Trains to Treblinka

by Charles Causey

  Gently guiding him toward his mother, Tchechia then walked quickly over to the older woman.

  “Ma’am, can I help you with your clothing?” Tchechia asked as she knelt down and began removing one of the woman’s shoes.

  “You may, but I don’t see the point,” the woman responded.

  “Why do you say that?” Tchechia asked. Still she would not lie to her and say she needed to be naked before she entered the shower.

  “Because I suspect we are not really going into the showers, so there is no point for me to undress.”

  “Ma’am, it is not for me to say what will or will not happen to you, because I am not in charge of this camp. All I can say is that if we don’t get you undressed right away a guard will come over here and start to beat you without mercy.”

  “But what does it matter?” the woman said, almost shouting.

  There was so much commotion around them that no one noticed her raised voice, but Tchechia wondered if the woman would be shot right there in the undressing barracks, as she had seen happen before. She decided to try again.

  “Ma’am, up now, get up,” Tchechia said, forcefully grabbing the woman’s hand and raising her up off the shoes. Then Tchechia began unbuttoning the woman’s dress while the woman stared at her. The last button was unfastened near the woman’s neck and Tchechia tried to slip the dress off, but the woman turned away from her, making it impossible.

  At this point the people around them were forming into lines, waiting to be sheared. Almost everyone was undressed except for a few children who were being helped by their mothers. Tchechia knew it was a matter of seconds before the woman would be targeted as a noncompliant by someone in charge.

  She stared at the woman. The woman stared back. Tchechia reflected she might have had the same attitude if the roles were reversed, though she herself had undressed immediately, thinking this was a real work camp.

  Months had passed since then. News about Treblinka had no doubt disseminated throughout Poland. When the passengers saw the station sign, some of them had to know that this was the end, like the woman standing before her.

  A kapo was heading right for them. Tchechia did not want to see this woman’s blood shed around her. In a final desperate attempt, Tchechia lunged at the woman, grabbed her dress, and ripped it off her arms. It was too easy. The woman must have complied. With the removal of her underwear she was naked and standing in line with everyone else. She never stopped staring at Tchechia…and Tchechia could not forget her woeful eyes, devoid of hope.

  The kapo found another person to harass.

  Tchechia walked out of the building, haunted by the look in the old woman’s eyes.

  Treblinka had changed. The new mock train station was finalized, complete with a fake clock on the side of the tower where the hands were permanently painted on the outer wall. The eternal time was six o’clock. A new fence for the zoo had been set up and animals were starting to arrive. Kapo Rakowski, knowing there would soon be an uprising and that Jews would have to flee into the woods, thought he should march the Jewish workers around to the music. This would build up their strength and endurance to escape the patrols that would certainly be sent to capture them immediately after the revolt. The Doll agreed to this exercise and cheered them on. It formed into an evening parade after roll call.

  The weather began to turn warmer and the sun was setting later and later. Though few transports were arriving, and some nearly empty—like the one in which over three-quarters of the passengers were already corpses—the Nazis and the Jews were being creative in occupying their time. There was a new camp “street” with an elaborate, country-style gate by the rail station, benches, flowers, and buildings painted with bright colors. There was the continuous sound of construction in the camp as it was reshaped, all to specifications of Kommandant Stangl and the Doll. Usually the arrival of spring brings new hope, but for the revolt organizers this was when disaster struck.

  Chapter 18

  One day in April, Kurt Franz walked into the German sick bay to see Dr. Chorazycki. After the usual pleasantries, Franz was about to tell the doctor the reason for his visit when he noticed there was a bulging handbag in the corner of the office. Franz asked the doctor what was in the bag, and then stepped over toward it. As the Doll was investigating the bag, stuffed with 150,000 zloty and other valuables, Dr. Chorazycki quickly grabbed a surgical knife and lunged at the deputy kommandant, stabbing him in the back.

  “What the…? You stinking Jew!” cried Franz. “Do you think you are going to get away?”

