We Remember Moniek!
Written by Halina Birenbaum
MONIEK
The
Holocaust Testimony of Moniek Sieradzki of
From left to right: Tzvi Szner & Sara Shner-Nishmit, Halina Birenbaum
and Moniek Sieradzki
Background: Bialystok During the Holocaust
MONIEK
The Escape to the Russian Zone
To Slonim and Back to Bialystok
The Outbreak of the War between Germany and Russia
The Beginning
of the German Occupation in Bialystok
The Liquidation of Ghetto Bialystok, August 1943
The Death March and Liberation
The Beginning of the War
I was born
and brought up in
On
We lived close to the barracks of the 28th and 31st infantry regiments. We
closed the workshop at once and ran with my brother home. Whatever is to happen, let it come when together! Soon
after the news about the first killed and wounded reached us. A son of
our friend, Pruszycki - the tailor from
Next day it was Saturday. I did not work on that day, so I went to the
barber. When he was cutting my hair, a Polish officer came in. I asked him what
was happening at the front. He answered that the situation was terrifying, that
Germans attacked with awesome force and almost all soldiers of his company had
been killed. To lift somehow his spirit, I replied that we should still
see the day when
I returned home. The tension in the city intensified. The city was besieged by German troops. My sisters went to stay in queues for food, for bread. We, boys, were ordered by father to stay home.
A week later, that is next Friday, the Germans seized
During those past days of siege many people escaped by various ways towards
Germans began to catch men for various works. They caught them on the streets, snatched them from houses and flats and, later on, sent summons. Those caught were forced to carry furniture for them, to do all kinds of char work, or to carry heavy equipment. The German bandits were helped by the Volksdeutche, i.e. Poles of German origin. They beat the caught men with savage cruelty. The victims of that ill treatment returned home in the evenings only to evoke terror and despair by what they told and how they looked.
Father took special care that all purchases in the city be settled by my sisters. He was afraid of us and would not permit us to go on the streets. Despite that I was caught and taken to work in the barracks of a former 10th artillery regiment. I was snatched from home. I have been awfully beaten at work.
When I returned home in the evening, father told me to escape with my
brother to
In the meantime the Germans established in
In early December we decided to set out on our way and to get across to
The Escape to the Russian Zone
We reached
In Malkinia the Gestapo just took over the power. Up to now the military were in charge and they treated people with less cruelty. The railway station swarmed with SS-men and Gestapo men. They were armed and held sticks in their hands. At once they assaulted those getting out of the train and drove them towards the school where the Gestapo had their headquarters.
My cousin has been hit with a stick in the face. The Germans hit him in the nose and eye. The blood ran from his wounds and from his nose, which became strangely distorted. The cousin was a young strong man. He had a family of his own by then and was a baker by trade. He thought that he would manage to settle down on the Russian side and then he would go to take his wife and children. And so he did after some time. He returned with his brother to Kelce-Glowa town where he had a bakery. His brother returned to Zoloszyn to his own family there. They both did not return to us anymore. Only after the war I learned that they had been killed together with their families. Almost none remained alive of all my relatives, except one cousin who escaped to with his fiancee.
The SS-mordered us to take off our cloths and to give them our garmethings we had. They gave us cloths taken previously from other victims from previous trains. They searched the clothes for gold and money. My brother had a considerable sum of money sewn into the collar of his overcoat.
We were taken to work that day. After work they drove us all to a neutral square: on one side of this square there were Germans while on the other - the Russians.
The Russians were ordered not to let anyone pass over to their side and nobody wanted to return back onto the territory occupied by Germans.
Thousand of people were present on this neutral square. They remained here for a long time. Some died here. Some women gave birth to children. They begged the Russianto let them onto their territories. The Germans did not interfere with what was happening at that time on the neutral square.
Suddenly I noticed that a man was wearing the overcoat of my brother. I had 50 zloties in my pocket. Before departure from home father told me to hide this money on the bobbin of thread by covering them with the thread. I went to this man and offered him to change overcoats with my bother. This overcoat was too small for him, while this, which my brother was wearing, was too large. I added I was ready to support my offer with some money if he agrees. He willingly agreed and in this way we recovered our money which the Germans luckily had not found under the collar.
Soon after we managed to pass by night to the Russian side. About 3000 people started to press from all sides of the square and the Russians could not cope with it this time. They did not shoot into the crowd. Both our cousins were with us. We ran to the railway station. We reached the station in the morning. Russian border sentries were on guard there. They treated us kindly. They neither did utter curses nor did drive us off. They distributed just boiled water for drinking: "kipiatok"... Tension within us subsided. We were happy to have behind us the German hell and all that grimness of the neutral square - the cold, rains, shouts and beseeching, all in the open area, fraught with danger.
