Ringenblum Archives - Fischelson Testimony
From the Ringenblum Archives
The archives of Dr. Emanuel Ringenblum contain documents, letters and postcards,
moving personal testimony of the events they describe, diaries, underground newspapers that were all hidden in jars. Two jars survived.
Fischelson’s Testimony
January 6th 1942
ZAMOŚĆ
“I’ll never feel happy again, I doubt I’ll ever be able to recover from the horrors I’ve experienced”- this is how Fiszelzon starts his report from Nalevki Street 41, apartment 49 (in Warsaw). He had just arrived from Zamość, a Jew in his forties, father of five, traditional – “and if I didn’t feel responsible for my distraught wife and the poor five little ones, I would have ended this terrible hopeless life long ago, in spite of my profound faith. I arrived in the death trap called Warsaw, and I am as yet unable to accept the thought that with the help of work, production, laughter, hilarity, it’s possible to continue in the face of the end that is approaching. On the one hand I am glad that life is going on, but on the other hand it is obviously terribly wrong that we don’t scatter ashes on our heads. For sure we are all mourners”. (There are tears in his eyes, he finds it hard to breathe.)
“You ask why I traveled to Zamość. (His wife helps: Because this Jew doesn’t let us stay put.) No – her husband interrupts her – I had to leave Warsaw because of the high cost of living that went up to over twenty zloty for a kilo of bread. In May 1941 I sent off my wife and children and on the 15th July I joined them in Zamość. I chose Zamość because that’s where I come from and every child knows me there. Before the war there were 14,300 Jews in Zamość. During the week when the war broke out masses of them fled to Russia, while refugees and exiles from Voloslavek, Lodz and other places arrived there, and the number of Jews was now 7,500. A few days after my arrival, the first expulsion took place – 500 Jews were sent off, mainly the old and disabled, but not only those. Other people also joined them; they simply wanted to settle down in smaller towns. The ‘aktzia’ was launched by the Judenrat. On the whole one can say that the ‘aktzia’ was successful. The Jews were placed in small villages in the vicinity of Grabowiec, Laszczów, Komarow, Tyszowiec. Daily harassment did not make us pity the fate of the victims of expulsion; we knew where they were and had good news of them.
Since you are from Warsaw, you are sure to be interested in how the Jews made a living. A small part were traders, they sold sweets, adhesive tape against flies and soap in the villages. They used to hide - I beg your pardon - a few pairs of silk stockings in their vests, and brought all sorts of goodies to the town. Until the tragedy in April, the prices were far lower there than here, but 95% of the Jews – men, women and children working for the Germans – were not ashamed, they really worked, some in the Izbica camp (it got that name because at first it only contained young men from Izbica – it was an airport). But the work of digging trenches for water pipes was done by men, women and children using spades, pickaxes and hammers. The military authorities (Wehrmacht) were decent to them all that time, even after the expulsions, quite decent, even friendly. One man even used the informal “you” (“du” in German) when speaking to a German. You are surprised – but it was very natural there. All the calamities were the work of the Gestapo, even the German soldiers were scared stiff of them. During my many talks with Germans of various ranks and ages, I came to the conclusion that the army hates the Gestapo and the S.S. Here is a small example: My son drove in a military cart through the Jewish Quarter (there is no ghetto in Zamość unlike Warsaw), the Jewish Quarter is not fenced in and Jews live together with Christians. And only Aryans live in some of the streets. A gendarme stopped them, and the German soldier was shaking all over when he had to explain why he was driving a Jew. Even though what he was doing was totally within the law, having received an order and explicit permission. In short, The Zamość Jews had proper permits with their photographs and all that it entails.
On arriving at the workplace, some Jewish workers used to pray and even recite psalms. Quite often the young men played “zolo” (a card game). The Zamość Judenrat (23 members and a chairman), headed by the lawyer Gurfinkel, originally from Warsaw, didn’t use any “kuntzim” (combinations). Whatever the Gestapo and the Regional Command ordered was treated by the Judenrat as a decree from heaven. The Germans could not have any complaints against their Judenrat. The authority ruling Zamosz, including the Gestapo and the Regional Command, comprised 35 people. Early in 1942, in winter, they showered us with orders of all kinds, aimed at severing the connection between the Jews and the villagers. Jews were not allowed one meter outside the town on pain of death. Dozens of Jews died in this way.
The Jews were seized with dread, but there did not appear to be a real danger yet, even though one could sense it. The events in Lublin really shocked us. We couldn’t believe it. Persistent rumors penetrated everyone’s mind and heart. Each one thought about ways of escape, and since I am from Warsaw, I considered going back there. We started to try to get travel permits. Forty people still succeeded in fleeing, but at the beginning of April the Gestapo stopped giving exit permits. We were all caught up in the trap. The word “expulsion” was in the air and on everyone’s lips, but was a human being capable of understanding what it meant? People consoled themselves by saying: a) In Zamość all the Jews are working for the Wehrmacht, so they won’t touch them; b) Since one expulsion has already taken place (July 1941), they’ll leave it at that; c) If it has to happen, it will be like last year, in the hands of the Jewish community.
