,
high-ranking official of the Łódź Gestapo, a certain SS Obersturmführer, who
cast a very interesting light on the matter. I should mention that the official
in question had a high opinion of Jewish workers. In connection with the resettlement of Jews or their transfer to the ghetto, he strove to convince the police
presidium to leave a few Jews in the city, but to no avail. I once pointed out
to that same Gestapo officer that his przepustki were not honoured in the city,
in response to which he explained that he was unable to do anything about it:
there was a degree of freedom in that respect, and it was forbidden to impose
192 (Polish) barley soup.
