Jewish
Mlawa
Its
History * Development * Destruction
Volume II, Tel Aviv
1984
Jews
and "Goyim" Together
By
Moshe Peles (Poltusker)
Pages 584-571
I was born to my
mother, Sarah Itah ne'e Yonish, and my father, Shalom Hersh
Poltusker. We were three brothers; Shaul the eldest, Abraham
- the middle brother, and I, the youngest.
My father prayed in the new Beit Midrash. I
too prayed there before my Bar Mitzvah. The Beit Midrash was for progressive
members of our village who prayed there on Shabbat. I do not know if people
prayed there during the week. Those who prayed in the Beit Midrash appeared to
be religious even though they were from the upper middle class.
My brother and I were born in the neighboring
village of Ciechanow. We had returned to Mlawa when I was six months old.
Mlawa was a very Zionist city. There was a
Hebrew secondary school and an elementary school called
"Yavneh". The students
of these schools spoke only Hebrew when they gathered in the evenings.
The lessons, other than Bible and Gemarra,
were taught in Polish. Yiddish was not used. During the breaks, however,
we conversed amongst ourselves in Yiddish.
In his yard, my grandfather had a "shtibel".
He was a Hasid and later became a Zionist. He used to say, "I am my
own Hasid". He had many friends with whom he prayed on Shabbat.
Each Shabbat they met in a different home to say "kiddush"
and "m'lave-malka". A big celebration was always held on
"Simchat Torah". In the progressive Mizrachi school boys and
girls studied together. In the "Talmud Torah" school only boys were
allowed to study.
The conflicts between "Agudat
Israel" and the Gur Hassids often erupted in fights during Shabbat.
The
"Shtiblach" and Batei Midrash
There were benches
and a few tables in the new Beit Midrash. The old Beit Midrash was divided into two
sections.
In one section there were benches, and in the other
section study tables, where those who did not have permanent seats could stand.
In the Great Synagogue all who attended enjoyed the prayers of a good cantor.
Although the rabbi prayed there, the synagogue was 2/3 empty on Shabbat. Only
on the holidays was it full. On the other hand, the Batei Midrash and Shtiblach
were always full.
I was influenced by the Mizrachi school to
join the Bnei Akiva Youth Movement. Both boys and girls were members in this
movement. My brothers were members of the "Shomer Hatsair" movement.
They avoided discord at home by keeping the Shabbat My eldest brother
was head of a group but would wait until the end of the Shabbat meal
before attending his meetings. In school there were conflicts between members
of the different movements.
Even before the war economic discrimination
against Jewish merchants was felt. Even now I remember a man who encouraged
others not to buy from the Jews. (His name was Turowski). My parents wanted
desperately to make aliya and join my brother Shaul who had moved to
Israel in 1935. Anti-Semitism was not yet rife at that time and we questioned
his decision to leave. However, family ties in the shtetl were very
strong and if one family member made aliya, the rest of the family
usually followed. So it was not only economic difficulties and Anti-Semitism
that impelled the Jews to leave. My middle brother had also made was very much
in favor of aliya, but my father1 although a Zionist, was not
active in the movement.
My brothers had chosen to join the Shomer Hatsair
movement even though our father was religious. (At that time, Shomer Hatsair
did not have an anti-religious ideology). I eventually followed them. Out of
respect for my father I always left the house with a yarmulke on my
head, but removed it later on.
The
Secondary School System
My brothers attended
the Hebrew secondary school where the emphasis was not on religion. At the
"Talmud Torah" school, emphasis was placed on the study of the Gemarra
and "Tosafot", although Polish and arithmetic were also
mandatory. Bible study was not even considered. At the elementary school,
Judaism was not taught at all. It was a free government school where the
language of instruction was Polish. Those who wished to study Judaism had to
attend "Talmud Torah" in the evenings. Parents who did not
want their children to study Judaism sent their children to the Polish
secondary school. A Yiddish school did not exist.
There was also a financial consideration in
this decision. At the "Talmud Torah" there was a tuition fee.
The government elementary school for Jews, where subjects were taught in
Polish, was free. The curriculum was determined by the government, with the
exception of religious instruction. The teachers were Jewish.
The Hebrew secondary school, which was partially
supported by the community, was situated in a non-Jewish area. On one side of
the school stood the District Court and in the park stood the Local Court. The
school was located behind the park.