  Regrettably for the doctor, it was a small knife plunged into a large back. The Doll shouted out for a couple of comrades as the fifty-seven-year-old doctor fled the clinic. During the time of his escape and subsequent capture, Chorazycki had time to swallow some poison. Unfortunately it was not enough.

  When the SS guards finally caught the former Warsaw doctor, they began to kick and beat him mercilessly. The Doll arrived and also joined in, but Chorazycki had passed out. The guards carried the bloody frame over to the courtyard, where the Doll had earlier installed a whipping post as part of the camp enhancements. An irregular roll call was set for midafternoon so that everyone could see what happened to traitors. At the formation, Deputy Franz walked up, newly bandaged and wearing a clean uniform.

  “Do you see what happens when you are crazy enough to attack one of us?” the Doll challenged. He then had the guards pour a couple of buckets of cold water on Chorazycki’s body. The body twitched, giving the Doll the assurance he needed that there was life underneath the shredded clothing, dirt, and blood. Franz went to work, looking into the eyes of his audience after every lash. Through the first fifteen strikes there was some movement when the blows landed, but after a terminal exhale, there was nothing. This did not deter the Doll, however, who continued to strike the lifeless body. Twenty, thirty, forty…fifty total lashes.

  “Now drag him to the Lazarette to be shot!” Franz demanded. Then the Doll stared at the assembly of workers before him. “This Jew swine had gold and zloty and dollars in his possession. And I know he got it from somewhere. Therefore I want all the gold Jews to follow me to the Lazarette because I am going to get to the bottom of this treachery.”

  Although already very dead, Dr. Chorazycki was shot for good measure, then thrown into the perpetual flames of the death trench. The Doll turned to the Jewish workers who worked with the gold assembled before him. Edek, the young accordion player, was also forced to be there. The boy was crying, begging the others to tell what they knew because he didn’t want to die.

  Each Jewish worker was individually brought up to face the edge of the pit. Franz put his handgun in each man’s back and demanded, “Now tell me what you know. Where did the doctor get the money? Tell me, or I am going to shoot you. If you do tell me, you will live.” One by one the gold Jews marched up to Franz, who handled them roughly and then let them go. For some reason, even though no information was revealed, only the doctor was killed that afternoon. Franz knew that Stangl would be upset if he followed through with his executions. The gold Jews were too important to take out of commission en masse. Standing together in secrecy, they all retained their lives.

  A few weeks after the death of Dr. Chorazycki, the SS decided to perform another random inspection to see if anyone else was stashing gold or dollars. A Nazi staff sergeant bellowed to the assembly of workers, “Anyone found with money in his possession, even as small as a penny, will be severely punished.”

  The search in Barracks A progressed smoothly until they searched acting camp elder Benjamin Rakowski’s bedroll, where there was stored a large amount of gold, money, and other valuables. It was almost as if they knew before they searched that they would find a cache of goods.

  The Nazis laid out all of the newly discovered items in front of the formation. Then Miete asked for Rakowski and Galewski, who had not been formally reinstated following his typhus recovery, to come forward.

  Miete roughly remov
ed Rakowski’s armband. “You are no longer the camp elder.” He then told Galewski, “You again are the Treblinka camp elder for the workers.” He motioned for Galewski to return to the formation, then looked at Rakowski. “Kapo Rakowski, these items were found in your possession. What do you have to say for yourself?”

  Before he allowed Rakowski to answer, Miete pulled out his pistol and stuck it in Rakowski’s back. “March!” Miete ordered.

  “Wait a minute!” shrieked Rakowski, realizing the end had come. He stopped walking, forcing Miete to yank him toward the door.

  “Wait a minute!” the former camp elder yelled. The face of Tchechia flashed in his mind and how disappointed she would be.

  “Why?” barked Miete. “What do you have to say?”

  “What I have to say is…these items are not mine,” stammered Rakowski, trying to mask his terrific fear.

  “Then whose are they?” asked Miete, always interested to uncover a worker plot.