The Russians were asking us who wants to go to the
While going towards the square I suddenly noticed my cousins running towards some small house in which they disappeared. I lost them from sight. Since that moment I had no more contact with them and I did not know anything about them till the end of the war.
At night I tried again to run through the frontier. Together with other
people I ran through the forest towards the Zareba Koscielna railway station.
We ran for a few hours. All along I have seen some searchlights. I did not know
who lighted them and where I am. Finally, I found myself completely alone. I
lost my brother somewhere along the way. Towards morning, I learned that I am
on a German area. Obviously I lost my way while running panic-stricken.
Suddenly I met one Pole with one German. It was on the frontier near the German
casernes. They caught me for work. In the evening they lead me back to
The night came already and the way to Zareba was long one. I have not slept
for several nights on end. I got to some village and knocked to a hut. They
spoke Polish. I asked them to put me up. I learned from the farmer that they
were on the Russian side. There was no place in the hut. Various people slept
in it already as the hut was situated close to the frontier. The host had pity
on me, though. He told me to enter the barn through the ladder and sleep there.
I dumped heavily with my head into hay and slept immediately. Only my legs were
left outside. When I woke up they were stiff from cold and I could not move
them. In utter tiredness yesterday - the day before - I did not even notice
that I could bury myself entirely in the hay and thus make all my limbs warm. I
was tired to fainting. Next day, I immediately started further on my way. My
legs were swollen and I could hardly drag my feet. I had to go some 3 kilometers to Zareba Koscielna.
I reached it after a few hours. I went to the synagogue where all Jewish refugees directed their steps. In the synagogue I got warm and ate something. For the night I was told to lie down on the gallery where women usually said their prayers. Many people slept there already. I laid myself down and fell asleep.
Suddenly, I woke in terrible fear. I dreamt that Germans are chasing me. I fell into nervous shock. I jumped from the gallery straight down onto a great oven. I sat there like a wild hunted animal. I did not recognize anything. I was unconscious. In the morning the local Jews came to pray. They begged me to come down from that oven. They tried to calm me down and to bring home to me and that I was now among friends and no danger threatened me. Among themselves they said that they were sorry for the boy. |He seems to come from a good house because he has nice shirts, but his mind got mixed"... Finally I calmed down and got down from that oven.
They fed me and asked who I was and if I learned any profession. I told them
everything about myself and that I was tailor by trade and I had my own shop in
For the earned money I bought an overcoat in the "Gala" shop in
the
To my
great joy on the very first day in
At first we got eating rations from a special kitchen for refugees, which
was in
New refugees were still coming. The synagogues were over crowded with people
seeking help against German persecutions. In summer - it must have been July -
Russian army came to
After several days we left the hiding place. I thought that the raids and catches were over and I stayed at this tailor's home. But an order has been issued that whoever keeps refugees, should report to police about them. The home-steward of the house, in which our tailor rented the room, reported to the police about u. We knew nothing about it. One day a militiaman came and ordered us to go with him to the police station. He told us to take with us our belongings.
In the police station I showed them the permission for stay within 100 km
from
To Slonim and Back to
We sat
there in some eating place when I noticed my former client from
One day a municipal officer came from
One evening when I kept a watch over the kiosk, when Hana
"Jolczycha", a well known
My brother came to me often. He took usually a part of those products and
sold them on the
The Outbreak of the War between
On
German approached
I returned home. Actually, I should have gone to live in the synagogue, together with 15 other Jews recruited for cleaning the city. But a driver, - a Pole from Lida - offered me to live at his place. Apparently he liked me, that is I got his sympathy. Besides, the fact that I was a tailor might have contributed to his hospitality. He wanted me to sew him various things. He provided good living conditions for me; I could wash and live more comfortably than in the synagogue where one was always cramped for room. After sometime though, I moved back to that woman's place because I couldn't live at this driver's place for too long. When the Russian shot in the cooperative, that woman at which house I had lived, was among those killed. Her brother came from Zabludow and took her child under his care. I remained alone in this house.
The Beginning of the German
Occupation in
Germans entered the city. They set fire to the synagogue with people in it. Fifty-three people had been burned alive. One Saturday they caught 5000 Jews and sent them into the unknown. Next Saturday 3000 Jews met the same fate. People said that they had been all shot in the forests outside the city.