Those who completed the secondary school
received a diploma and were allowed to enter the university. Students attended
secondary school for 6 years. They wore uniforms of blue-striped hats and pants
for the first four years and red-striped hats and pants during the last two
years. At "Yavneh" the students also wore uniforms. Children of the
more well-to-do families studied at the secondary school. Those with lesser
means usually learned a trade by serving as apprentices to artisans. There was
a commercial Christian secondary school which very few Jews attended. Certificates
of matriculation were awarded upon completion of this school. A Polish
Teacher's Seminary and a general secondary school also existed. At the
seminary, the acceptance of Jews was frowned upon by teachers and students
alike.
Anti-Semitism was on the rise. There were
days when I would not go to the public park for fear of being beaten by Polish
youth gangs. Conflicts sometimes erupted among the various youth groups.
Anti-Semitism grew before the onset of the war. We organized groups in order to
protect ourselves and fought back when provoked. Many aspired to make aliya
at this time.
Mlawa was very close to the German border.
The day. The war broke out; we knew the German army was stationed some 50-60
kilometers to the west. Pomran, which was also close to the German border, was
populated mainly by Germans. The day the war broke out, 90% of the people left
Pomran after the Germans bombed the town. Among the dead was a Jew named Zilberberg.
One bomb fell and destroyed a house in the middle of the town. The people
gathered their belongings and decided to leave.
The
War
My parents left a few
days before this incident, sensing that the war was about to erupt. The danger
of war was in the air. The army began to move back and forth. The day the war
broke out, I walked 40 kilometers to the city of Ciechanow where relatives
lived. I stayed there one day.
Upon hearing rumors that the Germans were advancing, I too, moved on. The
streets were full of people, walking and pulling wagons. The Jewish community disintegrated as
the people scattered. Very few
remained behind. After the Germans
conquered the city, the people began to return. But there were now restrictions
and fear of the Germans. Most of the youth ran off to Warsaw, where there was a
large concentration of Jews, or fled to the Russian front. There were no cars or wagons - just
people walking. "Goyim" also left. The rich among them had
left earlier, taking their possessions with them. The others remained until the
end.
I ran away to Ciechanow on Friday, the day
the war broke out. I spent one
night there and then traveled to relatives in Raciaz the next day. The Germans
did not catch up with me. I stayed in Raciaz two or three days and then
returned to Mlawa, which was only 14 kilometers from the border. The Poles
shouted: "We will not give them even one inch!". We believed that if
the Germans conquered Mlawa, they would occupy the town for a short time, and
then leave.
Those who had fled to Warsaw were forced to
remain there since the city was under siege. Those who sought refuge in neighboring
towns returned. Some had fled to Russia and became aware of what awaited the
Jews at the hands of the Germans. Dachau was already in existence before the
Second World War started. It was clear that the Germans of 1939 were not the
Germans of 1914. But those who remembered 1914 were not in any hurry. They
recalled the fair treatment of Jews by the Germans at that time. It was mostly
the youth who fled.
Prodded by the Germans, the community
immediately began to reorganize after the occupation. The Germans demanded
workers and began to pluck passersby from the streets. In order to stop this
practice, community representatives volunteered to gather the workers for the
Germans.
The Germans summoned the rabbi and the shamash
to the old Beit Midrash and demanded that the community choose
representatives. This was the beginning of the "Judenrat". The heads
of the committee were Zegla, Perlmutter, and Charka. Davidson
was the head of the police, Ksheslow was the head of the
"Judenrat". He and Shlomo
Teek were in charge of filling the work quotas. Ksheslow determined who went where, and although the
details are unclear, it was known that he sometimes took money bribes from the
Jews. I remember being beaten by him once. Shlomo Teek handled the work
quotas and Guttman dealt with the police.
Establishment
of the Ghetto
People were needed
for work daily and it was up to the committee to deliver the required number to
the Germans. Until 1940, the Jews lived in their own homes. At the beginning of
1940 Jews began to be thrown out of their homes, only to resettle in
neighboring villages. The areas from which they were expelled were to be used
for the establishment of Jewish ghettos. One day the "Judenrat"
announced that part of the population of Mlawa and the surrounding towns would
have to leave their homes. Early one morning the Germans went from house to
house waking the people, ordered them to get dressed, and gathered them in the
yard of the Polish secondary school. About 3,000 were released and placed in
the ghetto. The others, I among them, were brought to Dzialdowo. I left with
the first transport. We stayed there for 11 days under inhuman conditions. We
slept in shacks, in our clothing, one on top of the other. Food was eaten without utensils, from a
hat or a sock. Bread was thrown in the air to be caught by the strong among us.
