Then the torment became general. A five-dollar piece was apparently
found in a loaf of bread belonging to a young man. He was thrashed in front
of everyone until he passed out. Then they brought in two large orange crates
and a large sack. They announced that anyone who failed to give up all their
jewellery, money and foreign currency would be mercilessly tortured to death.
The Jews were so terrified that within a short time both orange crates were
filled with marks, dollars and pounds, and the sack with gold and silver jewellery.
In the end, no one was actually searched, and that too was part of the
method they employed.
The latrine was communal, a large pit, and you needed permission to go
there. Every involuntary soiling — and we had among us nursing infants,
elderly people and people who were simply ill — met with the following reaction:
after clearing up the filth with their bare hands, they were made to smear
it on the faces of their wives, mothers and daughters. Torture was on the daily
agenda and gave our executioners great pleasure. The food was pitiful, consisting
of coffee and bread for breakfast, and watery soup for midday meal.
On the third day, the following event occurred: a certain young man
[. . .] went out of his mind and began shouting that redemption was at hand,
the murderers of the Jews would be annihilated, and Hitler would disappear.
With that, he threw himself with his fists on the soldier on duty. Half an hour
later, a group of SS men arrived, summoned the young man and his entire
family (6 people in all) and subjected them to a veritable orgy of torture, not
even forgetting to drive pins under their fingernails. Their screams rose to
high heaven. Then they shot the young man, dragged him out into the courtyard
in his death throes, and a car drove over him three times.
After 8 days, they lined us up and we walked to the railway station singing
Hatikvah. For failing to sing with sufficient zeal, they broke my nose and
cracked my head. [3] They loaded us into cold railway cars, in which we travelled
for three days and nights, without food or water, through the territory
of the Reich.
ARG I 929 (Ring. I/865)
Description: duplicate (a) (handwritten — H.W.*, ink, 148×210 mm), duplicate (b)
(2 copies, handwritten — MS*, pencil, 148×210 mm), minor damage and fragments
missing, Yiddish, 6 sheets, 6 pages. In the margins of both documents, the
letter “F” (ink) and on p. 1, the sign “+” (red pencil).
Edition based on duplicate (a), 3 sheets, 3 pages.
