Shoah Page #14

They were chased down the other side...

[ Podchlebnik Continues]

where a van was waiting.

[ Podchlebnik Continues]

The Germans pushed

and beat them with their weapons

to hustle them into the trucks faster.

[ Podchlebnik Continues]

He heard people praying, Shma Israel...

[ Podchlebnik Continues]

and he heard

the van's rear doors being shut.

[ Podchlebnik Continues]

Their screams were heard,

becoming fainter and fainter...

[ Podchlebnik Continues]

and when there was total silence,

the van left.

[ Podchlebnik Continues]

He and the 4 others

were brought out of the cellar.

They went upstairs...

[ Podchlebnik Continues]

and gathered up

the clothes remaining

outside the supposed baths.

[ Lanzmann, In French]

Did he understand then how they'd died?

[ Interpreter #2 Speaking Yiddish ]

MICHAEL PODCHLEBNIK,

the survivor of the 1st period

of extermination at Chelmno

(the castle period)

Yes, first because

there had been rumors of it.

And when he went out,

he saw the sealed vans,

so he knew.

[ Lanzmann ] He understood that people

were gassed in the vans?

[ Interpreter #2 Speaking Yiddish ]

Yes, because he'd heard the screams

and heard how they weakened,

and later the vans

were taken into the woods.

[ Lanzmann ]

What were the vans like?

[ Interpreter #2 Speaking Yiddish ]

[ Interpreter #2 Speaking Yiddish ]

[ Interpreter #2 Speaking Yiddish ]

Like the ones

that deliver cigarettes here.

They were enclosed,

with double-leaf rear doors.

[ Lanzmann ]

What color?

[ Interpreter #2 Speaking Yiddish ]

The color the Germans used,

green, ordinary.

MARTHA MICHELSOHN

[ Lanzmann, In German ] How many German

families were there in Kulmhof (Chelmno)?

[ In German]

10 or 11, I'd say.

Germans from Volhynia

and 2 families from the Reich,

the Bauers and us.

- And you?

- Us, the Michelsohns.

Ja.

How did you wind up in Kulmhof?

I was born in Laage,

and I was sent to Kulmhof.

They were looking for volunteer settlers,

and I signed up.

That's how I got there.

First in WarthbriJcken (Kolo),

then Chelmno... Kulmhof.

Directly from Laage?

- No, I left from Munster.

- Ja?

- Did you opt to go to Kulmhof?

- Ja.

No, I asked for Wartheland.

Why?

[ Murmurs In German]

A pioneering spirit.

- You were young!

- Oh, yes, I was young.

- You wanted to be useful?

- Yes.

What was your first impression

of Wartheland?

It was primitive. Super-primitive.

Meaning...?

- Even worse...

- [ Repeats Phrase]

Worse than primitive.

Difficult to understand, right?

Ja.

But why.,,?

The sanitary facilities were disastrous.

The only toilet was

in WarthbriJcken, in the town.

You had to go there.

The rest was a disaster.

- Why a disaster?

- There were no toilets at all!

Ja?

There were privies.

I can't tell you

how primitive it was.

Astonishing!

Why did you choose

such a primitive place?

I was young, you know.

You can't imagine such places exist.

You don't believe it.

But that's how it was.

[ Michelsohn ]

This was the whole village.

A very small village,

straggling along the road.

Just a few houses.

There was the church, the castle,

a store, I00,

the administrative building

and the school.

The castle was next to the church,

with a high board fence around both.

[ I anzmann j

J a .

How far was your house from the church?

It was just opposite... 150 feet.

Mrs. Michelsohn

was the Nazi teacher's wife

Did you see the gas vans?

No...

Yes, from the outside.

They shuttled back and forth.

I never looked inside...

I didn't see Jews in them.

I only saw things from outside,

the Jews' arrival, their disposition,

how they were loaded aboard.

Since World War I,

the castle had been in ruins.

Only part of it could still be used.

That's where the Jews were taken.

This ruined castle was used...

For housing and delousing

the Poles, and so on.

- The Jews!

- Yes, the Jews.

- Ja.

- [German ]

Why do you call them Poles

and not Jews?

- Sometimes, I get them mixed up.

- Ja.

There's a difference

between Poles and Jews?

Q, yes!

What difference?

[Laugh$I

The Poles weren't exterminated,

and the Jews were.

That's the difference.

An external difference, right?

And the inner difference?

I can't assess that.

I don't know enough

about psychology and anthropology.

The difference between

the Poles and the Jews?

Anyway, they couldn't stand each other.

[ In French]

On January 19, 1942,

the rabbi of Grabow, Jacob Schulmann,

wrote the following letter

to his friends in Lodz:

My very dear friends,

I didn't write sooner:

I wasn't sure of what I'd heard.

Alas, to our great grief,

we now know all.

I've spoken to an eyewitness

who managed to escape.

He told me everything.

They're exterminated

in Chelmno, near Dombie,

and they're all buried

in the nearby Rzeszow forest.

The Jews are killed in 2 ways:

by shooting or gas.

It's just happened

to thousands of Lodz Jews.

Do not think that

this is being written by a madman.

Alas, it is the tragic, horrible truth.

Horror, horror.

Man, shed thy clothes,

cover thy head with ashes,

run in the streets

and dance in thy madness.

I am so weary that my pen

can no longer write.

Creator of the universe, help us!

The creator did not help

the Jews of Grabow.

With their rabbi,

they all died in the gas van at Chelmno

a few weeks later.

Chelmno is only 12 miles from Grabow.

[ Rooster Crowing ]

[ Lanzmann, In French]

Were there a lot of Jews here in Grabow?

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [ Woman Replies In Polish]

- A lot, quite a few.

[ Woman Continues]

They were sent to Chelmno.

[ Lanzmann ]

Has she always lived near the synagogue?

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

[Women Chattering In Polish]

- [ Lanzmann ] Yes.

- The Polish word is Buzinica, not synagogue.

[Chattering Continues]

She says it's now

a furniture warehouse

but they didn't harm it

from a religious point of view.

It hasn't been... desecrated.

Does she remember the rabbi

at the synagogue?

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

[ Woman Replies ]

THE SYNAGOGUE IN GRABOW

She says she's 80 now,

and her memory isn't too good,

and the Jews have been gone

for 40 years.

[ In French] Barbara, tell this couple

they live in a lovely house.

[Speaking Polish]

Do they agree?

Do they think it's a lovely house?

Oui.

Oui.

[Laughs]

Tell me about the decoration

of this house, the doors,

what's it mean?

People used to do carvings like that.

Did they decorate it that way?

Non.

- No, it was the Jews again.

- The Jews did it!

- The door's a good century old.

- [ Repeats Phrase]

- Oui.

- Did Jews own this house?

Yes, all these houses.

All these houses

on the square were Jewish?

Jews lived in all the ones in front,

on the street.

Oui.

Where did the Poles live?

In the courtyards,

where the privies were.

[ Repeats Phrase]

There used to be a store here.

What kind?

A food store.

Owned by Jews?

Yes.

So the Jews lived in the front,

and the Poles in the courtyard

Rate this script:4.0 / 1 vote