One Man's Story
I do not come from Chmielnik or Stopnica. In 1941 I was forcefully evacuated
with my family to Chmielnik and lived there if you can call it as living in
" grojse tsores". The evacuation to Chmielnik was for us the 2nd time
round. The first was in 1939 from Dobrzyn on the Drvenz in Polish Pomerania to
Plock and in 1941 from Plock to Chmielnik. I was 15 years old at the time. I
must tell you (a bit only) about it so that you understand what went on in those
days. Because we were all starving from hunger and living in the Ghetto (it did
not have a fence around it) but ordered to live only there. If caught outside
the boundaries of the Ghetto the penalties were very severe and usually they put
the poor victim against the wall and shot him. Twice a week Chmielnik had a
"jahrmakt" a sort of market day were the farmers from around the area
came to town to sell some eggs, butter, and such items, and buy in turn some
articles that they needed. As a boy I was watching some of the horse drawn carts
of the farmers whilst they attended the market place and in turn got a piece of
bread for it. After a few times of doing that I was offered by one of the
farmers a job on the farm. The village was called KARGOW and it was about half
way between Chmielnik and Stopnica. It was not a good situation on the farm for
me. A Jewish boy amongst goyim, not used to such work and the ill treatment and
abuse that one had to swallow was not the ideal situation, but it was a lot
better then in the Ghetto. At least I did get some food.
In Chmielnik the situation for the Jews was getting worse daily. I used to get
home once a month when I got one day off. One day the "SOLTYS"
(sheriff) came to the farmer to tell him to get rid of me and send me back to
the Ghetto as I was not allowed to be in the village. The next day I had to
leave for Chmielnik. On the way (on foot) I met up with another Jewish man
returning to the Ghetto. The distance from KARGOW to Chmielnik was about 15km.
It was a market day and on the outskirts of the town a lot of farmers gathered
with their goods for sale in the market. None of the farmers that wanted to get
into town were allowed in, as the evacuation of the Chmielnik Jews was taken
place. The cries, the yelling, the dogs barking you could hear clearly. Me and
my "met up friend" tried to get through the cordon of Ukrainian and
Polish police and get into the Ghetto to be with our families. We now know
that this was the day that the Ghetto was liquidated and all the Jews were
transported to Treblinka. The guards turned their guns on us and shot my
"met up friend" through the arm. We pulled back into the crowd
of farmers and split up. I returned back to the farmer. It was already late at
night and I slept in the hay barn. Someone must have seen me returning during
the night. In the morning the sheriff came again and arrested me. He took me to
his house and threw me into a little shed under the house and in the afternoon
took me to the higher authorities in the Burrogh (Tuczepy). There I was put in a
proper jail and locked up. I was told that the next stop for me was the Gestapo
and what I could expect. During the night the door of the jail opened and the
secretary of the Burrogh (he was one of the farmers that I used to watch over
his horse and cart) and said, run son, my Jesus Christ be with you. I took of
like a hare. .
It was late at night (curfew time) and nobody was allowed out at that time of
the night. I laid down under a tree a few kilometres from the Burrogh jail and
as soon as dawn arrived I moved on. I found out that there are still Jews in
Stopnica. So I headed in that direction. When I got there I was looking for
somewhere or someone to take shelter with. I found some people from my own town
(Dobrzyn) that lived in the "Beth Hamidrash" with many other Jews.
They found a corner for me and I became the hero of the Ghetto. Nobody was
moving out of the Ghetto to anywhere. The fear was so great.
In the yard where the Beth Hamidrash was, a few Jewish families lived around it.
I am mentioning this especially so if there are a few people from Stopnica and
remember the town they will know exactly the place I am referring to. In that
yard lived the "Judenalteste" the Jewish leader elected by the Germans
into this position. As soon as they've found out that I've come into the Ghetto,
I was approached by the Jewish police with a proposal. Seeing that I knew the
back roads very well, would I be prepared to take a group of women and some
children, to Chmielnik, during the night. I was offered some money which for a
boy that had nothing, destitute, and hungry, was a fortune. I grabbed that idea
and made arrangements to meet in the evening. The Jewish police knew or had some
knowledge of what was happening during the deportation to the surrounding little
towns around them. They knew that usually after a deportation, that most of the
Jewish police and some tradesman that were engaged in making riding boots and
fur coats for the Germans, were left behind to finish the work that was in
progress for the Germans and additionally to clean up the Ghetto. They were left
there for a few weeks and this prompted some of the Jewish people that were
hiding during the deportation to return to the few buildings in the Ghetto left
especially for the clean up group. From the Ghetto a smaller Ghetto was created
with only a few buildings as a Ghetto. This was also a trap setup, practiced by
the Germans, to leave a small group of Jews after a liquidation to entice as
many hidden Jews back to a place were they can grab them again, whenever they
were ready, to include them into a deportation from a neighbouring town. What
was happening during the deportation the Jewish police knew. What followed later
they did not know. So the thinking was to take the wives and children to a safe
place where the deportation has already taken place and bring them back to
Stopnica when the deportation was over
We now know the next chapter of what happened after a deportation. A false
feeling of security grew over the few remaining Jews left after such an action.
