another reason to beat them. But it was no use. The line broke and fragmented
into many smaller lines. People [3] could simply not cope with the murderous
blows and the deep mud, which had been specially prepared a few days earlier
in honour of the Jews from Nasielsk and Serock.
At an order from the guards, the mass of people finally stopped beside
the passenger train, which was waiting to take in the Jewish exiles. Their
‘escorts,’ it seemed, were not yet ready for boarding. They placed baskets and
suitcases at various points along the length of the train and prepared to carry
out a search to see whether the Jews had any money on them. The search was
very stringent. People were stripped naked, their clothes cut open, buttons cut
off and collars opened up. The women were searched in a sadistic and murderous
manner. They were searched inside the carriages, not outside. Terrible
screams issued from the carriage windows — not screams of pain, which people
had already got used to, but screams of shame at the manner in which the
search was carried out. It defies description.
[4] During the search, anyone found in possession of money or jewellery
was beaten savagely, as were people spotted throwing money or other valuables
into the mud. Many were forced to lie down naked in the mud and ‘bathe’
all over in it. Others were tormented in other sadistic ways. Finally the Jews,
cleansed by the mud and purified by the blows they received, were deemed
worthy of admission through the barrier of batterers and allowed into the
carriages, which everyone rightfully regarded as paradise. In the carriages,
the Jews took off their shoes, poured out the mud, changed their clothes as
best they could, and sat down on the benches. Those who had not yet undergone
the whole search procedure — from blows while being stripped, followed
by examination of every item of their clothing, to ‘ritual immersion’
in the mud — gazed enviously at their brothers, who were looking out of the
carriage windows.
[5] Finally the search ended. The whole crowd was sitting in the carriages,
which were locked and sealed, and the Jews felt quite at home. Soon, however,
they began to feel less at home. During the night spent in the Nasielsk
synagogue, a rumour had spread that the exiles would be taken to Łuków. No
one knows how the rumour started. Other people maintained that the whole
crowd would be taken as far as the Russian border, where everyone would
be ordered to cross to the other side. The Jews regarded the latter destination
as a good thing, because, although they had been left poor, destitute and