  “I have been set up by someone, by a traitor,” suggested Rakowski.

  “Who?” bellowed Miete.

  At this point all the other men in the barracks held their breath. What would Rakowski say? Would he expose the revolt committee? Would the uprising have to start now?

  “By Chorazycki!” shouted Rakowski. “The doctor hid those items in my bedroll, hoping to get me in trouble.”

  “Chorazycki’s dead,” replied Miete.

  “I know that. He hid them before he was caught. He stored items all over.”

  Miete eyed him suspiciously. “If you knew he was hiding stolen items, then why didn’t you report it? Huh, if you are so faithful? Why would you never tell me this information until now, when you are caught red-handed?”

  “I couldn’t,” said Rakowski as convincingly as possible.

  “Why not?”

  “Because Chorazycki threatened my life!”

  “But now he is dead and you are no longer threatened, yet you did not come to us. Let’s go!” Miete knew that it was a typical tactic of the Jewish workers to blame someone who had already been killed, then there could be no reprisals. Miete was convinced Rakowski was guilty and he wanted to make an example out of him. Putting to death the acting camp elder would implant fear in all of them, showing that no one was above the law.

  Miete marched Rakowski over to the Lazarette where Sergeant Mentz was waiting. The Jewish workers heard a single shot, and then Miete walked out of the Lazarette alone.

  Later that evening, the Doll decided to take the opportunity to give the men a lecture. In it, he told them that Rakowski was executed because of extortion, speculation, and for defrauding Greater Germany. It was an eloquent speech.

  The Czech contingent whispered together about the setbacks during that night’s planning meeting. They had lost their leader Zelo, Dr. Chorazycki, and now Rakowski, all within a short period of time. The SS guards were cracking down, and it felt as if they were closing in on the plans for the revolt. This influenced some of the men to quit active participation in the planning—but not the Czechs.

  Only Tchechia knew that Rakowski was storing the gold for their own personal escape. The two of them—unknown to anyone else—had planned to depart the camp the very evening Kapo Rakowski was executed. His sudden death was a shock but Tchechia did not cry. She knew that it would not help. Instead she decided to find another way to escape.

  PART 3

  Camp 2

  Chapter 19

  When Zelo and Adasch first walked up to Camp 2, they both knew they were lucky to be alive…lucky they were not instead taken to the Lazarette. The first immediate impact to their senses was the stench. Though only a few meters from where they had lived before, the smell was more of an assault on their senses at their new quarters. They had witnessed plenty of misery in Camp 1, but in no way did it mentally prepare them for what they experienced in Camp 2.

  They learned that there were two main gassing chambers. Each chamber possessed nickel-plated metal showerheads in the ceiling, and small orange terra-cotta tiles on the floor. During gassings, each chamber was crammed with 350–400 people at a time. Babies and small children were routinely tossed inside over the occupants’ heads once it was too tight to fit any more adult-sized bodies. The doors tightly closed and a shout proclaimed, “Ivan, water!” A petrol-driven engine immediately started up, which sent carbon monoxide gas into the pipes that was released through the showerheads in each chamber.

  The process to suffocate the unsuspecting Jews took roughly thirty to forty minutes. Then the order would be given to open the hermetically fitted iron doors facing Camp 2 so that the removal of bodies could begin. On days when the Nazi guards felt especially cruel they would delay the full treatment of gas in order to spread out the torture over six to twelve hours…then laugh about it.

  When the guards could no longer hear any screaming, the extermination mission would be accomplished. “All asleep!” they shouted. The Jewish workers would then open the doors and the bodies closest to the door would fall out.

  Immediately after his arrival, Zelo was introduced to the labor he would perform for hours on end, every day—the processing of corpses. A large team of Jews spent their days hauling bodies from the gassing chambers to the large roaster racks to be burned. The Nazi mission at Camp 2 was to exterminate and dispose of the thousands of pitiful souls who had not been selected as Jewish workers at Camp 1.