The talk was that the devil has had his fill, so he will leave us now in peace
for us to do his jobs that he needs done. And it was like that for a few days or
a few weeks. Little did they know that after a deportation, that within a short
time, they will also be deported. They probably did not know of the final
destination. We were always told that we are being resettled to the East. I
found out much later where the final destination was.
We gathered in the evening as arranged and I led the group out of the Ghetto and
stopped on the outskirts of town. A Jewish policeman was with us. The women had
some food with them for the children and themselves. Some bread was given to me
and a little money. A photograph was cut on an angle, with a signature on the
back of the photo and signed by someone. Half the photograph was left behind
with the policeman, to pass on and to remain in care of by the "Judenalteste".
The other half of the photograph was given to one of the women in the group. I
had to bring the other half of the photo back with me and if it would match up
with the half left behind, I would get the balance of the money. We
arrived safely in Chmielnik early in the morning and the remainder of the clean
up group accepted them into the small remaining Ghetto. The women knew some of
the people or some of the families that lived in Chmielnik. They lived in close
city neighbourhood all their life. Some had relatives in Chmielnik and asked
about their whereabouts, to be told that they have been evacuated. (Another term
the Germans used for deportation) I was the outsider coming from Dobrzyn,
from a different area altogether. I collected half of the photograph and
the chief of the Chmielnik clean up group gave me a sealed letter to the "Judenalteste"
in Stopnica. They must've known one another. I returned to Stopnica with half of
the photo and the letter and became the hero again. I was terribly frightened
doing what I did. But for a kid to do what I did, it was great stuff. I was
given the balance of the money and everyone seemed satisfied. Within the letter
that I brought back with me, was the description of the deportation that has
already taken place in Chmielnik and what to expect from the Germans during the
deportation. The advise given in the letter and planned among the elders of the
Ghetto was, that after the deportation in Stopnica a group of them will be left
behind and mainly the Jewish police. After the action they would bring their
wives and children back from Chmielnik to Stopnica as previously planned.
Being the hero and everyone pointing at me, that it was me that took the women
across to Chmielnik gave me also a kick of achievement. I did not go to
sleep as I should've after 2 nights of very little sleep but paraded around in
the Ghetto. The same day about lunchtime, I was caught together with another 9
Jews by the Germans for work. The job consisted of unloading 2 trailers of wheat
drawn by a tractor at the railway station that was about 40 Km away. Stopnica
was not on the railway track.
I am writing this with all the gory details that I remember. Amongst the 10 of
us was one man that pleaded with the German to let him go, because his mother
died and he wanted to bring her to "Keiver Uvos". His pleading did not
help and as soon as the tractor moved he jumped of and fell unfortunately under
the wheel of the trailer. Needless to say that there must've been two burials
together, of mother and son. The German stopped the tractor and with his whip he
layed into the poor man wriggling on the ground. The poor fellow’s wife was
standing on the other corner of the street screaming. Her crying and long
wailing yells, I remember to this day. I repeat again that I must tell you all
the details, in case there is a survivor from the Ghetto in Stopnica and
remembers some of the incidents that I tell you now
The tractor with the trailers went on with us on them to the railway station. We
went through a little town called Nowy-Korczyn. The town was empty of people. A
strange feeling went through us. The people that were with me were from Stopnica.
They knew the area and felt like me very disturbed. When we got to the railway
station that was a few km on, we could not drive into the station. All the Jews
from Nowy-Korczyn were there waiting to be transported to their final
destination. It was getting dark and the guards that surrounded the people lit
carbide lamps to keep the people together and make sure that nobody escapes.
What we saw there was the cruelest treatment that I ever experienced. The
tractor was about 50 metres away from the people. The screams, the shouting we
could clearly hear. The guards called for the "oberjude". They made
them all sing. All that time the guards kept on shooting, stirring even greater
terror and panic among the trapped Jews. Many many shots were fired, cries,
screams and finally the train arrived and the loading took place. This picture
stands before my eyes continually. I don't think that apart from the Germans and
Ukrainians that carried out these barbarous jobs of deportations, that there
ever was another eyewitness during the physical loadings of the Jews, destined
for the gas chambers. That night there were 9 eyewitnesses. As soon as the first
wagon was closed up the pleadings and the screams for water was continuous. The
whippings, the barking of the dogs, the savageness and cruelty, that these poor
Jews from Nowy-Korczyn had to endure, I am unable to put it into words. Finally
the train with the unfortunate cargo left the siding and the German driver of
the tractor returned very drunk and with some girls. While all this was going
on, he was in the railway station entertaining the girls. He pulled the trailers
up on to the ramp, where a railway wagon was waiting for us to offload the
wheat. He unhooked the tractor, switched on the headlights and gathered with the
girls some of the parcels the unfortunate Jews left behind. He went back to
continue his drinking and we started our offloading. We couldn't help but notice
some of the people that were shot during the action. We took from the bodies the
"Kenkarte" identity cards and when we finished the unloading of the
trailers, we pleaded with the German to let us take the bodies home with us for
burial. He refused, so they were left there. Late in the morning we returned to
Stopnica. Very soon the Ghetto knew what we witnessed. We were arrested by the
Jewish police and belted by them for causing panic in the town.