I had been caught for wotogethesome othermen. We washed cars, cleaned,
pealed potatoes. Bysheer cI came unan officer who
treated me slightly better. When he learned that I am a tailor, he started to
give me private jobs each day. I sewed for him a suit and some other items. He
belonged to the army logistics division, supplying necessary materials and
equipment for soldiers. Just from there he took cloth and ordered me to sew him
a suit. He was satisfied with my work. He said to me: "Schneider-Maister,
how can I reward you for this suit?" I replied that I had a younger
brother in Slonim and I would very much like to bring him to me. They were just
to deliver petrol for the airplanes to Baranowicze. He said to me laughing that
from there they would to bombard
All night I have not slept for emotion and tension. I had to pass a few small streets while the curfew was in force and it was forbidden to move about at such an early hour. I sneaked through between houses, though. The German gave me coffee and a piece of bread. I went with him to Slonim. On the way I encountered working Jews. They were beaten ruthlessly. I have also seen plenty of Russian soldiers led by Germans from the forests. They were taken prisoners. It was horrifying and very depressing picture. They were led under escort and they went barefoot, shoes on their shoulders. I had to watch it with all my former dreams about an early defeat of Germans and quick end of the war.
The German told me to get out at the road in Slonim and to return to the
same place in two or three hours. I ran to our old flat in the
I was covered with dust from the road. My brother thought that I escaped from some labour camp. I immediately explained him everything and told him to take his things and go with me back to the appointed place on the road. Szajka has been working for the last two weeks at digging pits for potatoes storage. He was given a few potatoes and a piece of bread for that. On that day they, by accident, had not taken him for work. Because they did not like his digger tool... The overseer has taken another man who had a better three-armed digger. If not for that trifle coincidence, we would never meet anymore! And Szajka was so much worried by the fact that he had not been taken to that digging of pits and he would not get his piece of bread and a few potatoes, while finally, it proved to be a lucky occurrence!
We came back to
Soon after
that the Germans established a ghetto in
Even before the ghetto had been established, I had been sent once with a soldier to bring a few men for loading the drums. I had no right to refuse. It was a good place to work in. We were not beaten there and the food was given. We were walking in the city towards the Jewish quarter, when suddenly, a drunk German officer appeared. He held a revolver in his hand. He pointed at me and shouted "Jude? Jude? I must lay him down at once." The soldier who led me took his rifle off and pointed it at the drunken officer. He told him that I was their tailor and he wouldn't let him touch me. The officer gave up. He said that he would find another Jew then... "I must kill a Jew today." He shouted. After that incident, we no longer looked for people for work. Besides, the streets became depopulated as all people fled and hid themselves away from this prowling killer.
After moving to the ghetto, I didn't work any longer in that work place. The Judenrat sent summons for various kinds of work. The specialists in trades like tailors, shoemakers and locksmiths got better works and slightly better conditions.
Jews performing forced labor in
(Source: Yad Vashem, Encyclopedia of the
Holocaust, Facts on Life, Inc.
One day, a German officer came. He was responsible for building the airfield. He was looking for tailors. I applied immediately, together with my brother. Along the road to Baranowicze, Germans requisitioned houses from Poles and turned them to their quarters. In those houses, three of us worked for the building engineer, i.e. me, Szajka and Marek Szlinger, whom I also took with me. Some of the building workers wore civilian clothes and let their clothes be sewn for them.
We had special identity cards, "Ausweise", which entitled us to certain privileges and usually ensured us a bit of better working conditions. Each morning we left the Ghetto in a group of workers and we returned back in the evening. Also some women worked in the same place - as shrub-women. A "foreman" led us to work who was a kind of a manager for us. That function was performed by an elderly heavy built Jew named Marynski. Later on he has been taken, together with other Jews in a black truck behind the city and gassed in that truck. Previously they had to dig a pit for burying their bodies.
One day I was sewing a suit for the engineer Rytnauer from
Next day I went to the community's administration and I showed them my bruised and blood stained shoulders. I couldn't go to work in such a state. They relieved me and my brother from paying the rent of 50 mark per year per "head".
After a few weeks I returned to my workplace. I asked the chief Bauleiter why the engineer beat me so severely for sewing his, Bauleiter's suit? He answered that the engineer got angry because he allegedly found his unfinished suit on the floor in dust and dirt.
I had to accept this pretext in silence and to finish quickly the director's suit. He gave me then some bread, as well as some butter and cheese. He apparently wanted to reward me for the beautiful suit.