The weak persons received no bread. From Dzialdowo we were loaded onto railroad
cars and brought to the General Gouvernement, which was Polish territory. My
parents and I were in Miedzyrzec. There too, conditions were terrible. We were
left in the hands of the community and slept in the synagogue or in the Beit
Midrash. Because my parents had some money, they were able to rent a room
in the town. I don't remember whether or not my father worked there. My parents
were anxious to return home because their relatives had remained behind in the
ghetto.
I went back to Mlawa after two weeks and my
parents soon followed. We could not
return to our house since it was already occupied by another family.
A month later the ghetto was enclosed by
walls, but left unguarded. It was possible to leave and enter. People still
went out from the ghetto to work in service-related jobs such as street
cleaning. I worked paving streets
and constructing barracks, as I had done before the establishment of the
ghetto. There were those who earned 11/2 marks by going out
to work for others.
Certain groups worked in steady jobs. They were
chosen by the Judenrat arbitrarily and worked outside the city, returning home
once a week or once every two weeks. The Germans were not interested in who was
doing the actual work as long as their work quotas were filled.
Jews who had fled and then returned were
regarded as illegals. The Germans compiled an accurate list of those who had
remained and issued identity papers to them. Those who returned were not given
papers. When large numbers of people started drifting back, the Germans
discovered this and decided to gather all the Jews in order to interrogate
them. I believe that the head of the Judenrat at the time was Perlmutter. The Judenrat secretly distributed
papers to many of the "illegals" so that during the interrogation
only about 60 Jews were arrested (although many more had returned). They were
immediately released. The situation reverted to what it had been: work 2 to 3
times a week. Those who succeeded in avoiding the work did so.
I would not say that the work was unusual. It
consisted of service jobs, office work, street cleaning and serving in German
homes. Those who worked in German
homes received food.
In the ghetto the Jews continued to pray. Torah
books existed although the synagogue had been burned down. They prayed on the
Sabbaths. The work committee tried not to send the pious to work on the
Sabbath. It was forbidden to pray, but nevertheless the minyans
gathered. On the holidays, the people gathered to pray and even erected booths
on Succot. Organized schools did not exist but students met in rooms,
where they were taught Torah and other subjects.
The Mlawa ghetto was well organized. There
was food and clothing. The
"Judenrat" was the contact between the ghetto and the outside world
and was also responsible for supplying the needs of the ghetto population.
There was a time when coal was allowed to be brought into the ghetto at certain
hours and people hurried to buy it.
The Germans could have starved the ghetto.
They asked for volunteers to join the police force. People joined in the hope
of saving themselves. There were some who thought it might be a good way to
help all the others.
The
Horror of the Ghetto
I will return to the
institutions within the ghetto. The "Judenrat" received an order to
deliver 100 people to the Germans. They chose 50 young people and 50 old ones.
The old people dug the pit and the young ones were shot. I wanted to run away
but it was impossible. Still I decided to try, as there was nothing to lose.
The moment the German guard turned his back in the yard, I ran. There were bars
on the windows and Jewish ghetto guards. In the adjoining yard, there was a
large carpentry shop that worked for the Germans. The shop was owned by a
friend of mine and I knew that if I could reach it, there was a chance that I would
survive. A policeman named Purman who now lives in Israel was on guard.
He was married to the daughter of my uncle's brother. He saw me attempting to
escape and looked the other way. Jewish policemen searched for me later,
particularly Haskel Alter, who used to live in Israel. I hid until the
end of the "action". I lived in the same yard as Haskel Alter.
He, too, knew what I went through. Our fathers were good friends. I stayed
there for over a week, and after a few days they stopped looking for me. It was
possible that they knew where I was hidden but were unable to do anything about
it since father was on good terms with the police chief. Feiglein told
father that the Germans were planning to destroy the ghetto and to move the
people to camps where they would work and receive food and clothing.
There was a transport that they brought in
from Ciechanow. We gave them shelter at the flour mill in our ghetto. From
there they were sent to Treblinka. A total of five transports left the ghetto. Eliezer
Perlmutter was the liaison between the Jews and the Germans. He was a smart
and courageous Jew.
The Jews of Ciechanow were very bad off since
Gestapo headquarters were located there.
Except in rare cases, "a Jew remains a
Jew." How does one place value on a Jewish soul? It is well known that without smuggling we would not have
been able to exist. The Jewish policemen tried not to "see" and
perhaps indirectly gained by this action.