We were eventually released and it did not take very long, that I was
awakened whilst sleeping in the "Beth Hamidrash" to listen to the
distant noise. Some suggested that " the big hero" should go and have
a look what's going on.
Only G-d knows how frightened I was. I went to the market place, to see that the
women and children together with some other Jews from Chmielnik, were brought
back by horses and carts to Stopnica. By the time I returned to the "Beth
Hamidrash" to tell them what was going on, the Germans together with the
Jewish police were screaming "Juden raus" I hid in a little shed under
the "Judenaltestes" house on the side of the "Beth Hamidrash".
I don't know what made me hide in that little shed. I suppose that after what I
saw at the railway station, the loading of the Nowy-Korczyn Jews, did have the
desired affect on me, not to go to the market square for the deportation. I had
a terrible cold and lying in the shed I was afraid to cough in case someone
hears me. The shed was just on the boundary of the Ghetto and the town. The
guards after the deportation of the Jews were returning back exactly alongside
the shed I was in. I was practically choking, holding back the cough. That night
I slept in a Jewish house in the courtyard of the "Beth Hamidrash". I
knew that I had to get up before daylight. Nobody, by order of the Germans was
allowed into the area of the Ghetto. If caught within this area one risked being
shot. I slept like never before and woke up late in the morning. It was a
beautiful sunny day. I looked around the house and found a little bag of flour
and another one of grits. I jumped out through the window that bordered on to
the open space that did not belong into the area of the Ghetto. I was too afraid
to walk anywhere inside the Ghetto boundary. The jumping out of the window
seemed to me a lot safer. I walked to the nearest village and could smell bread
being baked. I walked into the house and offered my bit of flour and grits for
some bread. The farmer’s wife did the deal. She did not suspect that I was
Jewish, as I spoke perfect Polish with a farming accent. During the deal and the
conversation that took place, I was told that some Jews are still left in the
Ghetto I went back to Stopnica and being an outsider not from Stopnica I was not
accepted. Local people that somehow hid during the liquidation of the Ghetto
returned to be with the local Jews. Again, the same trap as in Chmielnik, was
set for the Jews in Stopnica that saved themselves from the deportation. I did
not have to leave and could have stayed. The people were so frightened and made
it so unpleasant for me that I decided to leave not knowing where I was going. I
finished up back in Chmielnik where 6 Jewish tradesman (bootmakers and tailors)
were still working for the Germans finishing of their boots and clothing. Within
one day we were all bundled of to the Kielce Hasag and from one camp into
another finishing up in Buchenwald and segregated into the children’s block 66
were I stayed until I was liberated on the 11th April 1945.
This is all I can tell you about the 2 towns that are of interest to you. It was
a horrific experience and I've decided to write to you, so that you can pass on
this chapter of ones life to the generations that will follow you. It's a
history of a people that are no longer here. All this happened in this century
and not some hundreds of years back, and during our lifetime.
There was another incident that comes to mind whilst I am writing this. Prior to
the liquidation of the Ghetto in Stopnica, the Germans wanted some young people
for work. I was in the market square and made myself available for that
operation. Some people were taken away by trucks to Skarzysko. There were not
enough trucks and in the evening after the carbide lights were lit by the
Germans, the order was given to disperse and shooting took place. We all ran for
our lives. I ran into a double story house and the people were so frightened and
nobody would let me in. I slept on the staircase. I mention this incident
specifically, because amongst your people in Canada, maybe someone that was
there during this particular operation, or survived the Skarzysko Werk A, B and
C, with that experience and remembers this particular event.
Regarding your personal questions within your E-mail. I do not remember any
of the names from Chmielnik or Stopnica. I was there only very briefly during
the war. There may be some people here in Australia from the 2 places. I don't
know. Your family could even be in touch with some of them here in Australia. If
so, it would be nice to know who they are.
I can write to you in Polish if you like, but it's a lot easier for me to
express myself now in English after such a long time in an English speaking
country
Note. This Email was a response to someone looking for answers.