Shoah Page #7

And lights went on.

There was a ramp.

Around the ramp were lights,

and under those lights

were the cordon of the SS.

There was one e very 10 yards,

with a gun in the hand.

So, we were in the middle,

the prisoners,

and we were waiting,

waiting for the train,

waiting for the next order.

Now, when all this was done,

everybody was there,

the transport was rolled in.

This means in a very slow fashion.

The locomotive,

which was always at the front,

was coming to the ramp,

and that was the end of the railway line.

That was the end of the line

for everybody who was on the train.

And, now, the train stopped,

and

the gangster elite marched on the ramp.

And in front of every second

or every third wagon,

and sometimes in front of every wagon,

one of those UnterscharfiJhrers

was standing with a key

and opened the locks,

because the wagons were locked.

Now, inside,

there were people, of course,

and you could see the people

looking through the windows,

because they didn't know what's happening.

They had many stops on their journey.

Some of them were 10 days on the journey.

Some were two days on the journey.

And they didn't know

what this particular stop means.

Now, the door was opened.

And the first order they were given was,

AIIe heraus!

Everybody out!

In order to make it quite clear,

they usually started with those walking sticks

to hit the first, the second,

the third, who were...

They were... They were...

They were like sardines in those cars.

If they expected on that day

four, five, six transports,

the pressure of getting out

from the wagons was high.

Then the y used sticks, clubs, cursing,

e! cetera, e2' cetera.

But, sometimes, the SS, if it was good weather,

they used to deal with it differently.

I mean, I was not surprised

if they were in a different mood and...

and, uh, exhibited a lot of humor,

like saying, Good morning, Madam,

and, Will you please walk out?

- [ Lanzmann, In English] It happened?

- Oh, yes! Oh, yes.

And, How nice that you arrived.

We are so sorry that it wasn't too convenient,

but now things will become different.

[ Bomba ]

When we came into Treblinka,

we didn't know who the people were.

Some of them, they had armbands,

some of them red.

Some of them, they had blue,

Jewish kommando.

Falling out from the train

and pushing out each other

and, over there, losing each other,

and the... and the...

and the crying and the hollering.

And, coming out,

we started on one way

to the right, one to the left,

the women to the left

and the men on the right.

And...

we had no time to even look at each other,

because they start hitting over the head

with all kinds of things.

And...

it is very, very...

Painful, it was.

You didn't know what had happened.

You had no time to think.

All you heard is crying.

And all you heard, all the time,

was the hollering of the people.

[ In German]

And suddenly it started:

the yelling and screaming.

All out, everybody out!

All those shouts,

the uproar, the tumult!

Out! Get out!

Leave the baggage!

We got out, stepping on each other.

We saw men wearing blue armbands.

Some carried whips.

We saw some SS men.

Green uniforms,

black uniforms...

We were a mass,

and the mass swept us along.

It was irresistible.

It had to move to another place.

I saw the others undressing.

And I heard, Get undressed!

You're to be disinfected!

As I waited, already naked,

I noticed the SS men

separating out' some people.

These were told to get dressed.

A passing SS man

suddenly stopped in front of me,

looked me over, and said,

Yes, you too, quick,

join the others, get dressed.

You're going to work here,

and if you're good,

you can be a kapo... a squad leader.

[ Bomba ]

At my transport, I was waiting, already naked.

A man came over and asked,

You, you, you, step out.

We stepped out,

and they took us a little bit on the side.

Some of the people from the transport,

they had an idea what is going on,

and they know already

that they will not stay alive.

Pushing the people, they didn't want to go,

or they knew already where they go,

to that big door.

The hollering and the crying

and the shouting

what was going over there on,

it was impossible.

The cries and the hollers

was in your ears and in your mind

for days and days,

and, at night, the same thing.

From that hollering, you could not

even sleep a couple night of that.

All of a sudden,

at one time, everything stopped,

like by a command.

It was all quiet,

the place where the people went in.

Just like on a command.

Like everything was dead.

Then, they told us

to make clean the whole place.

It was about 2,000 people

which they undressed on the outside.

To take the whole thing away

and to clear up the place,

and that has to be done in minutes.

Some of the Germans,

some of the other people that were there,

the Ukrainians or the other ones,

they start shouting and hitting us

that we should do it faster,

to carry the bundles on our backs

faster to the main place,

where it was big places of clothes,

of shoes, of other things.

In no time, this was clean,

just like it never happened,

that never was people on that place again.

There was no trace, not at all.

Like a magic thing, everything disappeared.

BIRKENAUI THE RAMP

[ Vrba ]

Whenever a new transport came,

the ramp was cleaned

absolutely to zero point.

No trace from the previous transport

was allowed to remain.

Not one trace.

[ Glazar, In German]

We were taken to the barracks.

The whole place stank.

Piled about five feet high

in a jumbled mass,

were all the things people

could conceivably have brought.

Clothes, suitcases,

everything stacked in a solid mass.

On top of it,

jumping around like demons,

people were making bundles

and carrying them outside.

I was turned over to one of these men.

His armband said, Squad Leader.

He shouted,

and I understood that I was also

to pick up clothing, bundle it,

and take it somewhere.

As I worked, I asked him,

"What is going on?

The undressed ones... Where are they?

And he replied, Dead! AH dead!

But it still hadn't sunk in,

I didn't believe it.

He'd used the Yiddish word.

It was the first time

I'd heard Yiddish spoken.

He didn't say it very loud,

and I saw he had tears in his eyes.

Suddenly he started shouting

and raised his whip.

Out of the corner of my eyes,

I saw an SS man coming.

And I understood

that I was to ask no more questions,

but just to rush outside

with the package.

[ Bomba ]

At that time, we start working

in that place which they call Treblinka.

And still, I couldn't believe

what had happened

over there on the other side of the gate,

where the people went in, disappeared,

or everything got quiet.

But in a minute, we find out,

when we start to ask the people

which they worked before us

what had happened with them.

They said, What do you mean, what happened?

Don't you know that?

They're all gassed. They're all killed.

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