On
Through the workshop window, we have seen Germans driving along the road columns of Jews from Zubladow and the environment. Nobody paid any attention to us because no Jews were left on that day for work. They did not even look into the workshop, so they were sure that nobody was there. In the evening, we hid into some cubbyhole under the stair. We had thick coats on, although it was not that cold yet. We constantly thought that we might have to escape tot he forest and hide there and that is why we always had warm clothes on.
We were lying in the corner under the table, covered with those coats. In
the morning, about
We started to press on the door and pushed them off. The door opened suddenly and we got outside. ran towards the building of the German engineers for which we had sewn the suits. The Germans did notice us but did not react. They had no idea at first what was actually happening here. We rushed into the potatoes cellar where my brother slept before. Szajka was not there; he was working in the garden. Soon, an officer with revolver in his hand and six military policemen, specializing in partisan hunting in the forests, entered the cellar. They came in a small jeep. The entrance had a very low vault. The officer hit himself strongly in the head against this vault. I have seen it. We were frightened to death. The military policemen dragged us out, shouting and pointing their rifles at us. They led us to the military police building. We heard them consulting each other what to do with us. One, the officer, started "umliegen" "lie them down" or "shoot them down". I was sure our end was near. Suddenly, my brother came in. I shouted: "Why are you coming here, they are going to shoot us!" "When they shoot you, let them shoot me as well!" was his reply. There were three of us now.
In the same building, the elderly Germans from "Schlussel Geselschaft" ("Key Company") were guarding various documents, plans, important measuring maps and similar. Germans kept here also the maps of the places from which they intended to bombard the enemy positions. Bauleiter Fink has seen that we were led down by the military police. He sent the man in charge for this company, who wore black uniform to explain the military policemen that we were employed at the materials used for darkening the airfield and that is why we had to be and work here day and night. Our stay in this area was legal, as we were indispensable for this work, which, had to be finished. The Ghetto was blocked so nobody could come to work. It was our rescue! The Bauleiter showed mercy to us in the last moment! The military police officer ordered two armed soldiers to lead us off somewhere with a small delivery car.
I could not believe my eyes, when I learned that we were again in the Ghetto and we could go home. We ran as if winged. We got away from certain death!
The Ghetto remained closed. Jews were not taken from it for the time being.
Only the environment of
When this
evacuation campaign ended, the SS-man Lenz came, looking for people to work.
Again he called for tailors, fitters and other trades. I, with my brother
applied at the gate of the Ghetto in
Marek Szlinger worked here with us as well. In the evenings we
returned under escort to our home in the Ghetto. We still lived there, four of
us as before. I, my brother, Marek Szlinger and Leon Pasternak,
the tinsmith from
In early
February 1943, Lenz told me that all the Jews would have to die, so if I had
any gold or other valuables I should hand them over to him... I understood that
something bad was again in prospect. Lenz must have learned about some new
action being planned against the Jews in
Several days after that statement of Lenz, on February 7, the Germans closed the Ghetto. People were told that the Germans would evacuate 20,000 Jews, because they had to reduce the size of the Ghetto.
The Aktion started. They blocked the streets and started to drive people out of the flats. They dragged them to the train behind the Ghetto boundaries.
There was a good hiding place in our house, in the basement. It was planned
by the engineer who lived there. We hid there together with 50 more tenants of
this house, at No. 18,
We sat there in the darkness and shortage of breathing air. The candle we
tried to light went out immediately for shortage of oxygen. The children cried.
When the noise of the Germans was heard, the crying children were covered with
cushions to dampen their voices and prevent the Germans from detecting us. We
were in tremendous tension and horror. We have not been found, though. In the
evening the Germans went away and we got out. Now we could walk on the streets.
The raids lasted sine 8 in the morning until
One old man had shown a shelter in the attic of a house, because the Germans announced that whoever would reveal such a shelter, would not be deported. They took everyone from the reported shelter, to the gate of the Ghetto, while they killed the old man on the spot. Next day we again ran away to our shelter. But people did not let two crying children to go in this time. They said that those children had to remain in the rooms, otherwise we all would perish, because of them. Their parents left them in their rooms and hid themselves with us... The Germans searched again the entire house, but as it appeared, they did not take these children. In the evening, the parents found them in their cradles, sound and healthy.
I did not like hiding in this shelter. I had a foreboding that it would end
ill here. I wanted to get out of the Ghetto to the Aryan side. I knew well the
house nearby, at No 3.