They stood near the gate and put their own lives in danger if they
turned a blind eye to those smuggling things into the ghetto. Goods were
slipped through holes in the walls and fences late at night. There were
"goyim" who made large profits selling things to the Jews through
these cracks in the walls surrounding the ghetto. The craftsmen worked for the Germans. There were carpenters and shoemakers
who were able to lead somewhat normal lives by trading their services. They did
not suffer from fear that they would be sent out to work, nor from lack of
necessities at home.
Guttman cooperated with the
Germans and gossip had it that he had abandoned his own wife. I knew this
family well. Before the war, I went to school with one of the sons, the one who
was later hung. We lived in the
same neighborhood, our homes facing one another. Guttman was unemployed
most of the time, and his wife supported the family by making hats. He was a
butcher by trade but did not own a butcher shop. In the ghetto they lived
well. Guttman was feared
almost like the Gestapo. After his son was hanged, he became a monster, even
delivering his wife into the hands of the Germans. He had another son and
daughter who were later deported to extermination camps. His son ran the only
cafeteria in the ghetto. Guttman knew he would not be able to save his
son, and the moment he knew that his son's time was up he no longer cared for
anything.
There were births in the ghetto but very few
weddings. A special permit was issued during funerals that allowed 10 men to
leave the ghetto.
-Why did these people not commit
suicide? Why not "Tamut
Nafshi im Plishtim"? (Let me die with the Philistines.) Where there
were pockets of resistance, there were always outside influences. I, too, had
crossed the border into Russian territory and then returned. But with the establishment of the
ghetto, it became difficult to leave. Only those who could prove themselves
"goyim" were able to exist outside the ghetto. As I have said,
one day 100 people were arrested, I among them. Fifty were killed. The ones who were left alive were
forced to dig a trench for the bodies while Germans carrying machine guns stood
on guard. If anyone had uttered a sound, all would have been shot down. Should
they have revolted? Perhaps yes, but it is human nature to hope: This one has
died, perhaps I will live! Here stood
the beast that slaughtered all of Europe and nevertheless each man continued to
think as an individual.
Desperation
Every transport was
directed to Auschwitz. There the
people went through a "selection" according to age. A certain number
of those under 20 went to school. We arrived in darkness. The buildings were
tall, the streets poorly lit. We were led by one man, dressed in black, who was
also an internee. Suddenly we saw people walking around in pyjamas - another
world. They brought us into a yard where many people were wandering about, and
ordered us to empty our pockets and relinquish any parcels. When they told me
we were going to shower, I had an unpleasant feeling. We still had not heard
anything; it was just a feeling in my heart. We really did shower. We were
shaved and dressed in pyjamas. Looking at one another we burst out laughing at
our strange appearances. Leaving
the showers, we were handed strange, unmatching clothing. Hats were also distributed
and there were those who wound up with hats that hardly fit on their heads. The
next day we gradually began to understand what was happening in the camps.
At the beginning, there were
"transports" to a construction school called "Moyer
Shuleh". 170 people from Mlawa
and Ciechanow attended. The school was located in a work camp. We worked at
constructing buildings and slept in the alleyways, warmed only by fires we
made. The beginning is always difficult until one becomes accustomed to the
conditions. In the summertime, things were easier.
A mother who sees her child drowning will
jump into the water to save him even if she does not know how to swim. In this
case, the people knew what awaited them. They arrived at the Auschwitz train
station where they were separated into groups: old people, parents, parents
with babies, youngsters, and those able to work. Didn't they comprehend the
purpose of this grouping? More or less they did. But there were those who said,
"I am going with my parents" and others who felt that if there was a
shadow of hope, it lay in avoiding the "selections". I, for example:
would pinch my cheeks in order to appear healthier. Everyone thought that in a
month or so things would ease up. There were rumors of victories on the Russian
front and people escaped to the forests near the Russian border. Mlawa was very
hard pressed. On one side was German territory, Prussia to the north and east,
and to the south, the river, which was difficult to cross. The surrounding
population was very hostile to the Jews. We heard of no Jews who found refuge
with these "goyim".
There were cases where families were brought
to a concentration camp together.
For instance, two brothers of the Rosenberg family were sent to
the same camp. They received identical rations and worked at the same jobs, yet
the older brother became ill and died.
Inside the camp, factories were built and most jobs were related to the
war effort. If an internee became weak and was unable to work, he was killed.
There was no need for an unproductive worker.
