by Yitzhak Arad
Organized religious activity was carried out under the leadership of a few prisoners. The central figure in the religious life in Treblinka, for example, was Meir Grinberg, the capo of the “blue” group, the son of a scribe. Each evening, at the end of the workday, when all were locked into the barracks, he would stand and pray the Evening Service and end with El Male Rachamim for those who had been killed that day. Then the Jews in the hut would say Kaddish. The SS men would come and stand near the hut and listen to the pleasant voice of Meir and his prayers to the memory of those whom they had killed.
Rudolf Reder writes about Belzec:
The prisoner staff was made up mostly of people who had lost their wives, children, and parents. Many of us acquired prayer shawls and tefillin from the storage shed, and at night, when they locked us into the barracks, we heard from the pallets whispers of the Kaddish. We prayed in memory of the dead.5
Ada Lichtman from Sobibor wrote that “when they found out that in Camp III they were murdering the Jews, the prisoners assembled in the carpentry workshops and said Kaddish.”6
In the Lower Camp of Treblinka, camp authorities allowed prayers to be conducted in the living barracks in the evenings and prayer and a minyan in the carpentry workshop in the early hours of the morning immediately upon waking and also toward evening. There was no shortage of prayer books, prayer shawls, and tefillin, because so many had been brought by the Jews in the transports.
In the extermination area of Treblinka, there was a relatively large number of religious prisoners, and public prayers were held in the living barracks with the authorization of the SS men. Jacob Wiernik writes about a German by the name of Carol who brought the worshipers prayer shawls and tefillin and, as a joke, in certain instances allowed funerals for the prisoners who had died and even the erection of headstones. A few weddings were also performed in the extermination area. Eli Rozenberg relates:
In the extermination area, the prisoners who wanted could observe tradition. An Unterscharführer whose nickname was “Rosha” once looked at the worshipers and said: “Why are you praying? Your God won’t help you—you see what’s going on here.” The weddings in the extermination area were performed according to Jewish law . . . under the direction of the prisoner Zalman Lenge, a porter from Warsaw, who at these ceremonies assumed the duties of the cantor and the rabbi. At his initiative authorization was given to bake a few matzot for Passover in the kitchen in the extermination area.7
On Yom Kippur that fell on October 9/10, 1943, the prisoners in Sobibor were allowed to assemble in one of the huts in the living area and pray. Mordechai Goldfarb testified:
When Kol Nidre night came, we all assembled in the hut, even though we had not spoken about it before. I am not sure how we knew the correct date. We prayed the Kol Nidre service together and wished one another a good year.8
With a few isolated exceptions, faith in God did not suddenly burst forth in the hearts of those who were brought to the death camps, nor did it stop at the entrance, at the gates. Religious people usually continued in their faith, even in light of the situation in which they found themselves; they found solace in God. And among the nonreligious prisoners, there was no noticeable religious awakening or repentance, save for a few. In general, thoughts about faith and religion in the camps take up a small place in the testimonies of the survivors.
The tolerance of the SS men to religious events and expressions on the part of the prisoners was especially apparent in the second half of the period that the camps were in operation. Although freedom of this sort had not been allowed in the ghettos and other camps, in the death camps it was the result of the Nazis’ calculation that it would not thwart their aims nor their use of these people for work. On the contrary, in their estimation, the prayers would be an outlet for the prisoners’ feelings and something to do after work—much like the sports and entertainment activities that were organized in the camps. For the Nazis the religious ceremonies were also a matter of curiosity, entertainment, and ridicule. This cynical attitude of the Germans to the Jewish faith was evident in the fact that they hung a Torah curtain at the entrance of the gas chambers in Treblinka and above it inscribed: “This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous will pass through it.”
28
Diseases, Epidemics, and
Suicide
In the camps there was no room for the sick. Those who fell ill and were not able to continue working and thus hide the fact from the Germans and Ukrainians were shot or sent to the gas chambers. The SS followed the prisoners around while they were working, checked them at roll call, searched them in the barracks; and those who seemed sick were taken directly to the Lazarett.
Among the prisoners in Treblinka were two doctors who were allowed to practice: Dr. Julian Chorazycki, who treated the German patients; and Dr. Irka, who treated the Ukrainians. It was forbidden for either of them to treat sick Jews. Despite this absolute prohibition, however, in the evenings, inside the barracks, these doctors did try to aid the sick prisoners and even administered whatever medicine they could filch from the infirmary. But this help was of small consequence, considering the large numbers of prisoners who fell sick.
In 1942, the “camp elder,” Galewski, was able to obtain permission from the camp administration for fifteen sick prisoners a day to remain in the lower camp and not go out to work. These prisoners were given numbers in the morning, which was authorization to remain in the barracks. In the autumn of 1942, even an infirmary was established in the living barracks. At first Dr. Chorazycki treated the sick in the evening, but, later, two prisoner doctors, Dr. Beck and Dr. Reisman, were assigned to this infirmary. But even this new arrangement did not solve the problem, because the number of sick per day greatly exceeded the number fifteen.1 In the other camps, Belzec and Sobibor, even this type of arrangement did not exist.
