we would give them everything out of fear. Therefore, we were escorted into
the room in between two rows of soldiers who beat us with rubber and wooden
clubs, and even with iron bars. The search consisted of putting a revolver to an
individual’s head and threatening to pull the trigger unless he gave everything
up immediately. Indeed, many people pulled out money and valuables cleverly
sewed in and hidden, but those who were brave could save them.
When the search was over, we were sent to the barracks, from where
a transport of a 1,000 people (according to their registration numbers) was
organised every day.
Awaiting their turn, the rest were tormented as in any concentration
camp: men were taken to forced labour, had to roll in the mud, do hours of
punitive exercises (‘lie down — stand up’ or knee bends), or clean lavatories
with their bare hands and carry faeces on their overcoats.
I was one of the last people to leave. The Red Cross gave us (and other
transports too) a cartload of potatoes. We had a passenger train at our disposal.
Before our departure there was an inspection and the Germans ordered
those less severely injured to remove their bandages and the severely injured
to readjust their bandages so that there would be no blood stains.
Today in Płock, there is literally not a single Jew. Die Stadt ist Mamesch
Judenrein.”¹⁷⁰³
ARG I 967 (Ring. I/885)
Description: original, handwritten (FLIG*), ink, Polish, 223×352 mm, fragments
hardly legible, 6 sheets, 11 pages.
1703 (German, Hebrew/Yiddish) the city is literally cleansed of Jews. The sentence is in German except for the word mamesch which means “literally, physically, truly.”
