Question

Together with those caught in other houses, they gathered us with our arms raised (...) and herded us to the Umschlagplatz. We carried the injured girl in our arms. (...) At the Umschlagplatz, we were told to hand over any valuables and what followed was a scene I was familiar with – searches and shootings on the spot. (...) They murdered the injured girl who was standing near me. She fell from exhaustion. An SS-man approached her, placed his rifle to her head and shot her. She fell to the ground, but was still alive. Her hand moved and she was moaning. So, the other one approached her and, in the same manner, finished the job. At the time, I was sixteen years old. I had already seen many monstrosities, but I still see that scene in front of my eyes. They loaded us into wagons, disinfected with chlorine, and with broken windows. They struck with their rifle butts so that more people would squeeze inside. They fired their rifles so that, out of fear, people would squeeze in even further. Then, they pushed children inside – over our heads. They kept us in those closed wagons for a whole day. This was to be the last transport and they were still catching people inside the ghetto. In those unimaginable, terrible conditions, we travelled for three days to Treblinka. It was extremely hot. People were simply choking for air and dying standing up. They were dying from thirst and hunger. (Wirtualny Sztetl)