were fired in the air and jubilant cries went up — finally got rid of the Jews!
We were ordered to go to the station in the next shtetl, Sierpc. There we had
to wait a day and a night for the train. [2] It was pouring with rain. We waited
in the open air and got completely soaked and frozen. We kept pleading, “Give
us a roof over our heads, at least the women and children.” The answer was
“No! Nothing for Jews.” “At least for the sick!” No again. Night fell and the
hearts of the torturers softened. They herded us into a ruined building, where
everyone huddled in a corner, shivering with cold and fear. Every few minutes
two soldiers came in and shone a light into people’s faces. If they liked
a girl or a woman, they removed her from the ruined building and took her
away. None of us who were present knows to this day what they did there all
night, because no one asked. But we could imagine... The most horrendous
scene was when they took a girl away and her sister, a deaf mute, burst into
tears and began screaming spasmodically. The screams affected them. We saw
the animal instinct recede a little and human feeling resurface. The acts
of defilement stopped.
At dawn two other soldiers came in and ordered us to get up quickly and
go to the train. Everyone took his bundle on his back and hurried off with
his family to avoid blows from the soldiers. Into the closed carriages, without
food or water. We moved off, and someone asked “Where are we going?”
No one knew. We reached the first station and stood there for several hours.
We shouted “Give us food and drink!” There came the familiar reply: “There’s
no food for Jews.” After the train had stood there for a few hours, the order
came to move on. The children began demanding food and drink, and there
was none. Parents called desperately for water and bread, but there was no
reply. Mothers took children to the carriage windows to lick off the moisture
and slake their thirst a little. After crying for a long time, the children tired
and were quiet, but their gentle but desperate eyes showed that they were no
longer pleading with their mouths but with their eyes. What a heartrending
scene: the children desperate, the parents helpless, and no help at hand. This
went on for a whole day and night, because we stopped at every station for
several hours until we got to Pomiechówek, near Modlin. It was night when
they ordered us off the train. A spotlight standing on a table next to the train
shone into our eyes, blinding us so we shouldn’t know where we were. All the
while they kept hitting us, and we couldn’t see where the blows were coming
from. They shouted at us to hand over our money, otherwise they would
