Archive/File: holocaust/rumania jassy.001
Last-Modified: 1994/10/10

   "Their faces were smeared with blood, testifying to the kind of
   ordeal through which they had passed. The policemen held pistols in
   their hands and pointed them at the victims. Near the police
   building five or six Germans of the Todt organization stood waiting
   for them with heavy sticks in their hands. As the group of Jews
   passed by they showered heavy blows on the unfortunate victims,
   aiming at their heads. Whoever stumbled and fell, was instantly
   shot.

   After six thousand Jews had finally been gathered in the yard of
   the police building, the policemen and the gendarmes opened fire on
   them. Those who escaped the bullets were brought to the railway
   station before dark; but many were shot by assassins on the way.
   After reaching the station, the Jews were told to lie down on the
   ground; then the murderers systematically started despoiling them
   of all their belongings: money, jewels, documents, etc.

   Eventually the victims were herded into railway trucks, 100 to 120
   people in each. They were not given any food, nor a single drop of
   water. The heat and stench inside were fearful.

   Before our eyes our children fell, our parents and our friends.
   They might possibly have been saved if only we had had a few drops
   of water. There were some who drank their own urine or that of
   their friends. A little water was afterwards poured into the truck
   through its holes when the death train was halted at different
   stations.

   Meantime, the heat in the truck became fearful, it was literally an
   inferno. The journey of the living together with the dead lasted
   for four days; and then the train halted so that the corpses could
   be removed.

   After four days more the train reached the Calarasi. On the way the
   victims were robbed of all the clothes that had been left them.
   When they went out of the train most of them were nearly naked,
   wearing little more than their shirts.

   Another chapter of the torments began when we reached this place.
   We were left out in the open, hungry, tattered and filthy.
   Eventually the Jewish community at Calarasi succeeded in coming to
   our aid. As a result some of the victims were rescued, when they
   were on the verge of death.

   The following incident will illustrate the horror of this thirst
   which was experienced by the unfortunate victims. On the way to
   Calarasi the train stopped at Mircesti, near a pool of filthy
   water. The reckless victims or madmen, which ever we ought to call
   them, broke down the doors of the trucks and made for the pool.
   They paid no attention to the warnings of the trainmaster that they
   would be killed and refused to move away form the turbid water.
   Dozens of them were shot by the guards as they stood in the pool
   and drank the filthy mess." (Gilbert, 44-5)

                           Work Cited

   Gilbert, Martin. Final Journey: The Fate of the Jews in Nazi
   Germany. New York: Mayflower Books, 1979

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