Last Jew of Treblinka

by Chil Rajchman

  In January [1943] a new specialist came to our camp. We nicknamed him “Artist,” since he plays his role so well. He is an extraordinary disposer of corpses. From the first moments of his arrival he is to be found at the pits. He laughs at the sight of them and is happy and satisfied with his role.

  After a few days he gets to work intensively. He orders the ovens to be dismantled and laughs at how the existing ones have been installed. He assures our Chief that from now on the work will go much better. He lays down ordinary long, thick iron rails to a length of 30 metres. Several low walls of poured cement are built to a height of 50 centimetres. The width of the oven is a meter and a half. Six rails are laid down, no more. He orders that the first layer of corpses should consist of women, especially fat women, placed with their bellies on the rails. After that anything that arrives can be laid on top: men, women, children. A second layer is placed on top of the first, the pile growing narrower as it rises, up to a height of 2 metres.

  The corpses are thrown up by a special commando called the Fire Commando. Two fire-workers catch every corpse that is brought to them by the corpse carriers. One catches a hand and foot on one side, the second catches the other side, and then they throw the dead person into the oven. In this way some twenty-five hundred corpses are piled on. Then the “specialist” orders dry twigs placed underneath and lights them with a match. After a few minutes the fire flares up so strongly that it is difficult to get any closer to the oven than 50 metres. The first fire is lit, and the test is successful. The camp administration shows up, and all of them shake the hand of the inventor. But he is not pleased with the fact that for the time being only one oven is working. Therefore he orders that the excavator that was used to dig the graves should now start digging out the corpses that have been lying in the ground for months …

  The excavator starts to dig out the dead—hands, feet, heads separately. The Artist, being a specialist, orders the machine operators to dump the remains in a circle so that the carriers with their litters (these are now different litters, box-like in shape, so that nothing will fall out of them while running fast) can quickly run over, grab the human body parts with their hands, throw them into the litters and quickly carry them to the ovens.

  The work is now even harder than before. The stench is terrible. The workers are sprayed with the fluid that trickles from the cadavers. Often the excavator driver deliberately heaves the body parts onto the workers and bloodies them. It sometimes happens that our Chief, seeing that a worker is lying bloodied on the ground, asks him the cause. When he answers that he was injured by the excavator while dumping the cadavers, he receives several lashes as well.

  But the Artist walks around half-mad with rage, because the work still is not proceeding as well as he would like it to.

  Soon afterwards, two new excavators are brought into the camp. The joy of the murderers knows no limits, since now the work will proceed taddellos (flawlessly). The next day all the excavators began to function. For us this is simply hell, since the same number of workers now have to serve three corpse processors. Each time, the machines throw out dozens of corpses and we have to carry them immediately to the oven.

  The criminal specialist also introduces a modification of the work. He creates a special commando of several workers whose job consists of tossing the dead onto the carriers’ litters. He does this so that the carriers will not have to deposit the litters on the ground and in the process waste several minutes. The throwers fill the litters, throwing the body parts of the dead with pitchforks so that the carriers, who pick up their litters in the morning, will have no possibility to rest for a moment until evening.

  It turns out that the corpses dug out of the pits burn even better than those of recently gassed people. Every day new ovens are constructed, more and more of them. After a few days there are six ovens. Each oven is served by several workers who load it with fodder.

  The Artist is still not satisfied. He sees that the work is hampered by the intense fire, which does not let anyone get close to the oven. The work plan is therefore changed. The ovens are loaded by day and are lit at 5:30 in the evening.

  Chapter Twelve

  About 250,000 corpses are burned.

  Transports of Jews from Bulgaria.

  The music plays …

  IT IS MARCH 1943. THE WORK PROCEEDS EVER FASTER. The Chief orders that the excavators should be ready two hours before roll call, so that we won’t have to wait. One grave after another is cleared. If a pit has been cleared but a pool of blood has collected in a corner, a worker had to strip naked, descend into the pit, and scour the pit with his hands, looking for remaining human body parts.

  From day to day the work improves. The ovens are moved from place to place, closer to the pits, so that the path is shorter and less time is wasted. It once happened that an oven was brought next to a huge grave, where perhaps a quarter of a million people were buried. As usual the oven was loaded with the proper number of bodies and in the evening it was lit. But a strong wind carried the fire over to the huge grave and engulfed it in flames. The blood of some quarter of a million people began to flare, and thus burned for a night and a day. The whole camp administration came to look upon this marvel, gazing with satisfaction at the blaze. The blood came up to the surface and burned as if it were fuel.

  I remember 29 March. This day has remained etched in my memory: our comrade Yankl from Czestochowa lay down to sleep and did not wake up in the morning. Each of us wished for such good fortune. We accompanied him to the flames, threw him onto the burning corpses and cremated him.

  It has been raining since morning without interruption. But we have to work. Each of us is soaked. The murderers take cover under the eaves and shout to us from there—Faster, keep up the pace! From time to time an SS man runs over and whips us. Although the soil is sandy it turns muddy, and it becomes hard for us to run. The Chief orders us to bring several dozen litters of ash from the ovens and spread it on the ground. The mud absorbs the human blood. From time to time we have to add ashes, because it keeps raining harder. The day weeps along with us.

