Note 06

Written on 25 July 2019

Because I don’t have the aptitude for substantive, organised writing and thinking, I will mention a few events from my stay in the camp:

1. In the night and during clouded days, the camp was brightly lit with thousands of kilowatts, while at the same time, cities and other objects were in a blackout (translator’s note – drawing attention to bombardment)
2. I worked on new builds in and outside the camp under Capo Golus’s supervision. One day, in the spring, we were doing groundwork outside, bout 50 metres from the camp gate. From the camp, SS men drove out in a ‘Gazik’ car, stopped next to our work, called the capo over and ordered to hit every prisoner on the backside with a shovel five times. Nobody wanted to volunteer for beating, and the SS men were waiting for the order to be carried out. I volunteered for the beating, and other prisoners did so after me. I don’t know what it was for until this day, but I suspect that one of the prisoners must have felt weak and stood idle by a shovel, or the SS men ordered it for their amusement. After leaving the camp, I felt pain in the place I was hit for a few years.
3. All the prisoners were rounded up during the roll call, but one was running around the camp, jumping, dancing and calling out, repeating ‘block 11’. He lost his mind, most likely. At the next roll call, I did not see him again.
4. The roll calls were often extended, sometimes up to 4 hours. Particularly in the evening, if someone was missing, the number of prisoners had to be correct. The next day, the found prisoner, on the morning roll call, had to go around the camp in a jester’s hat and carry a plaque on a long stick saying ‘ich bin wideda’ and calling out ‘I am here again’. In front of him, another prisoner marched with a drum drumming with sticks. The extended roll call exhausted the prisoners; they fainted, sat on the snow and froze to death. The found prisoner was often accused of trying to flee and was moved to a penal group, so-called ‘SK’, for the night in a bunker and hung from his wrist by a rope or killed.
5. I have seen a situation when prisoners crowded onto a cart with bread, but nobody ate any bread as a guard, and some capo scattered the prisoners with beating.
6. I had a situation in block 4a where my scarf went missing, and I didn’t ask for a new one. It was perpetually -24c and snowed heavily. I was buttoning up my shirt and coat under the neck. After a few days, I picked up an abandoned scarf from the ground. It was infested with fleas, and there was one on every square centimetre, but I wore it until the end of the winter.
7. In principle, there were no criminals in the camp, but things sometimes happened. On block 4a, I was approached by a young prisoner who convinced me to keep a piece of bread until the morning, as he was doing that as well. I left it in the night in the bed under my head, but by the morning, it was gone.
8. On one of the blocks, a prisoner named ‘M’ had a mania of taking things from people. But I didn’t look for my scarf with him. One day, this prisoner ‘M’ didn’t go out for the morning roll call. The call was extended, as someone’s trousers went missing and they needed to be found. It turned out that this prisoner ‘M’ had his pants, but he was cold and had put on another prisoner’s trousers. The were found with prisoner ‘M’ as the the knee level they had the owner’s number. Prisoner ‘M’ received such a treatment that he didn’t join the evening roll call, and I haven’t seen him again.
9. There was a canteen in the camp, and if someone received money from home, he could buy soap RiF (it didn’t foam), cigarettes “Brawa”—very strong—or pickled beetroots from a barrel—very tart—a card or a letter with a postmark or needle and thread. Whoever ate beets, green peas, and smoked cigarettes got diarrhoea and diet. In principle, the prisoners were honest and loyal to each other.
10. After interrogating me in the camp around 10th May 1942 by the Gestapo, the block leader from block 4a – Ludyga B, escorted me to block 11 for quarantine and told me that I’d be released from the camp. From the windows of my room in block 11, I could see the square and the death wall, as long as no prisoners were being killed. Very often, when prisoners were being shot, I was moved to a room that could be locked with a key, which didn’t have a view of the death wall. After every execution, the sand under the death wall was exchanged, and once I found a bullet shell there, calibre 6mm, as it was forgotten during cleaning. The blood from the square was washed off into sewers. One day, there was a group of prisoners brought over from Czechoslovakia to block 11, and according to the room leader, they were shot to death. One afternoon, the SS men made a show for their arguments on the square in front of block 11 – two prisoners, naked from the waist up, fought between each other until one of them was on the ground with a promise that the winner would be made a capo. According to the prisoners witnessing it, the fighters were Jewish.
11. I was in a situation where, in block 11, we were told to strip naked and set the clothes aside folded as it was to be sent to remove fleas. When I was naked, a prisoner approached me with a bowl of soup, and I ate it. The clothes weren’t taken, and flea removal was called off. When I was freed again, I asked Piotr Witek, who had been arrested with me, whether he had brought this soup. He told me he wasn’t there at that time. I can’t say whom I associate this event with, and I don’t want to guess either. It was known that Germans and SS men, in revenge for sabotage, were shooting innocent people.
12. One day, I was led from block 11 along with some other prisoners, watched over by a guard from the camp gate for special work—about 50 metres from the gate, the rail track ended. At the track’s end was a toilet and a wooden barak 8×12 metres. We were led into this barrack and had to sift through clothes on the left side and put any money or jewellery found into suitcases. Any clothing searched through was placed on the right side. There was no money there, and I found a thickly gold-plated watch, which I stuffed deep into wood shavings on the floor. There was no food there. I found a cube of rancid butter and tried to eat some of it. I got the runs that endangered my release from the camp. Taking anything found in the camp was strictly forbidden, impossible, and pointless. I suspect that this clothing was from the Jews brought over from France, stripped naked and killed in the gas chambers. It was a cruel sight to watch every day naked, dead prisoners being ferried by other prisoners to be burnt on a platform.
13. Thinking about block 4a, I recall sitting on the bed, and each time I lay down, I felt like I was falling somewhere into a chasm. I didn’t go to a doctor for obvious reasons.
14. On the 2nd June 1942, after the quarantine ended, I was led outside some other prisoners from block 11 to block no 24. On the staircase of this block, an SS man stood and ordered us to strip naked, facing him, crouch, turn with our back to him and crouch again. After such inspection, there were sacks with our salvaged civilian clothes. After dressing up, we were led to the camp gates where the ‘Karzel’ lectured as, as mentioned in previous notes.