We slowly to sneak across a wooden fence onto the other
side. The guarding military policemen just went away. Onby one, we ran
into that house.
We entered an empty room. A few boards of the floor were removed. The house belonged once to the Ghetto and Jews apparently started to arrange hiding place for themselves there. We immediately pressed ourselves into that hole. We were lying there for 48 hours. During all that time I have not slept a minute. I kept watching over everyone. The rest of the boys slept soundly, some snored. Suddenly I heard the thud of heavy boots. I woke the others, to stop snoring. Germans could hear it. A German soldier entered. He laid his rifle on the floabove me and lit a cigarette. Nobody slept in the shelter anymore. We waited in tremendous fear and tension; what will happen next. If he would light any lamp, he would find us in this hole. But it did not come to his mind to search here. He smoked his cigarette up, took his rifle and left. The room was open, it did not even have a door.
We were alone, cut off from the people. It weighed heavy on our hearts. We
decided to return to the Ghetto to check what was happening there. Again, we
sneaked one after another through the fence.
We went to the community administration to learn what were
the news. On our way, close to the administration building, we noticed in the
dark a hanged man. People said that he came from Slonim and his name was Melamed.
His parents were killed in Slonim while he escaped to
I got the information that Jews working for SD and SS were to come with
their families to the administration building and wait there till the action is
over. I took with me my neighbour, Mrs. Szpitalna with her daughter and I
told them that they were my mother and sister. A German soldier guarded us to
prevent us from being caught and taken during the action. We were allegedly
necessary for the Germans. In the Ghetto, thousands of people were caught from
all possible places and were driven to the trains. Some Jews went to the
hospital in the hope that they will rescue their lives there. But it soon
appeared that the Germans took all the sick people from the hospital to the
cemetery in
In the wood store, a certain Birenbaum was working - a good and gentle boy. One day, Lenz ordered him to take off his trousers and another Jew to flog Birenbaum with his (Lenz's) whip. "Ten lashes, but with might, on the exposed back, otherwise you'll get them yourself". It was in the early morning. All men and women who worked there were forced to watch it and they wept.
The Liquidation of Ghetto
I still kept thinking where to hide in order to survive the war. I was thinking about the attic close to our workshop, but from whom would we get food? One Polish woman, who worked as a house-lady for the Germans, wanted to take me to her place and to hide me in the basement there so that I would survive, But only me. I did not agree to leave my brother.
In the meantime, Szlinger and Pasternak got into contact with a group, which escaped into the forest. Leon and Marek stole the rifles at work, which lay there in chests. I was afraid to do that. I did not want to go to the forest. Szajka complained of his weak legs, flatfoot - he did not want to wander about in the fforests. He could hardly go to work from the Ghetto. He repeated that whatever was to happen to all the Jews in the Ghetto, will happen to him as well! Our friends attempted to convince us by saying that it was the only chance to survive. They have already prepared hiding places and arms in the forest. There was a whole group of them there. They were constantly getting in and out of the Ghetto. Leon Pasternak was the group leader.
One day they have had an accident. They used a small boat to carry arms through a river to the forest. Suddenly, the boat overturned and Leon and his friends dropped into the water. There were three or four of them. Marek, a handsome gentle boy, could not get back to the surface. He had on him a thick overcoat and a rifle. He drowned. His girlfriend informed us, crying, about it.
My brother and me remained in the Ghetto. We worked
at our work-post until
At 11 hour in the night, I heard the sounds of music band playing. I could only suspect what may be the meaning of it. Germans were marching around the Ghetto and posted the army all around. We were caught in a siege!
We ran to the girls with whom we made friends in the Ghetto. We helped them a bit in material things, by bringing food from our work-post outside. We asked them from the door what was the news. They already knew everything and answered curtly that it was the end of us.
We went tot he administration building. People who worked for SS and SD were still kept separately. All the others had been driven to the field in Zielonki, behind the Ghetto.
It was the final evacuation of
Again some German truck came to the square and we heard a voice calling through the loudspeaker that those who worked for the SS and SD were to step forward. They called names. My name was the first. I was a master tailor. There were 50 names on the list. I was surprised to hear my name. A woman standing next to me said that I was sure to survive the war and I had to tell the world what I had seen here. I did not believe in such a possibility. I went with my brother and the tailor Wajnsztein toward the truck. Wajnsztein has withdrawn, though. He did not want to depart fromhis family, parents, brothers and sisters. Another tailor with the same name went in his place... This one was working in the fire brigade in the Ghetto but, as we knew a bit how to sew (he was a son of a tailor) he decided to avail himself of this chance of rescue.
