Fresh Wounds

Early Narratives of Holocaust Survival

Donald L. Niewyk

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2000
• ISBN:
  9780807863626
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Holocaust History
• Index: History

Every student of the Holocaust knows the crucial importance of survivors' testimonies in reconstructing the crime. Most such accounts, however, were recorded years or even decades after the end of World War II. The survivor narratives that make up this volume, in contrast, were gathered immediately after the war. In 1946, Russian-born American psychologist David P. Boder interviewed 109 victims of Nazi persecution--the majority of them Jews--in "Displaced Persons" camps across Europe. The thirty-six accounts collected here possess an immediacy and authenticity that might otherwise be questioned in memoirs penned long after the events they detail.

These interviews encompass survivors from Poland, Lithuania, Germany, France, Slovakia, and Hungary, ranging in age from their early teens to their seventies. Their remarkable stories shed light on such controversial subjects as relations between Jews and neighbors or strangers who extended or withheld aid, opportunities for and obstacles to Jewish resistance, the victims' knowledge--or lack of knowledge--about the fate that awaited them in Nazi hands, survival strategies, women's experience of the Holocaust, the Nazi practice of placing prisoners in charge of their fellow inmates, and the liberators' postwar treatment of freed concentration camp inmates.

In an introduction, Donald Niewyk describes this extraordinary interviewing project and traces the overwhelming obstacles Boder faced in finding an audience for the survivor narratives he collected.

Poland

1 Abraham K.

Although large numbers of Jews lived in the Polish district of Eastern Upper Silesia, the Holocaust there (except of course for Auschwitz itself) is comparatively unknown. It had been part of Germany before 1918, and the Nazis reincorporated it into the Reich in 1939. Its 100,000 Jews, spread over more than forty Jewish communities, were then placed under the administration of a single Central Jewish Council. The Germans appointed Moshe (or Monek) Merin to head it. An active Zionist before the war, Merin organized Jewish police units to enforce the occupiers’ demands, hoping to save at least a portion of his Jews by making them indispensable to the German war effort. Hence he maintained strict order and organized work in the ghettos, rounded up the unemployed for shipment to various camps, and violently suppressed all overt forms of Jewish resistance. Against this background, Abraham K. sketches an unforgettable story of desperate Jewish measures to stay alive and avoid deportation to labor and extermination camps in 1942 and early 1943.¹ He also takes us inside the smaller slave labor camps in Eastern Upper Silesia and documents the transition from army to SS control.

K.’s hometown was Dabrowa-Gornica, a factory center near Katowice just east of the 1939 Polish-German border and about thirty-five miles north of Auschwitz. It was home to about 5,000 Jews. His Hasidic family sent him to a private heder, but his education was cut short by the German invasion. Too young at eleven to be included in the early deportations of Jews to slave labor in Germany, he soon learned the metal trade to help maintain his family and keep it from being sent away from their home together with other “unproductive” Jews. Ultimately he could not avoid being transported to Markstadt labor camp and then to Fünfteichen, both satellites of concentration camp Gross-Rosen, where Krupp was expanding its huge Bertha Works. During the last months of the war he was taken to the main camp for a short time and then to Buchenwald, where he was liberated in April 1945.

K. is haunted by treatment of Jews by their fellow Jews during the Holocaust. Whether as Jewish Council members, Jewish police in the ghetto, or as block seniors at Markstadt, Jews strike him as more vicious and corrupt than some Germans. He occasionally loses sight of the directing Nazi hand behind every action. But Abraham is also thoughtful about the temptations placed before these individuals, wondering what he himself would have done in their position and whether their actions, too, were only human. What is more, he subsequently witnessed the still worse conditions that prevailed in concentration camps where the SS ruled more directly and the prisoner administration was largely non-Jewish.

At the time of his interview in Geneva in August 1946 the eighteen-year-old Abraham K. was enrolled in a training program for mechanics sponsored by the ORT. We pick up the interview with his description of German roundups of Jewish workers in Dabrowa in the early months of German rule.

Workers were needed for Germany, young people between eighteen and fifty. They didn’t send an order to the Community Council because they were afraid they couldn’t trust the council with such a thing. And so they went through with it themselves. Early in the morning, it was about 4:30, they sent a certain number of policemen, and they simply got us from the beds. I still remember when they came into our house. Fortunately my father wasn’t home at the moment. And they came in, and they pulled off my blanket and asked “How old are you?” And I said, “Born in 1928.” “Oh,” they said, “go back to sleep,” because that time such boys were not yet taken. Pretty soon there was another raid, [and] it became an everyday thing.

