Shoah Page #3

Yes, and it's very beautiful.

I Polish 1

When Poland was ruled by the czars,

that synagogue already existed.

It's even older than the Catholic church.

[ Continues, Faint]

- [ Man Speaking Polish]

- It's no longer used.

[ Man Continues]

There's no one to go to it.

[ Lanzmann, In French]

These buildings haven't changed?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [ Man Speaking Polish]

[ Interpreter #1, In French ] Not at all.

There were barrels of herrings here,

and the Jews sold fish.

[ Man Continues]

There were stalls, small shops,

Jewish business, as the gentleman says.

- [ Man Continues]

- That's Barenholz's house.

- [ Man Continues]

- He sold wood.

[ Man Continues]

Lipschitz's store was there.

He sold cloth.

- [ Man Continues]

- [ Lanzmann ] This was Lichtenstein's.

- Lichtenstein, tak.

- [ Interpreter #1 ] Lichtenstein, oui.

- [ Lanzmann ] What was there, opposite?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

A food store.

- [ Lanzmann ] A Jewish store?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

[ Interpreter #1 ]

Oui.

There was a notions shop here,

it sold thread, needles, odds and ends,

and there were also three barbers.

PAN FILIPOWICZ:

- [ Lanzmann ] Was that fine house Jewish?

- [ Interpreter #1 ] it's Jewish.

[ Filipowicz Replies]

- And this small one?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [ Filipowicz Replies ]

- Also.

- And the one behind it?

- [ Filipowicz Replies]

These were all Jewish.

- This one on the left, too?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [ Filipowicz Replies]

- That one too.

- [ Filipowicz Continues]

- [ Lanzmann ] Who lived in it? Borenstein?

[ Filipowicz]

Borenstein.

- [ Filipowicz Continues]

- He was in the cement business.

He was very handsome, and cultivated.

[ Filipowicz Continues ]

Here there was a blacksmith

named Tepper.

- [ Lanzmann] Oui.

- [ Interpreter #1 ] It was a Jewish house.

A shoemaker lived here.

- [ Lanzmann ] What was his name?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [ Filipowicz Replies]

- [ Lanzmann ] Yankel?

- [ Filipowicz Replies]

- [ Interpreter #1 ] Yes.

[ Lanzmann ]

You get the feeling Wlodawa was a Jewish city.

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [ Filipowicz Replies]

- Yes, because it's true.

[ Filipowicz Continues ]

The Poles lived farther out,

the center was wholly Jewish.

[ Lanzmann, In French]

What happened to the Jews of Auschwitz?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [ Pietryra Replies ]

They were expelled and resettled,

but I don't know where.

- [ Lanzmann ] What year was that?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

[ Pietryra Replies ]

It began in 1940,

which was when I moved here.

This apartment also belonged to Jews.

[ Lanzmann ]

According to our information,

the Auschwitz Jews

were resettled, as they say,

nearby, in Benzin

and Sosnowiec, in Upper Silesia.

[ Interpreter #1 ]

Yes, because those were Jewish towns.

[ Lanzmann ] Does she know what happened

to the Jews of Auschwitz?

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

I think they all ended up in the camp.

- [ Lanzmann ] That is, they returned to Auschwitz?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

Oui.

AUSCHWITZ - BIRKENAU

[ Pietryra Continues]

All kinds of people from everywhere

were sent here.

- [ Pietryra Continues]

- All the Jews came here... to die.

[ Lanzmann ] What did they think when

Wlodawa's Jews were all deported to Sobibor?

[Speaking Polish]

Wlodawa - Sobibor: 10 miles

[ In French]

What could we think?

That it was the end of them,

but they had foreseen that.

[ Lanzmann ]

How so?

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

Even before the war,

when you talked to the Jews,

they foresaw their doom.

He doesn't know how.

Even before the war,

they had a premonition.

[ Lanzmann ]

How were they taken to Sobibor? On foot?

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

[ F ilipowicz Replies ]

It was frightful.

He watched it himself.

[ Filipowicz Continues]

They were herded on foot

to a station called Orkrobek.

[Train Clacking ]

[ Filipowicz Continues]

There, they put the old people first

into waiting cattle cars...

[ Filipowicz Continues]

then the younger Jews...

[ Filipowicz Continues]

and finally the kids.

That was the worst:

They threw them on top of the others.

[ Lanzmann ]

Were there a lot of Jews in Kolo?

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [ Man Speaking Polish]

- [ Interpreter #1, In French ] A great many.

- [ Man Continues]

- More Jews than Poles.

[ Lanzmann ]

And what happened to the Kolo Jews?

Was he an eyewitness?

PAN FALBORSKI:

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

- [Speaking Polish]

- Yes. It was frightful.

Frightful to see.

Even the Germans hid,

they couldn't see that.

When the Jews were herded

to the station, they were beaten,

some were even killed.

A cart followed the convoy

to pick up the corpses.

- [ Lanzmann ] Those who couldn't walk, the slain?

- Yes, those who'd fallen.

- Where did this happen?

- [ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

The Jews were collected

in the Kolo synagogue.

Then they were herded to the station,

where the narrow-gauge railroad

went to Chelmno.

[ Lanzmann ] It happened to

all the Jews in the area, not just in Kolo?

[ Interpreter #1 Speaking Polish]

[ Falborski Replies ]

Absolutely.

- Everywhere.

- [ F e/borsk/ Continues j

Jews were also murdered

in the forests

near Kalisz, not far from here.

[ Locomotive Chugging ]

[Train Whistle Blows]

[ Man, In English]

There was a sign.

There was a small sign

on the station of Treblinka.

I don't know if we were at the station

or if we did not go up to the station.

ABRAHAM BOMBA - TEL AVIV, ISRAEL,

survivor of Treblinka

On the line over there where we stayed,

there was a small sign, very small sign,

which say Treblinka.

That was the first time in my life

I heard about that name Treblinka,

because nobody know.

It is not a place.

There is not a city.

Or it is not even a small village.

TREBLINKA BY ROAD

Jewish people always dreamed,

and that was part of their life.

It was part of their messiah...

to dream that someday

they're going to be free.

That dream was mostly true in the ghetto.

Every day, every single night,

I dreamed about a thing

that's going to be good.

Not only the dream,

but the hope conserved in a dream.

The first transport from Czestochowa

was sent away at the day

of the Yam lfijopur.

The day before Sukkoth,

there was the second transport.

I was together with them.

I know, only in my heart I know,

that there's something that is not good,

because, if they take children,

if they take old people

and they send them away,

that means it is not good.

What they said is the y'd take them away

to a place where they would be working.

But, on the other hand,

an old woman or a little child

from a week or four weeks or five years,

what is he going to work?

That was a foolish thing,

but, still, we had no choice.

We believed in that.

[ Parking Brake Latches]

[ Door Closes ]

- [ Man Speaking Polish]

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