prevent them buying any food. They walked to the railway station, situated
about 5–6 km from the town. The road passed through a very muddy area,
where many a pair of shoes stayed behind. The whole crowd of people was
taken straight to the carriages, but getting into the carriages was not easy.
Many a Jew had first to immerse himself in that mudbath, and to do so naked,
because a stringent search was carried out to find out whether Jews were smuggling any foreign currency. Only after they had been cleansed of all impurity,
i.e. money, gold and other worldly possessions, were the Jews allowed to
get into the carriages, which were then locked shut.
The journey’s destination was thought in all likelihood to lie to the east,
i.e. [. . .] or the Lublin area,¹⁷⁹⁴ but to everyone’s great astonishment, the train
turned westward, i.e. towards East Prussia. We did in fact travel into East
Prussia as far as Willenberg,¹⁷⁹⁵ where we arrived at 6 p.m. It is impossible
to describe the feelings of the people, who had been racking their brains the
whole time, trying to guess where they were being taken and what would
be done with them. One thing was clear: people had no poison with them, otherwise many might have died. At Willenberg station the train turned back.
We travelled all night and again did not know where we were. Only the following
morning, 7 December 1939, we discovered that we were on Polish territory
and the train was standing in Warsaw, at the Warsaw Eastern [Railway]
Station.¹⁷⁹⁶ There were many Jews on the platform, waiting for trains to various
destinations. All the waiting Jews were forcibly shoved into the two trains
carrying the Serock exiles. Terrible scenes ensued, which are hard to describe
today. [5] Finally, the train pulled out in an easterly direction and in the early
evening we arrived in Biała Podlaska, where the train stopped for a whole night.
The expulsion had taken place suddenly and nobody had packed any
food. On the way, no one was allowed to leave the group, nor were Christians
allowed to sell food to the Jews. The adults endured the hunger with patience,
but it was worse for the little ones, who did not understand the whole expulsion
situation and the fresh torments to which their delicate young bodies
1794 In the early stage of the occupation, the German authorities planned to establish a reservation for Jews in the Lublin province. Large groups from the territories incorporated into the Third Reich were sent there (see the Introduction).
1795 Willenberg, a town until 1945; today Wielbark, a village (Szczytno County).
1796 In Polish, Dworzec Wschodni.