  Since three excavators are in operation, the carriers are divided into three groups. It sometimes happens that one excavator breaks down and it takes several minutes to fix it. We likewise come to a halt. The Artist appears and good-naturedly inquires why we are standing around doing nothing while at the ovens there is a great deal of ash that needs to be carried away. Our group foreman points out that the excavator will soon be repaired. The Artist answers that we will have time to carry away at least one voluntary round of ashes (he calls it an Ehren-Runde).

  The month of April began with fresh transports from abroad, especially Bulgaria.

  In the early hours the Chief appears, orders the gas chambers to be shut and tells us that if we work well we will be fed well. Not long afterward we again hear cries of “Help, help” and “Shema yisrael.” After a few minutes, the cries from the gas chambers are silenced, and after half an hour—newly gassed people.

  I look at the gassed people: they look very different from us. It’s as if they had been specially selected for their youth and beauty. I had seldom seen among our Jews such healthy, beautiful bodies. Even after being gassed they look as if they were still alive, but asleep.

  They were brought here in special Pullman cars. They even brought furniture with them, and a lot of food. Until the last minute they believed that they were being resettled in Russia for work. Their valuables were taken away from them and put in the so-called “deposit.” The people, seeing that all the valuables were being thrown onto a single pile, pointed out that mistakes would be made when retrieving the objects after the bath, since no notes were being made of what belonged to whom. Yes, the murderers already knew to whom the things would belong—to the Herrenvolk, the master race.

  We learned from some workers from Camp 1 that when the transport of Bulgarian Jews arrived, music was playing. The Jews were convinced that nothing bad would happen to them
. As they exited the train, they asked if this was the big industrial complex Treblinka …

  The SS man Karl Spetzinger appears and warns us “dentists” that we should pay close attention, because almost every one of the Bulgarians has false teeth.

  We find it difficult to cope, since in fact each one of them has a mouth full of false teeth. We have to pull, and the carriers weep because the corpses are exceptionally heavy. The murderers are beside themselves because the “dentists” detain almost every corpse. They start beating us. The Chief declares that if the “shit” is not removed by 4:00 in the afternoon, we will get no food. That day we work without food as a punishment.

  A few minutes after 4:00 there remains no trace of the young and beautiful Bulgarian Jews.

  Chapter Thirteen

  An even bigger oven is built.

  Several days without transports.

  News of the revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto.

  The traces of murder are effaced.

  The earth is planted with lupins.

  Himmler’s visit to Treblinka.

  IN THE SECOND HALF OF APRIL THE STAFF APPEARS with our Chief, Mathias, at its head. We see that they have brought plans with them, and at the same time they measure a section of terrain a few metres from the ten big gas chambers. The next morning several workers are chosen, and under the command of an SS man they begin to dig several metres from the gas chambers. It turns out that they are starting to build a much bigger and stronger oven right next to the gas chambers, in order to be able to burn the corpses at once. This work goes on for ten days. Apparently they are expecting many transports. By now we have arrived at the last days of April and the oven is still not ready. The Chief orders that a new oven be erected close to the gas chambers in a few days. The gas chambers are sealed in preparation. But the day is a happy one for us, because no transports arrive. We notice how the murderers run around like mad dogs; they beat, they scream like scalded pigs.

  In the evening we heard the whistle of a locomotive. But it turned out that it was a freight train. Another day went by and no transports arrived. The murderers are furious. We are unable to find out what has happened. Three days pass in this way. On the third day the Chief orders the gas chambers reopened. For the first time in Treblinka it happened that the gas chambers were sealed in readiness but no transports came.

  In a few days the chambers were sealed again and a few days later a transport came. Almost all of the murderers were present to receive the arrivals. Each of them has a whip in his hand, and Ivan holds his three-metre-long bar.

  I am in the dentists’ shed. I hear the pitiful screams. The murderers are wild. They have selected three women from the transport to work in the laundry. We believe that they deliberately sent the women to us so that we would know what happened to the Jews of Warsaw.

  The three women were in a daze for three days and did not understand what we said to them. After a few days they calmed down a bit and told us that the Jews of Warsaw resisted heroically and did not let themselves be killed off, that the Ghetto is in flames and the Jews are fighting with weapons in their hands.

  It saddens us to hear from the women that the Ghetto is in flames. But the women are proud when they tell how the Jews fought and that there were German casualties as well.

  We are heartbroken by the news, but at the same time the will and determination rose up within us to free ourselves from Treblinka.

  The work proceeds at a rapid pace. It seems as if they have a particular deadline by which everything here should be liquidated. No sooner is one pit emptied than the next one is dug.

  The Artist, seeing that there are still whole corpses in the upper layers of the mass graves, gives orders to drop the litters, pick up the corpses by hand and burn them in the ovens. Each carrier tries to utilize the moment when the machine descends into the pit to run over, grab a corpse and run away again, thereby avoiding being hit by the falling corpses that the excavator throws up.

