But the Artist walks around half-mad with rage because work still is not proceeding as well as he would like it to.
Soon afterwards, two new excavators are brought into the camp. The joy of the murderers knows no limits, since now the work will proceed tadellos (flawlessly). The next day all the excavators begin to function. For us this is simply hell, since the same number of workers now have to serve three corpse processors.
Each time, the machines throw out dozens of corpses and we have to carry them immediately to the oven.
The criminal specialist also introduces a modification of the work. He creates a special commando of several workers whose job consists of tossing the dead onto the carriers’ litters. He does this so that the carriers will not have to deposit the litters on the ground and in the process waste several minutes. The throwers fill the litters, tossing the body parts of the dead with pitchforks so that the carriers, who pick up their litters in the morning, will have no possibility to rest for a moment until evening.
It turns out that the corpses dug out of the pits burn even better than those of recently gassed people. Every day new ovens are constructed, more and more of them. After a few days there are six of them. Each oven is served by several workers who load it with material.
The Artist is still not satisfied. He sees that the work is hampered by the intense fire, which does not let anyone get close to the oven. The work plan is therefore changed. The ovens are loaded by day and are lit at 5.30 in the evening.
12
It is March 1943. The work proceeds ever faster. The section chief orders that the excavators should be ready two hours before roll-call, so that we won’t have to wait. One grave after another is cleared. If a pit has been cleared but a pool of blood has collected in a corner, a worker had to strip naked, descend into the pit, and scour the pit with his hands, looking for body parts.
From day to day the work improves. The ovens are moved from place to place, closer to the pits, so that the path is shorter and less time is wasted. It once happened that an oven was moved close to a huge grave where perhaps a quarter of a million people were buried. As usual the oven was loaded with the proper number of bodies and in the evening it was lit. But a strong wind carried the fire over to the huge grave and engulfed it in flames. The blood of some quarter of a million people began to flare, and thus burned for a night and a day. The whole camp administration came to look upon this marvel, gazing with satisfaction at the blaze. The blood came up to the surface and burned as if it were fuel.
I remember 29 March. This day has remained etched in my memory: our comrade Yankl from Czestochowa lay down to sleep and did not wake up in the morning. Each of us wished for such good fortune. We accompanied him to the flames, threw him onto the burning corpses and cremated him.
It has been raining since morning without interruption. But we have to work. Each of us is soaked. The murderers take cover under the eaves and shout to us from there: — Faster, keep up the pace! From time to time an S.S. man runs over and whips us.
Although the soil is sandy it turns muddy, and it becomes hard for us to run. The section chief orders us to bring several dozen litters of ash from the ovens and spread it on the ground. The mud absorbs the human blood. From time to time we have to add ashes, because it keeps raining harder. The day weeps along with us.
Since three excavators are in operation, the carriers are divided into three groups. It sometimes happens that one excavator breaks down and it takes several minutes to fix it. We likewise come to a halt. The Artist appears and good-naturedly inquires why we are standing around doing nothing while at the ovens there is a great deal of ash that needs to be carried away. Our group foreman points out that the excavator will soon be repaired. The Artist answers that we will have time to carry away at least one voluntary round of ashes (he calls it an “Ehren-Runde”).
The month of April began with fresh transports from abroad, especially Bulgaria.
In the early hours the section chief appears, orders the gas chambers to be shut and tells us that if we work well we will be fed well. Not long afterward we again hear cries of “Help, help” and “Shema Yisroel”. After a few minutes the screaming from the gas chambers is silenced, and after half an hour — newly gassed people.
I look at the gassed people: they look very different from us.
It’s as if they had been specially selected for their youth and beauty. I have seldom seen among our Jews such healthy, beautiful bodies. Even after being gassed they look as if they are still alive, just asleep.
They were brought here in special Pullman cars. They even brought furniture with them, and a lot of food. Until the last minute they believed that they were being resettled in Russia for work. Their valuables were taken away from them and put in the so-called “deposit”. The people, seeing that all the valuables were being thrown onto a single pile, pointed out that mistakes would be made when retrieving the objects after the baths, since no notes were being made of what belonged to whom. Yes, the murderers already knew to whom the things would belong — to the Herrenvolk (master race).
We learned from some workers from Camp 1 that when the transport of Bulgarian Jews arrived, music was playing. The Jews were convinced that nothing bad would happen to them. As they exited the train, they asked if this was the big industrial complex known as Treblinka…
The S.S. man Karl Spetzinger appears and warns us dentists that we be particularly attentive, because almost every one of the Bulgarians has false teeth.
We find it difficult to cope, since in fact each one of them has a mouth full of false teeth. We have to pull hard, and the carriers weep because the corpses are exceptionally heavy. The murderers are beside themselves because the dentists are detaining almost every corpse. They start beating us. The section chief declares that if the “shit” is not removed by 4.00 in the afternoon, we will get no food. That day we work without food as a punishment.
A few minutes after 4.00 there remains no trace of the young and beautiful Bulgarian Jews.
13
In the second half of April the staff appears with our section chief, Mathias, at its head. We see that they have brought plans with them, and at the same time they measure a section of terrain a few metres from the ten big gas chambers. The next morning several workers are chosen, and under the command of an S.S. man they begin to dig several metres from the gas chambers. It turns out that they are starting to build a much bigger and stronger oven right next to the gas chambers, in order to be able to burn the corpses at once. This work goes on for ten days. Apparently they are expecting many transports. By now we have arrived at the last days of April and the oven is still not ready. The section chief orders that a new oven be erected close to the gas chambers in a few days. The gas chambers are sealed in preparation. But the day is a happy one for us, because no transports arrive. We notice how the murderers run around like mad dogs; they beat, they scream like scalded pigs.