tram, and promptly at 8 a.m. we boarded a passenger train. We were allowed
to take with us as much baggage as we could carry. The writer of this report
alone had around 250 kilos for three people, and that included not a single kilo
of bedding. In Gdańsk they told us that we could and should take money and
valuables with us. We arrived in Tczew at 9.30 a.m. and were taken on foot to
a resettlement camp. The young people stayed behind to load the baggage onto
trucks and transport it to the camp.
When we got to the camp, we were all taken into a room and each of us
was called out by name according to an already-prepared box of filing cards.
We were asked whether we would rather go to a concentration camp or to the
General Government. All replied unanimously, to the ‘Government.’ Each
head of household had to sign that the family was travelling to the General
Government voluntarily. After that, they took our money, gold and silver,
before they even searched us individually. Because the searches lasted a very
long time, it was only at 7 in the evening that we got some bread and coffee.
They put us [2] on the second floor of the camp, where there were already some
Jews from Bydgoszcz, Elbląg, Malbork, and so on. We had quite good prycze.¹³²⁴
The hall was for 300 people. The adjoining hall also had space for 300. The next
morning we got bread and coffee, as much as we wanted. For midday meal,
tasty grits; and bread and coffee again in the evening. On Sunday, 3 March,
some of the Jews were called back to Gdańsk. On 4 March we were informed
us that we would be going to Warsaw, but for that we would have to go via the
resettlement camp in Toruń. At 8 a.m. the following day we left for Toruń,
where we arrived after a journey of 24 hours. Our baggage was loaded into
freight cars. Apart from that, we received 50 bags of flour, 25 bags of grain,
25 bags of oatmeal, 20 kegs of marmalade and 1,000 loaves of bread, as provisions for Warsaw. In addition, each of us was given 40 zlotys. In Toruń they
received us very roughly. We were squeezed into a large cellar, its floor spread
with straw. We were allowed out only to go to the ubikacja. Food was similar
to what we had received in Tczew. Everyone had to work, and they hit us if we
tried to take it easy. On 7 March the second half of the people from Gdańsk
arrived from Tczew (the first half had arrived on 5 March). We left Toruń at
8 a.m. on 9 March. We took some of the baggage with us and loaded some
into freight cars. In the same camp there were 700 Poles who had travelled
1324 (Polish) pallets, bunks.
