Informant: Teygman Karol , Warsaw , Twarda street 23
It happened on the 3rd of September 1942. I worked in a German factory in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw (Astra Werke Chemnitz). It was at the time of the so called Aussiedlung. The transporting of Jews out of Warsaw had been continuing for two months already. Around half past four in the afternoon a group of SS officers and Ukrainians arrived at the factory, ordered everyone to go outside into the yard and from there marched us to Umschlagplatz. We were a group of 200 persons, women and children also among us. The Umschlagplatz was full of people. I was held in the area for around an hour and then placed in a railway freight car. There were 120 persons in our car, men, women and children. The train comprised up to 60 cars. Around six o’clock in the evening the train left in an unknown direction. We travelled in crowded conditions until seven in the morning. The journey was horrible because the thirst drove us simply to madness, sweat was dripping from us because of the heat. In the middle of the day the guards of the train, […], came inside, beat un savagely and robbed us of everything they could only get their hands on.
At seven in the morning we arrived to a train station called Treblinka. There, at the train station, the transport was divided into three parts of 20 cars each, and 20 cars were sent to a railway line on the side that led to the labour camp, a quarry, and from that line that led to the labour camp there was one more dead-end road that lead to the death camp, which was called SS-Sonderkommando Treblinka by the Germans.
The train stopped by a platform, there were two barracks next to it. Not far from the barracks there was a yard fenced with barbed wire. The whole platform and the whole camp had barbed-wire fences, usually with wire-poles and also a wire-net over them. On the platform a group of Jews of previous transports, 80 men, waited for us. 40 men worked on the platform, that is, they opened the cars, told the people to get out, removed the bodies of the dead from the cars and cleaned up the railway in general. This group carried blue bands on their left arm and were called Blau Kommando. The other 40 men worked in the yard, where the transport was sent in order to undress themselves. They carried red armbands. During all this time, the Germans and the Ukrainians would come and beat us murderously with whips and sticks. At the entrance to the yard the unit with the red armbands called out that women and children had to go to the left and men to the right. The women then went to the left, where there was a barrack, and the men to the right to another barrack, where everyone was made to stand in lines. The Rot Kommando then shouted to the women to remove their shoes and tie them up securely with a piece of string. Those who didn’t have any string were given some. Then the women were allowed to enter into the barrack: at the entrance the shoes were tied together and put aside. Of course, it did not happen without the savage beatings. There was one German from Frankfurt among the Germans, his name was Sepp Hitreider. He was especially active in mistreating women and children. For example, when he once said something to a child and the child did not understood him, he grabbed the child by the little legs and threw him against the wall smashing his
head. He would give a kick a pregnant woman to her belly so she would immediately [..?] or simply fall dead on the spot, so that there were many dead bodies around the barracks. Women were so gravely injured that they were being unable to walk to the so-called bath. In the barrack the Jews of the Rot Kommando told the women to dress down naked. The undressing did not happen without the murderous beatings. When a part of the women understood what was happening, they started to wail. Then a German came in and held a speech, telling them not to be afraid, nothing bad would not happen to anyone, the women would only be bathed and then receive new clothes and leave for work in the Ukraine. On the occasion he also announced that all the documents and gold jewelry had to be deposited at a cashier’s and that these things would be given back later. The women were then sent to a hairdresser, where their hair was shaved short. (By the way, the hair was later picked up, disinfected and sent away in freight cars.)
At the same time, the men were ordered to undress completely, only holding their shoes, documents and valuables in their hands. While undressing, the unfortunate were murderously and sadistically beaten, especially by a certain Kurt Franz from Berlin, the vice commander of the camp, who set his dog Bari on the unfortunate ones and their skin was being torn away.
After leaving their shoes on the ground there, the men were led to a side alley, that the Germans called Himmelgasse. The men had to run all the way, about 300 metres. This way led to the gas chambers. At the entrance to the alley there was a cashier’s booth, where
all things had to be left. A Jew, also a victim,
had to select 20-30 men that were in the best health from among the running ones. They
were stopped and made to carry the clothes
of transport that had just arrived to a designated place. This group was beaten
especially savagely. The dog was tearing away pieces of flesh, they were beaten with shovels
and metal rods. After finishing the work that was assigned to them, they were sent to the
alley. I want to add that the unfortunate ones were thirsty and they were not allowed to
drink. Water was available, but the Germans and the Ukrainians
guarded the pumps and did not permit to swallow even a drop of water. The unfortunate ones
begged them: A little water and then you can shoot
us
.
Right after the men, the women were brought. When the alley ended, a building appeared before the eyes, it was partly made of stone and partly of wood, of a beautiful style, with flowers around a huge star of David on the roof. People were brought into this building when they had to take the so-called bath.
Before entering the building, a group of Ukrainians would usually wait for them. One of them especially stood out from the others. His specialty was torturing women, whose breasts or ears he would cut off, or very often rape them in front of everybody. There was no end to the wailing and the shouting.
The door opened and about 800 persons were pushed inside the chamber, men and women separately. They were pushed inside with their hands up in the air, so that more would fit in. The murders jabbed at the backs with bayonets, and after filling up the chamber there was no space
The Jewish unit removed the bodies and carried them to the special pits that were ready, as deep as a two-storey building and more, and there the bodies were laid in layers one on the other. After every transport, the layer was covered with sand, and when the pit was full, chlorine was poured on and it was covered.
After a certain time, at the end of August, the burning of the cadavers started. Sort of grates from iron railings were constructed, wood was placed under them and the bodies were burned. The content from the long-ago overfilled pits was removed by special machines and placed next to the pits. The specially designated Jews had to sift through the sand with their bare hands, collect all the flesh and bones aside and carry it on stretchers in order to be burned. A death punishment awaited those who would miss a smallest bone in sand.
The informant tells that he was a member of a worker unit that sorted through clothes and did different other jobs. He spent 11 months in Treblinka. The worker unit stayed alive for so long for a certain reason, that is, because one time, a transport
with Jews from Warsaw arrived, a group of 200 persons were selected and tortured horribly. A certain German called Max Biela took a special part in this sadism. A Jew from the transport ran to this German and stuck a knife to his back, killing him. As a punishment, around 150 workers from the unit were shot. The following day, the commander of the camp Stangl decided that in order not to repeat the experience of selecting new workers, the unit that was already working and comprised 700-1000 persons should for the time being stay for a longer period.
In July 1943 a group of workers started to organize an uprising in order to destroy the death camp and to escape afterwards. We stole guns and ammunition in sacks and hid it. While we were carrying the weapons, the workers were cleaning water basins pounding them violently on purpose in order to make a great noise – the Germans moved further away from the barracks and we used the opportunity. On the 2nd of August 1943, at 4.15 PM at the sound of the signal, a revolver shot, the uprising broke out. A group of Jews set the petrol reserves on fire with grenades and then burned down the barracks and the fence. A considerable part of Ukrainians defended themselves and because of that a few hundred insurgents were shot. But a mass of Germans and Ukrainians also fell. After burning down the barracks, we ran away.
Written down by: M. Ash
5th of September 1944