Then the Germans demanded 10 thousand children, five to ten years old. They said they would send them to be taught. The Ukrainians snatched the children from mothers. Their fate was doomed. One of the locksmiths in our workplace had a wide ten years old boy. He told me what happened there at that time.
The Germans collected about a hundred workers from various work-posts and posted us close to the drums with water. They finally let us drink.
On Thursday, August 19, they loaded us in the trucks and took us to the prison in Baranowicka road. I was glad that I wasn't anymore in this terrible field in Zielonka. We were given some food. Next day, they brought us various things to sew. We immediately started to work, each one in his trade. I sewed clothes for the wife and family of Roth, the prison's commander. Other men were taken for exhumation, digging out the corpses from the common graves and burning them. In this way, the Germans obliterated the traces of their crimes. One man of this group escaped to the forest but soon he came back of his own free will to the prison. I asked him why did he do that. He replied that he could not endure the loneliness in the forest. He did not know what to do with himself there. So he returned to be together with the rest of the Jews.
One day they ordered those Jewish workers (there were about 50 of them) to
dig pits in the forest. After doing this work, the Germans shot them. They
killed 79 of them. One escaped, the same who
previously escaped to the forest and returned of his free will. He himself told
me about this murder and about his escape later on, after the war, when we met
in
When they selected so young men for work behind the city, I wanted to join them. I have seen that only the old remained in the prison and I was afraid that they would all be killed, elderly people and all those caught in hiding places in the Ghetto. I heard that they were gassed with poisonous gas in those trucks and than thrown into pits in the forests.
Roth wouldn't let me and my brother join this group. Twice he has drawn me out and put me back in the group of older people. He obviously knew that they would finally be shot. We have worked for Roth for a few months already and both liked and needed what I sewed for him. Here I also was the master tailor. I could take someone else for help. The cells in the prison were overcrowded. All the time they caught and brought there people who were hiding in the Ghetto and put them in the basements and prison cells. Women, men, children. They took them from there in a black truck every week.
I asked Roth to give them one more cell so that they would not be cramped for space and at least can sleep. Up to now, they could only stand in their cell... I was just sewing a blue costume for his wife... He heard my requesy and allotted those caught one more cell, so they were a bit more loose.
I pulled the tailor Abram Bender (now living in
The List of the Last Jewish Prisoners Deported from Bialystok's Prison to Stutthof Death Camp
In the Stutthof Camp
At this
place, this grim, tragic story of Moniek, who died suddenly on
From what his wife could all to it, I could write down the following details of his further life.
From the prison in Baranowicka road, he had been sent with his brother and the tailor Bender to Stutthof Concentration camp. They were confined there for two more years. He also worked there as a tailor in a tiny cubby-hole, situated opposite the gas chamber and crematory (icinerator) and repaired German uniforms brought from the front. Once a SS-man who favoured him somewhat, enetered his receptacle just to see a uniform dropped to the floor. The SS-man hit him over the shoulder with a thick stick. For all his life he had marks on his body from that "gracious" German.
During these two years of his work in that tiny room opposite the gas chamber, Moniek had seen everyday rows of naked women driven to death. He heard their cries, moaning and prayers. He had seen then the hand-pushed carts full of their corpses, being rolled for incineration in the crematory. He breathed continuously the smoke of burned bodies of people who, just a short while previously, moved before his eyes hugging each other, frightened to death, looking for help, live and wishing to live, Live! It was a hell, which he never forgot till the end of life.
He witnessed the murder of 25000 of women who were drowned in a special ship because there was no more place or time to gas them in the camp. Later on, heaps of their corpses were brought on carts to the crematory. He observed such events constantly form his workshop in the cubbyhole.
The Death March and Liberation
In the
winter of 1944, when Russians approached the camp, the Germans dragged them out
and drove them on foot to
One night, the Germans let them lay down to sleep in a stable along the way.
Moniek supported his head with something hard. The prisoners lay there tightly
pressed because of lack of room. In the morning it appeared to be a corpse.
This deadly march from Stutthof to
Moniek was a noble simple minded man, hard working, devoted, modest and agreeable. After his experiences of hell on earth, he never got too enthusiastic about anything nor was he ever angry about anything. Nothing could equal his former experience in the Holocaust. He was able to value his rescued life and he always remembered what contributed most to his survival.
Halina Birenbaum, 1988
Last Updated