Finally the German police created a Jewish militia [police force] to keep order on the streets. And its first duty was to serve the Jewish Community Council. Raids were now done by the Jewish militia. They would get an order that so and so many Jews had to be delivered to go to a work camp or to Auschwitz—there already was an Auschwitz, and we had heard about Auschwitz. So they would give an order to the council and instruct them to make out a list so they themselves should settle everything. Now when a raid had to take place, they would get the police from the council in Sosnowiec² and would expedite everything. It was arranged so that when they would arrest a man, a Jewish militiaman would lead him under the arm, and an extra police cordon would surround the locality so there would be no disturbances.

What kind of people were chosen for the militia?

That was a decision of the Jewish Council. The council named a certain Monek Merin director of the whole district as far as Lodz. He was the manager of the whole Jewish community. He was a Jew. I don’t know how he worked himself up so high. He had influence with the Gestapo and everywhere had his say. He had his own automobile, he had a chauffeur, and he led the life which he certainly could not have afforded before the war. He took in people whom he knew before the war, his friends and his relatives. He was not a highly educated person. His character was not so good. That later became evident from his deeds. He gave good jobs to his best friends. They had pull, and they fared well. Because from all the supplies that were allotted to the Jews they still could live [well]. They really did not have to take too much away from everyone in order to live a very good life.

It was the same thing with the Jewish militia. Jewish functionaries, already in the Jewish Council, got in their friends, and these looked around in turn and named them [their friends] as candidates. They were inspected, whether strong enough, in good health. Above all whether he would not feel embarrassed to drag a Jew through the streets to take him to prison, because there was a Jewish prison, and when he has to club a Jew, he would also not be embarrassed to do it. These were the Jews they would look for in the first place. They didn’t have to search very hard because there are enough people of this kind.

With the organization of the Jewish militia it became much worse than before. It became especially bad for those who had no acquaintances among the militia, and that was nearly the whole population, because a militiaman did not mistreat his own family. But the general Jewish population suffered much more because a German policeman [who was] given the address of a Jew wouldn’t know the man. He didn’t know where he could hide and so on. He goes there, if he doesn’t find anybody, he comes back, files his report, and the issue is closed. A Jewish militiaman would watch the Jew, he knew him yet from before the war, he knew where he was or where he could hide, and so they were much worse.

I want to tell you just a little episode at which I myself happened to be present. The Jewish militia did not feel that they were merely functionaries to execute what was demanded from them. They also felt that they were better, more important people. In Dabrowa-Gornicza there was a shop where shoes were manufactured. This industry was founded by a German who was the manager, and only Jews worked there. Large numbers of workers would arrive from Bedzin³ [in] special Jewish street cars. Every two hours a street car would go especially for the Jews. No Germans, no Poles could board. There were Jewish conductors, and the Jewish militia always controlled the street cars so that nobody would smuggle bread or anything else. Because it always used to happen that there was a difference in price between one city and the other. In most cases bread was cheaper in Dabrowa than in Bedzin. And so they always controlled the trams to watch that nobody should smuggle anything. There happened to be on the car a Jewish militiaman, tall of stature, and of strong build, and it was early in the morning when the working men were traveling to work. The cars were badly overcrowded. The Jewish militiaman felt himself to be better than we, the people, and he wanted us to make room for him. But the train was so packed that people were standing on the steps. So what does he do? He tells a man to make room for him. The man said, “Have a bit of sense, it’s impossible, we are all pressed together like herring.” But the militiaman didn’t say much, he just struck him. A person doesn’t immediately consider the consequences, and he struck back. But the [militiaman] was much stronger, and he beat him, and when they arrived in Dabrowa, he took that Jew to the Jewish police station, and they beat him up to such an extent that the man was unrecognizable.

[Later the beaten Jew managed to get to his workplace, only to have the Jewish police try to arrest him there. But the gateman called the manager.]

The German manager gave orders that nobody was to come in. That was a fortunate thing because otherwise I do not think we should have seen [the worker] alive.

If one were to ask me, “If they had asked you to become a militiaman, what would you have done?” today one can never be sure that one would simply have replied, “I don’t want to do it.” Because a human being is only a human being. If one stands over him with a gun and he is being threatened, one cannot be responsible for the deeds that one may perpetrate. And in such light one also has to see the Jewish militia. They did horrible things, too, in which I think all people are alike. There are only a few heroes.

The raids kept on and on, and they took on increasingly threatening aspects. They took more and more Jews, and when it came to it, they took old people, sick people, people who had no occupation. The order was that on a Saturday afternoon they should appear in the synagogue. The synagogue wasn’t a synagogue anymore, just an empty house. Later it was even converted into a horse stable. The thing made a terrible impression, and people thought, now the worst is coming, because it was known that they were being led directly to their death. Those who had the slightest chance went into hiding. Many were afraid even to hide. So gripped were the people by terror that, even though they knew that they were going to a certain death, they were afraid to hide.

Ah, but then why were they afraid to hide?

