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Which year was it? In 1941 [ed. note: 1942] they run us all into the Sports Plaza in Radomsko – and this is where the real gehenna began. It seems to me that in Radomsko these things happened quite differently than in Warsaw, where Jews were transported gradually, in groups. The ghetto in Radomsko didn’t have a center, of the kind I hear they had in Lodz, some factory where Jews worked till the very end [11]. These were completely different conditions. The Germans in Lodz had to keep some Jews alive because they were making products that were needed by the German army. Like the sawmill where my father worked, that made wagons for the Geramans. But other than that, there was no industry in Radomsko.
And so they rushed the entire ghetto out on a single day, I don’t remember the exact date [ed. note: 9th October 1942]. I know the weather was quite nice, there was no rain, it might have been late in the Spring [ed. note: it was in the Fall]. Nobody was writing chronicles, and later people were just happy if they lived through it. What can I tell you, the place was crawling with Germans and the Navy-Blue police, everything was surrounded. There was weeping, screaming, crying – it went on and on all day, from dawn onwards. The Germans began calling the names of people they still needed. Later they made us form rows, and rushed us into the train station, and into the train cars. Later I was told how it was done: the train cars were all set up, everyone was rushed into them, and everything went off. I don’t know where exactly they took them all... all the Jews. My parents, everybody. Where did they all die? Most likely, in Treblinka. I was the only one to escape.
And so they rushed the entire ghetto out on a single day, I don’t remember the exact date [ed. note: 9th October 1942]. I know the weather was quite nice, there was no rain, it might have been late in the Spring [ed. note: it was in the Fall]. Nobody was writing chronicles, and later people were just happy if they lived through it. What can I tell you, the place was crawling with Germans and the Navy-Blue police, everything was surrounded. There was weeping, screaming, crying – it went on and on all day, from dawn onwards. The Germans began calling the names of people they still needed. Later they made us form rows, and rushed us into the train station, and into the train cars. Later I was told how it was done: the train cars were all set up, everyone was rushed into them, and everything went off. I don’t know where exactly they took them all... all the Jews. My parents, everybody. Where did they all die? Most likely, in Treblinka. I was the only one to escape.
Period
Location
Poland
Interview
Stanislaw Wierzba
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