In the extermination area of Treblinka there was no facility for the treatment of the sick, and those who could not continue working were taken directly to the Lazarett. However, when Jacob Wiernik, an outstanding carpenter whom the Germans needed to build the new watchtowers, fell ill with pneumonia, the Germans found a Jewish doctor among the prisoners in the extermination area to treat him, and the SS man responsible for his work even brought him food.2 But this was a notable exception.
There were also instances of sick prisoners being killed by injection. These deaths were inflicted on those who were not able to walk on their own to the place where they were to be shot. The injections were given by prisoner doctors according to the decision of the SS.3 Death injections were also given to prisoners who had gone mad in the camp. Shmuel Wilenberg, from Treblinka, writes about this:
One night, when most of the prisoners had already fallen asleep and a small group wrapped in prayer shawls was praying by the light of small candles, the stillness of the night was pierced with a laugh that could freeze the blood in the veins. Everyone who heard the laugh felt a chill go through his spine. It was like the screech of a crow or the howl of a jackal. . . . I felt that in another minute I would also break out in that kind of laughter. . . . I covered my head with the blanket and with my fingers I shut my ears so that I would not hear that crazed laughter. The next day the doctors gave him a death injection. The poor man did not know what they had done to him, and perhaps it was better that way. . . .4
The death of prisoners from sickness and the executions of those who could no longer work were a daily occurrence in Treblinka during typhus epidemics.
The hygienic conditions in the camps until the beginning of 1943 were the worst and most inhumane that could be imagined. There were no showers, and even the water was rationed. The prisoners, except for those who worked in the extermination area, had no problem in taking clothing from the piles of belongings left by the Jews in the transports, and from time to time they were able to change their clothes. It was not that easy, however, to get clean clothes, and there was a serious problem with lice. Yitzhak Lichtman from Sobibor testifies:
&
nbsp; The filth took its toll. Lice and bedbugs ate our bodies. It is true that there was no shortage of clothes, and when we took them out of the packages they were sometimes even clean, but they were also sometimes full of lice. Almost all of us broke out in a rash from the itching, but we had to hide the fact, because if not we would be taken to the Lazarett.5
In the extermination area, however, the prisoners worked and slept in the same clothes for weeks at a time, and only infrequently were they brought a change of clothes from the other part of the camp. Under these conditions, and with the horrible overcrowding in the living barracks, the lice and bedbugs became an unavoidable part of camp life.
At the beginning of winter 1942, in the middle of December, the transports to Treblinka became less frequent. Also at that time, however, bright spots on the skin and high fever, characterizing typhus, began afflicting all the prisoners in the camp, both in the lower camp and in the extermination area. At first the prisoners attempted to conceal this from the SS men and the Ukrainians, but because there was absolutely no way of isolating the sick from the healthy prisoners, the disease spread quickly, and hundreds of prisoners became infected. At that point it was no longer possible to hide what was happening from the Germans.
The infirmary in the Lower Camp quickly became filled, and the number of “official” sick was increased—with the authorization of camp authorities—to twenty. Those given first preference to be taken to the infirmary were the capos and those close to them. Among them was the “camp elder,” Galewski, who came down with typhus, and some other capos. Also the informers Chezkel and Kuba became ill, and, out of fear for their health, the authorities ordered that they be brought to the infirmary and treated. Therefore, there was hardly any room in the infirmary for the “plain” sick, and every day tens of people were taken to the Lazarett and shot.6
The prisoners did all they could to continue working. They went to the roll calls and to work even with a fever of 40 degrees (centigrade) and more, because they knew that the moment they remained to rest in the hut their fate was sealed. The healthy helped their sick friends by trying to do some of their work for them. The capos also tried to help and allowed the sick to rest whenever the Germans and Ukrainians were not in the vicinity. The sick used the toilets to rest, but the Germans made the Scheissmeisters chase them out of there at the end of the allotted two minutes. Rakowski, who was appointed “camp elder” in place of Galewski while he was sick, was able to appoint some of the weak to easier work details and in this way help some of them overcome the disease. This was the situation in the Lower Camp.
In the extermination area the situation was more acute. There was no medical treatment whatsoever, and every day dozens were shot. Here also the prisoners tried every possible way to hide their sickness and continue working as long as they could. One day, at the morning roll call, an SS man announced that at the far end of the living barracks, an infirmary had been set up, and every sick man should report there for rest and treatment. The prisoners were not sure whether or not to admit they were sick. They were hesitant about relying on the promises of the SS men. But the disease overpowered them. Reichman writes:
The fear is great. Despite this, many sick are reporting because they cannot hold out any longer. Within a few days the infirmary is filled, and the number of sick reaches a hundred. I am among the sick in the room, and all of us have high fever. We do not receive any medical help, but it is good that they let us rest a few days. But the murderers do not keep their word, just like all the false promises of the Germans. A few days later, at five in the evening, a few SS come to us and order ninety sick people out. The Ukrainians burst in and drag the sick from their pallets by their feet. . . . In a matter of fifteen minutes, more than eighty sick are taken out. They are not permitted to dress, and they are ordered to take their blankets with them. From the hundred, thirteen of us are left. The rest are taken to the yard, and after a few minutes we hear the bullets begin whistling. . .7
Camp authorities were afraid that the disease would spread also to the SS men and Ukrainians, and in February 1943 they instituted widespread cleaning and disinfection actions in the camp. For this purpose they brought an expert to the camp along with disinfection equipment from Majdanek, and they organized a special disinfection group from among the prisoners, which sprayed all the barracks and buildings in the camp. In the extermination area, a laundry was established, and a group of women from one of the transports that arrived during that period in Treblinka was transferred to work there. These measures and the change in the weather with the coming of spring gradually weakened the epidemic.