Many were hurt, and many were brought back to the square, and they were transported to Auschwitz. That was one reason, and second, the people were misled. [The Germans] ordered the Jewish functionaries to calm the people. They were told that they were being sent to a place where they would have light work, according to their ability to perform, and in this way they would be interned for the duration of the war. This also led to the fact that many people just didn’t go into hiding. They thought, “If they catch me here, my life is lost right now; there possibly I will survive the war.”

I was lucky. I was accepted to work in a metal shop, on trial to see whether I was at all fit for this kind of work. I wanted to work, but there was nowhere to get the training. There was no chance to learn. One had to produce. It was a munitions factory belonging to a German, and they gave me a certificate that I was admitted for a tryout, a blue card for people who were working for the Germans.

I endeavored to produce the most; that, I believed, would help me to remain at home. Things quieted down a bit, but then came my father’s turn. He was doing nothing; he was sick, but since my mother, my sister, and I were working, that is, the majority in the family, he was permitted to stay at home.

What was your mother doing?

My mother was also admitted to a war plant. She worked on uniforms for the Wehrmacht. Since a cousin of mine was an overseer over the [uniform manufacturing] shop, we had “pull.” He put my sister to work among the first girls, and that is how she remained home. Otherwise, several hundred girls were sent to Grünberg.⁴

[The Jewish police continued roundups and deportations of older Jews, from which K.’s mother escaped only by leaping out of a second story window and running away.]

Well, we remained home, and only young people were around, because all the old ones had been sent away. The mood was terrible. And we somehow felt that things wouldn’t last long. One day we heard that [another raid] would happen. Again I went to the night shift and slept in the daytime. It so happened that my mother also worked on the night shift. My sister was on the day shift, and the two of us worked during the night.

Where did you sleep?

At home. Because in the daytime it was not so dangerous to sleep at home. Twelve o’clock noon somebody knocked. I slept very soundly. I did not hear a thing. Customers were always coming because my mother had to work at home too because one couldn’t even buy bread from her earnings at the shop. She was a corset maker.

Who, in those times, wore corsets?

There was already a ghetto. That is, the Jews had to live in a concentrated fashion, in a certain section, but they were not permitted to go out on the streets where non-Jews lived. On the other hand, the Poles could come in. She worked for Christians. That was not permitted. But, as the Poles could move through those streets, it was possible to work for them. As long as I talk about it I will tell you how that work would proceed. When my mother worked in the daytime, she would return home by five o’clock and work then until 1:00 or 2:00 [in the morning]. When she was through with her work, her sewing machine was hidden, because it was not permitted to us to have sewing machines. The machines had to be surrendered. But her life depended on the machine. We had to take this risk, whether we wanted to or not. So after work we would hide the machine in the attic or in the cellar. And so at that time, too, my mother thought that it was possibly a customer calling for some work, or wanting to order something, so she quickly opened the door.

[A German policeman arrested K. and took him to nearby Bedzin and then, with other Jews, to a transit camp at Sosnowiec. From there they were sent to Markstadt, a workcamp near Breslau.]

They were building a plant for Krupp. There were already 2,000 Jews when I arrived. A lot more workers were needed. The work had started, and they needed a lot of workers; and the Poles were already all taken, so they had to take the Jews. One hundred twenty-nine of us were sent over there, among them twenty-nine women. These women were mostly the ones who had somebody among the men, engaged, or good friends. There were several hundred women, but these had arrived at other times.

That time we still traveled in passenger cars. It was already winter, it was cold. When we arrived there we saw nothing. We came to the square, and there comes the chief of the guard. [He] didn’t look in any way terrible. We were accustomed to uniforms, but here comes a man with a leather jacket. And he spoke in a firm voice, a voice of command. He spoke German. And here I noticed a Jewish star. I understood that he was a Jew. He didn’t make any special speech, but he immediately called around the pushers, the Jewish capos who were appointed, and told them to which barracks they should go.

What did you call them—“pushers”?

Yes, Schieber.⁵ And they told us to step forward four abreast. Until then, from the railroad station to the square we had marched five abreast [so] we stepped forward in fives. We didn’t know the customary orders of this camp. There were three brothers among us, and they wanted to stand together so they could sleep together. But since they stepped forward in fives, every fifth person had to step aside. One of these brothers was separated from the other two. And the capo hit him real hard. That was a Jewish capo. That torments a person. It makes one a revolutionary. Here he is a Jew, and he beats me. He is the same as I am, but because he has more to eat and because he was in the camp longer he has to behave that way. And I couldn’t do a thing. I couldn’t open my mouth. It does something to a person, to a bystander more than to the one who is actually beaten.

And then a German policeman, one of those who had brought us to Markstadt, stepped forward and told the pusher, “I brought these people up here, and I didn’t have any trouble with them. They have only been here a...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Fresh Wounds
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on Editorial Methods
• Introduction
• Poland
• Lithuania
• Germany
• France
• Slovakia
• Hungary
• Glossary of Terms
• Glossary of Ghettos and Camps
• Selected Bibliography
• Index