The Jews continued to go to their daily work, however despondently, and so calmed their nerves. Actually I would say it was like a funeral. When people pass a funeral, Heaven forbid, they all think it won’t happen to them. That’s how it was with us – we all comforted ourselves in various ways, but no one wanted even for one minute to accept that it concerned him personally.
On the second day after Passover, on Saturday April 11th 1942 at 11 o’clock, a messenger from the Gestapo came to the Judenrat and ordered the lawyer Gurfinkel to go at once to the Regional Command. We felt that something bad was going to happen, in particular since all the Jewish streets were surrounded by gendarmes.
The chairman was called in at 13:00 (at 12:00 the Germans eat their midday meal). When he entered, he noticed that the Gestapo, who always wore civilian clothes, were in uniform this time. He asked a German he knew well, why they had called him, and he answered in a cynical tone: “Are you so stupid that you don’t know? It’s about expulsion”. Officially they ordered him to appear again at the Regional Command together with the whole Judenrat. The news about the expulsion of the Jewish population spread like wildfire. It’s hard to describe the panic that seized everyone. They expected the worst. In the meantime the chairman made a list of 1,500 Jews, selected by the community as liable to be expelled – mainly non-residents of Zamość and the poor. At three o’clock sharp all the members of the Judenrat got into line in the large office of the Regional Command. The commander spoke to them and declared that within 45 minutes the Judenrat must hand over 2,000 people for expulsion. The Gestapo commander added 500, so altogether 2,500 people, and said that if they don’t present themselves at the appointed time in the market place, the authorities would just pick them up. When they asked if they could consult briefly, the regional commander shouted: “Just carry out our orders and don’t jabber” (an authentic quotation).
How did the Judenrat get to work? Each member took charge of a few houses and told all the Jews there that all of them, except those working, must go to the marketplace. But among the Judenrat there were some “diligent” ones who insisted that everyone, without any exceptions, must go, and there they would sort out the workers, the families and so on. The Germans also hurried the Jews (I mean only the local authorities). They simply entered some of the houses and shot all the people without exception, including helpless children and old people. Within a few minutes dozens of Jews were killed in this way. Those who had already “prepared themselves for a journey” went to the marketplace. Within a short time the square filled up with some 3,000 people. Those who were late were sent “zurück nach Hause” (back home). All those in the square got into a column and set out. They walked in the direction of a side railway line opposite the Izbica Camp. On the way they shot about 400 children and old people to death. While they were loading them onto the freight cars, 153 more Jews were murdered, those who had worked in the Izbica Camp, as reported by the Jewish workers. Their corpses were thrown into the freight cars, together with the living. Along with the masses of Jews, two carts went in front of the train, piled with the corpses of children and old people they had shot on the way.
You will want to know where the Jews were sent. On the next morning at 6 o’clock the train moved. Special messengers reported that from the Zawadi station, the junction of two diverging lines - to Lublin and Lemberg (Lvov) - the train went in the direction of Lemberg; but after the Bełżec station we know nothing about what happened to the victims. I can only tell you one thing: We mustn’t believe the worst, but common sense confirms a long line of reliable reports that at least 200,000 Jews died in Bełżec. According to the reports, it happens like this: When the train arrives, a German team is waiting and directs it onto a side line, into the wood, where there are some huts. The victims are ordered to undress completely and tie up their clothes into a bundle and put a note on each bundle with their name and surname. As if they were going to wash. According to the reports, a locomotive arrives, from which pipes go into the huts. Apparently they are killed by gas (others say it is an electric current). Then the corpses are burnt.
No town has suffered such a massacre until now. It’s hard for me to tell you all the details, but one thing I can tell you: No one works or does any trading – everyone is in a state of terrible despair. All those who always thought that they would soon be liberated, have folded their wings. The dividing line between life and death has been erased and maybe the people were stunned by the terrible blow. The authorities ordered the Judenrat to collect the clothes of those who had been “sent away” and carry out stocktaking. Every day they came and demanded various clothes.
Immediately after the slaughter, a few thousand Czech Jews arrived in Zamoc and places were prepared for them. In the meantime my mother and I succeeded in leaving for Warsaw legally. It’s worth pointing out that in all the military camps, the soldiers expressed their shock at the crime that had been perpetrated.
The Jews don’t want to write letters any more (the Gestapo destroys letters from Jews to Jews). Occasionally a Pole from there comes to me and brings me a letter in Yiddish from my friends. On May 27th 1942 a second expulsion took place. They took 2,000 Czech Jews and another 500 Jews they collected from the surrounding villages, such as Grabowiec, Laszczów, Komarow, Tyszowiec. The second transport of 2,5000 people was also sent to Bełżec. We’ve found out from a letter someone has just received that they are preparing more expulsions. The Bełżec factory is working at full capacity. I cannot calm down. The Germans are omnipotent, and the Gestapo even more powerful.
Warsaw, June 6th 1942.