  Zelo was assigned to the transport squad. Once the gassing operation was cleared for removal the transporters ran everywhere. They ran to the large multichambered brick building. They hustled to extract the clammy corpses out of the rooms and place them outside. They loaded two adult bodies or three child-sized bodies onto a stretcher, and then ran toward the large burning pits. En route they would halt to allow amateur Jewish dentists extract teeth and thoroughly check all body cavities for gold, porcelain, and other precious substances. Then the men proceeded with their stretchers toward the grilling racks. A few weeks before Zelo arrived, the bodies were merely thrown into an enormous pit and covered with sand. But now, Camp 2 was following an order from Stangl to burn every corpse and dispose of the ashes.

  Zelo now understood the entire path of processing people through Treblinka. While still working in the lower camp, Zelo was tasked to chop pine branches in the woods. When the wagon was full, it was hauled up to the tube. The workers were instructed to carefully weave the branches throughout the fence to disguise the barrier.

  Once, while peering through the tube, Zelo saw the processing of women and children being roughly herded down the channel. Ahead they could see a large Star of David and a dark ceremonial curtain, which declared in Hebrew, “This is the Gateway to God.” Completely naked and with their arms raised, the passengers were kicked and hit with the butts of rifles while they clambered up five large concrete steps, through the doorway, and into the multichambered building.

  Despite the obvious difference between the camp operations, Zelo realized there were some similarities. The men were locked in their barracks each night—morning roll call was held at 5:30 a.m. for strict accountability, there were kapos who helped supervise the upper-camp Jews, there were nearly a dozen women who worked at the upper camp as launderers and cooks, and there were guard towers with Ukrainians changing shifts several times a day. Everyone ran, everyone feared for their lives, and the German SS guards were sadists.

  The stories Zelo heard those first few days from some of the other Camp 2 workers greatly troubled him. He became more determined than ever to continue planning for the uprising. He set about to rally the leaders of the upper camp with all of the information he possessed as a leader and former resident of Camp 1.

  Soon after Zelo’s arrival he became the lead conspirator of Camp 2. He possessed the rugged good looks and confidence of leadership and influence, a man who was at ease with himself and others. Friendly yet determined, his countenance suggested he would not take any dissonance or two-faced posturing from others. The guards, rather
than taking offense to his chutzpah, approved of it, placing the mantle of leadership on Zelo by making him a kapo within the first month of his arrival.

  Zelo knew he had to keep in communication with Camp 1 if the revolt was to remain unified and succeed. He became close friends with Jankiel Wiernik, the camp carpenter. Jankiel alone was trusted by the Nazis to go back and forth between the two camps because they needed his building expertise at the lower camp. He would speak to Rudi when working on his construction project at Camp 1, then report back to Zelo in the upper camp at night. In this way, the two camps stayed connected.

  The work in Camp 2 was awful to endure. But Zelo’s hope for retaliation and freedom inspired the Jewish workers there to keep laboring hard to stay alive.

  Chapter 20

  Because the transports had slowed down to a trickle, the Doll decided to get the people in Camp 1 working on additional improvement projects. The zoo, which now had foxes, squirrels, pigeons, peacocks, and other animals, continued to expand, so Jewish workers were tasked with constructing shelters for the new arrivals. The Doll also developed an orchestra, along with entertainment shows to be performed after evening formations, such as skits and boxing.

  SS guards were all instructed by the deputy kommandant that while on vacation they should look to bring back as many instruments they could find. The camp also harvested many violins and brass instruments from the trains to use for the upcoming concerts. Soon an entire orchestra was formed from workers who were skilled musicians before their incarceration.

  The Doll was notified that a famous Warsaw musician, Arthur Gold, had arrived on one of the transports. Franz immediately pulled the talented Jewish worker aside and told him about his exciting plans. Gold would be the conductor of the new Treblinka orchestra. The Doll had a podium built for the orchestra leader, and instructed him to work with the other musicians to compose a Treblinka hymn within two days.