Once, a group of people ("muselman")
designated for the crematorium,
were taken and loaded onto trucks. One S.S. officer traveled with one or
two hundred people, but they were unable to overpower him because of the guards
that were all around. Some, however, did break away, most to be caught and
returned to the camp, where they were publicly hung. In order to keep the
people calm, they were told that they were being taken to a health resort and
would be returned to camp.
I worked in a 10-story building that was
supposed to be a power station, whose basement served as a bomb shelter. But
there were clear instructions: all workers were to run to the fields during an
air raid. Most probably, the feeling was that if the pilots spotted prisoners
in the fields, they would not bomb the site. An alarm was sounded at the first
sign of airplanes approaching.
There was a young man named Avraham London
who used to buy potatoes in the other block. The blocks were two stories high.
On the bottom floor he would buy potatoes in their skins and carry them in a
cloth bag tied to his trousers. One day he was caught by a German who beat him
severely, breaking London's ribs. This was in 1942. (The treatment of
political prisoners was totally different. Besides Jews, there were also Polish, Czech, Ukrainian,
Belgian and French prisoners.) The prisoner in charge of us was a sadist. Every
week he would take us down to the yard naked, to wash in the cold, and would
suddenly check to see if our feet and nails were clean. If someone did
something to his disliking, he saw to it that his food ration was decreased. He
was known to order everyone back to the block in the middle of work in order to
conduct a search. It was forbidden to carry knives and handkerchiefs. He would
confiscate everything so that there would be no trading. It was forbidden to
sleep in socks. Still, very few of those who arrived with me became ill. Later,
another transport arrived from Mlawa. They were treated brutally. Food was
withheld for any infraction and passed to us in the other half of the block.
The block was divided into two long rooms with beds lining each side. Most of
those from the second transport suffered from dysentery. We had already become
accustomed to the food.
At that time I broke both legs after falling
from a height of 8 meters. The day the camp was evacuated, I was left in the
hospital. I lay there untreated as all the prisoners left the camp, leaving
only the sick ones behind. They were planning to exterminate us. We were left
a double portion of bread, which I gave to a man who had helped me in the
hospital. He carried me on his shoulder& when I needed to use the toilet.
One doctor, who had probably volunteered to do so, remained with us. He was not
a surgeon. One night the Russians bombed the compound, setting off a fire in
the hospital barracks. I crawled on all fours to the door where I was hoisted
onto someone's shoulders. Both of us fell and were injured. After the fire was
extinguished, we returned to the hospital. There was no food, no water, and no
heat. The Germans brought a loaf of bread to each of us. About 50 of us
remained and we were ordered not to leave the camp. Outside the gate there were
S.S. living quarters and some people entered to search for food. Caught by the
S.S., they were warned that anyone attempting to leave the camp would be shot.
The Germans were frightened because the Russians had surrounded the camp. On
the tenth day, the Russians arrived. They were unable to do much for me since
there was no electricity and no X-ray machine. They transferred all the
patients to Auschwitz by wagon. There was a doctor from Vilna or Grodno whose
name was Gordon. The patients there told us that the Germans had lined
them up outside, and as they prepared to shoot them, a messenger arrived and
they all fled.
For three months my wounds went untreated.
Here, in Israel, I underwent an operation.
Testimony
Against a Nazi Criminal
During the Second
World War, the Polish Jewish Community was annihilated. The Nazi oppressor did
not spare the Jewish community of Mlawa. What happened is related in detail in
the Mlawa memorial book. I will only point out two Nazi butchers from the Mlawa
ghetto: Foss and Policat. Two devils who cast terror on the ghetto, killing,
hanging, and whipping.
The refugees who survived the concentration
camps have still not forgotten what they went through in the Mlawa ghetto at
the hands of these two hangmen.
A branch of the Israeli police was
established to investigate Nazi war criminals. They questioned survivors of the
ghettos and presented all the material to the German government in order to
initiate legal proceedings against Nazis who were still alive. Thus, former
citizens of Mlawa and the surrounding towns of Szrensk, Raciaz, Zuromin,
Strzegowo and Rypin were summoned to this branch in order to relate what they
knew of Nazi war criminals who were in the Mlawa ghetto. I also testified.
I had more than a little to tell,
particularly where Foss and Policat were concerned, although we had no idea if
they were alive or dead. Shortly thereafter, some of us who had been in the
Mlawa ghetto were invited by the Germans to testify against the Nazi Policat. I
will briefly describe this criminal. He was born on June 3, 1907, in
Minserburg, East Prussia. He was commander of the gendarmes assigned to the
Mlawa vicinity, who terrorized the Jews, among the rest, by ordering his dog to
attack on command.
