23
23 Dawn came and the sun rose. The train had not moved during the night. The boxcar doors were still open. The SS and Kapos stood in a line outside the boxcars and shouted for all the prisoners to come out immediately and line up. They herded us into a tight mass between the boxcars and the barbed wire fence. The SS surrounded us. They held machine guns. I had never been put on a train and taken off without going somewhere. Agreat panic spread. The prisoners huddled together, fearing that the SS were going to start shooting. Some prisoners whispered. “The bastards changed their minds, they will march us out of here.” “The locomotive never arrived.” I stood there, worried and hoping that the SS would load us back into the boxcars . I would either have to try to walk or admit to the SS that I could not make it. The SS stood with their guns ready, waiting for their commander to issue an order. Some prisoners sat or fell to the ground. The SS ignored them and did not even order them to stand up. Finally, an SS sergeant approached and began shouting: “All prisoners stand at attention ! Anyone on the ground will be shot.” The prisoners struggled to stand. I straightened up a little to try to appear to be standing at attention . The SS sergeant bellowed, “All camp Kapos of German nationality, leave the formation, and stand next to that boxcar.” Twenty or thirty Kapos left the formation and gathered next to a boxcar beyond the SS guards. The SS sergeant commanded, “All Jewish prisoners, step out and line up to the left. Fast!” A few Jewish prisoners stepped out of the ranks. Most of us stayed where we were. The sergeant grew furious and screamed his order for the Jews to step out. Some SS began dragging the Jewish prisoners they recognized out of the formation. A few Christian prisoners started pointing out the Jews or shoving them out of the ranks. The Jews resisted the Christian prisoners. Other Christian prisoners tried 214 to help the Jews by pulling them from the grasp of the SS collaborators. The Germans were cursing and beating the prisoners with their clubs. The prisoners were yelling, shoving, and fighting. Suddenly, we heard the blast of artillery fire. BOOM!!! Everyone froze. The guards and the prisoners turned and in the distance saw a huge tank near the railroad line. Clouds of smoke poured from the tank’s cannon. All eyes were on that tank. The cannon moved to the left and the right. With a lurch the tank rolled out of our sight and into the forest. The Germans came back to life. The SS sergeant commanded that the camp gate be opened. All the prisoners, except for the Kapos, were ordered into the camp. The SS closed the gate behind us and then began to fire their machine guns at us. Prisoners cried out and fell to the ground. We started running away from the fence and toward the barracks. The SS started shooting from the guard towers. I ran as fast as I could, forgetting the pain in my hip. I ran to the closest barracks, threw myself to the ground, and crawled around behind the corner of the building. I hoped the SS would not follow us with their guns. Most prisoners sought shelter inside the barracks. A few other prisoners were outside with me. Some were cursing the Germans, and others were praying. An old prisoner on the ground next to me hissed: “The sons of bitches want to kill us all. We are not safe! We need to hide!” The gunfire from the guard towers went on. Bullets hit the barracks wall above us. “They can see us! They can see us!” a prisoner cried out. The others near me scrambled away. I was so weak and the pain in my hip was so piercing that I could not move quickly enough to stay with them. I crawled into a small ditch a little ways up and dug at the ground with my hands to get down lower. I pulled some dried and broken twigs and weeds over me, trying to hide. I knew that if the Germans came upon me, they would see me. I heard steady gunfire and then yelling and screaming as prisoners were shot. I thought that this was the end of my life. I could do nothing more.All...
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