  The corpses are counted by special workers. Every evening they have to report to Chief Mathias how many corpses were burned. Only whole corpses are counted—those which still have the head attached. If the head is missing, the corpse does not count. Heads are counted separately. The Chief is under the impression that he is being cheated, that the counting is not being carried out correctly. He beats the workers and threatens to have them shot.

  We “dentists” have a lot of work. There are several big chests filled with teeth. We have to clean them and every couple of days deliver a suitcase of dental gold, other gold and precious stones.

  From time to time we receive visits from the Commandant of Treblinka. He speaks calmly and requests of our foreman that if we find a big, beautiful stone, we should give it directly to him. (Normally Chief Mathias takes such items to the camp coffers. The gold and valuables are sent, we have heard, directly to the Reischsbank in Berlin, where the human dental gold is smelted into ingots.) The Commandant, however, wishes to have such a stone for his own house museum as a souvenir … His request is easily fulfilled, since we are used to giving such stones to his assistants, hoping thereby to avoid extra beatings.

  From time to time it happens that one of the murderers brings us a loaf of bread or a few cigarettes, which are then divided into twenty parts.

  In May a new SS man arrives, and on the following day he comes into the “dentists’” shed to have his wristwatch repaired. A worker among us is a watchmaker by trade and fixes his watch. Our foreman takes advantage of the opportunity to ask for several suitcases from Camp 1. The SS man promises, not knowing that no one from Camp 1 is allowed to come here. In the afternoon the German returns in the company of a worker from Camp 1, bringing several suitcases. He wants to send the worker back, but right from the start he is detained by Chief Mathias, who glares at the SS man and berates him for not knowing that no one from Camp 1 is allowed to come here. He tells the worker to turn around, undress and go down into the pit, where he shoots him.

  In June fewer transports arrive than ever before. The new oven is ready. Corpses are thrown in as quickly as possible. The work of clearing out the pits likewise proceeds at a rapid pace. Ten pits have already been entirely cleaned out. The last, the eleventh, pit is one of the four biggest, where a total of a quarter of a million people lie. Two excavators work at this pit. A special commando is created, called the Knochen-Kolonne (Bone Brigade). Their task is to walk around with a bucket and pick up the tiniest bones, so that no trace will remain. The Supervisor points out that if the greatest care is not taken, it will be considered sabotage. What that means does not have to be explained to any of us.

  The third excavator, which is not in use for digging up corpses, begins to move earth from one place to another. Several workers assigned to the excavator have to keep an eye out for bones or other body parts and immediately bring them to the oven. The earth is turned over twice, so that no trace should remain.

  By the end of June the space of the eleven pits, where hundreds of thousands of bodies had lain, was completely cleared. The earth was smoothed out and sown with lupins.

  It soon became clear—the murderers had a deadline: 1 July for Camp 1. We learned that that day we were to expect a notable guest—Himmler. Great preparations were made to receive him. The work was completed two days ahead of schedule.

  It is the first of July. We were supposed to work in the afternoon. At the last minute, however, work was called off.

  We lie confined to our barracks and see through the little windows that a strong guard has been placed around the building. A few minutes later Himmler arrives with his entourage. They inspect the gas chambers and head for the open space, which by then has been made neat and clean. Himmler apparently is satisfied. He smiles, and his accomplices beamed with joy.

  Several shots are heard—a signal of victory.

  It is worth mentioning that among the SS men in Treblinka there were some who had come from the working class, former members of the Communist Party. One SS man wa
s a former Evangelical pastor.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It was a hot day … “Trinkets.”

  Mikolai and Ivan.

  The murderer “Tsik-Tsak.”

  IT WAS A HOT DAY. SEVERAL STAFF MEMBERS, WHO HAD gone on leave a fortnight earlier, had returned to the camp though every one of these bandits receives twenty-four days of leave every six weeks because of their strenuous “work.” While on leave, they had dressed in civilian clothes and left their sacred uniforms in the camp. When they came back from their Erholung (recuperation) they were constantly in a bad mood. We once overheard a conversation in which one of them told the other that the city he comes from was being bombed day and night and that there were many casualties from the air raids. We also notice that the murderers, coming back from leave, don’t look good. It appears that the care they get at home is not as good as what they get in Treblinka. Here, in Treblinka, they can afford everything, since there is no lack of money. After all, each victim who arrives in Treblinka have managed to bring something with him or her.

  It is a very difficult day today. SS man Unterscharführer Chanke—we call him The Whip because he is a specialist in beating—is in a bad mood. His comrade Unterscharführer Loeffler is no small sadist himself. He has terrifying eyes, and all of us are afraid that his glance will fall on us because in that case we are done for. Despite the fact that they are tired from their journey, they beat us mercilessly.

  I remember a case in which two workers forgot themselves and placed the corpses of three small children on the litter instead of one adult corpse. Unterscharführer Loeffler detained them, covered them with blows from his whip and screamed—You dogs, why are you carrying trinkets? (“Trinkets” is what they called little children.)