People were invited from the United States,
Australia, Germany and Israel to testify against him. From Israel were invited Hendel
Avraham, Pesach Sheiman, Zelig Avraham, and myself, and also Ben
Zion Bogen of Strzegow. Yosef Haussman of Szrensk and Mordechai
Purman of Rypin.
From the United States came Leibel Kozheni,
Harry (Hersh) Forma and Reuven Soldanar of Szrensk; from
Australia: Elimelech (Melech) Aduna. We were all survivors of the
extermination camps.
I was one of the four who traveled from
Israel to Germany.
Ben Zion Bogen, Mordechai Purman, and Zelig
Avraham were unable to travel due to ill health, and had to testify in
Israel.
I, too, was anxious about making the trip to
Germany. I did not know if I could bear recollecting all the atrocities of the
past and then perhaps see the butcher go free or receive a sentence of one or
two years. However, the obligation I felt towards those who had not survived
tipped the scale, and I decided to appear at the trial in Germany. The trial
was to take place in the city of Irnsberg in the state of Westphalia near the
Ruhr region where Policat had taken up residence. There he had served as chief
of police, hoping that the hand of justice would not catch up with him. Had he
not been recognized he could have lived out the rest of his life in this quiet
hideaway.
But fate played against him. By chance, he
was recognized by a German "goy" named Brecht who was the
chauffeur of Funk, a member of the Mlawa City Council. He reported Policat's
whereabouts to the branch of the German government that dealt with Nazi war
criminals. In order to obtain positive identification, an eyewitness to the
murder of a young Jewish girl by Policat in the Strzegowo ghetto was sent to
Irnsberg. On the basis of his testimony the case against Policat was opened. My
friends Avraham Hendel, and Pesach Sheiman were the first to
leave for Germany on the 12th of May 1971. Avraham Haussman and I were
invited to testify on the 18th of May, 1971.
On May 14th, 1971 we left for
Germany, arriving first in Frankfurt where Moshe David Frenkel
resides. As he had also testified against Policat, we were anxious to learn
some details of the trial. What the judges were like and how the population
reacted to the trial. Unfortunately, neither Frenkel nor the other
Mlawans residing in Frankfurt were able to meet us. I would like to mention
here the gesture of Yaacov Zilberstein from the city of Rypin, who lived
in the Mlawa ghetto and suffered with us in the concentration camps during the
war. He traveled more than 200 kilometers by car in order to greet us at the
Frankfurt airport, brought us to our hotel, and stayed there with us for two
days until we left for the trial. I will add that Yaacov Zilberstein is
willing to offer financial help to any Mlawans in need.
We left Frankfurt on May 16th,
traveled by plane to Dusseldorf and from there to Irnsberg by train. On the way
we were aided by the Christian-Israeli Friendship Organization. In Irnsberg all
the Mlawans were staying at the same hotel: Forma, Kozheni, Aduna,
Haussman, Soldaner and myself. Sheiman and Hendel had
testified a few days earlier and had already left. As the time for my testimony
neared, my mental state was awful. I could not sleep or eat in anticipation of
the face-to-face encounter with the Nazi devil, Policat.
I appeared in court on May 18th at
9 o'clock in the morning. My friends who were scheduled to testify the next day
accompanied me. As I waited in the corridor of the court to be called in, a
man whom I instantly recognized as the murderer Policat, appeared. I collapsed
on the spot. I received first aid and recovered after about a half hour.
Although the judges wanted to postpone my testimony, I insisted on testifying
on condition that I would not have to look at this Nazi, and that my testimony
would be given in Hebrew. My request was granted. I would like to mention that
the people of Irnsberg were very sympathetic towards us and hostile to the
Nazi.
My testimony lasted two hours as I repeated
what I had related to the Nazi war criminal investigators, adding details that
suddenly came to me in the course of my testimony. The others testified that
day and the next.
I remained in contact with members of the
Christian Israeli Organization after my return to Israel. From them I received
clippings from the German newspapers related to the trial. On June 23rd,
1971, the Nazi Policat was sentenced to life imprisonment with the right to
appeal.
It did not make any difference to those who
were killed. For those of us who survived and traveled to Germany to testify,
however, at least we helped bring the criminal to his punishment.
Last Updated January 23rd, 2002