Typhus continued to appear in the camp until the end of March 1943. A great number of the prisoners had been taken ill with the disease, but most had been able to overcome it. Out of more than 800 prisoners who were in the Lower Camp when the disease broke out, about 300 people had died or been shot. In the extermination area, more than 100 prisoners, more than half the total number of prisoners working there, died or were shot.8 The places of those who had been killed were filled with people taken from the transports that arrived from the Bialystok-Grodno area in the winter of 1942 and from the Warsaw ghetto in January and April 1943.
Disease was also widespread in Sobibor. The sick who remained lying in the barracks were usually taken to the Lazarett and shot. Ada Lichtman writes:
The Germans would come to the barracks during the work hours, drag the sick from the pallets, and take them to the Lazarett. The death of these sick people was most cruel. They were made to stand near the stairs of the watchtower. On the steps themselves were bottles, cups, and pots. A few SS men made a firing range out of these utensils, and the bullets frequently hit the sick people and wounded them. With the blood running, the sick people lay on the spot until the “game” was over. At the end the Ukrainians took those who were left to Camp III.9
In Sobibor there was also a typhus epidemic, but on a much smaller scale than in Treblinka. Ada Lichtman mentions a prisoner, Shimon Rabinowitz, who cooked during that time and saw to it that the sick received food. SS Oberscharführer Frenzel almost discovered this, and it was a miracle that Rabinowitz did not pay for this act of mercy with his life.10
To improve the cleanliness in the camp, a laundry was established for the prisoners. Three Jewish women, who had been removed from one of the transports, worked in this laundry.11
The situation in Belzec was certainly no different from that in Treblinka or Sobibor, but no testimonies about disease in the camp have been left to us.
The horrifying conditions in which the prisoners lived and the type of work the camp authorities demanded of them required an infinite amount of spiritual and physical strength to survive. Not all the prisoners were endowed with the type of strength needed to see them through this sort of work, to be able to cope with it, and to become part of the human system that made the operation of the camp possible. It was difficult enough for the prisoners who came in contact with the people from the transports, but it was even more difficult for the prisoners who were put to work in the extermination area. Their main problem was how to cope physically and mentally with the difficult and shocking work, the unending physical contact with the corpses of so many people, among them acquaintances, relatives, and family, from morning until night, for days, weeks, and months. How could anyone stand all this without breaking down? Indeed, there were many who could not keep it up, and dozens, perhaps hundreds, committed suicide. Many of those who did commit suicide were part of the intelligentsia. Yechiel Reichman from Treblinka writes of his first wake-up in the extermination area:
I awake with a headache. . . . I see opposite me a man hanging, one who had hanged himself. I point this out to my neighbor, and he points in another direction; there two more men are hanging. Here it is nothing new. He tells me that today less people than usual hanged themselves, and every morning they remove from the hut those who hanged themselves during the night. Here they don’t bother with little things like that. I lo
ok at those hanging and am jealous of the peace they now know. . . .12
The people would hang themselves at night, when the other prisoners slept. There were nights in Treblinka when the number of suicides was two or three, and nights that it reached fifteen to twenty. The people would hang themselves with their belts, which they tied to the roof beams in the hut. There was one instance of a father and son who hanged themselves after having been in the extermination area for only a few days. First the father killed himself and then the son.13
In his testimony at the Eichmann trial, Abraham Lindwaser described how he was put to work at extracting gold teeth from the mouths of the dead, his attempted suicide, and how he was prevented from going through with it:
After I was informed of my job, I couldn’t stand it. I tried to commit suicide. I was already hanging from the belt. A bearded Jew took me down. I don’t know his name. He began lecturing me and said that although the work that we were doing was despicable work, not only would we have to do it, but we would have to cope with it. We would have to make an effort so that at least someone would remain who could tell what was going on there, and that was my job, and because I had easy work I could endure and be of help to others.14
The camp authorities in Treblinka decided to prevent suicides. They did not like the fact that Jews could rule over their own lives and decide the time of their deaths; this authority was supposed to be solely in the hands of the Germans. At the beginning of the winter, two Jews were therefore picked to be on duty during the night. Part of their job was to prevent prisoners from committing suicide. These men were exempted from all other work during the day. After the night watch was instituted, at the beginning of 1943, the number of suicides lessened. But when, after the appointment of the guards, Jews were still found committing suicide, the night watchmen were whipped and removed from their jobs and in one instance even hanged.15