Conversations with Jacob Czerniak, 102 year old survivor of Auschwitz-Chelmno-Bergen Belsen concentration camps, Part II:
This conversation took place on Sunday, April 21st, 2013 with me in The Bronx, New York. Words in [ ] brackets indicate my additions/notes. I've attempted to quote Jacob as much as possible, in his direct words. Please read future updates with more of Jacob's tragic but, ultim...ately, triumphant story...
Jacob, as he prefers to be called, served in the Polish army from 1935-1937.
"There was no lunch (in the concentration camp H______; need to confirm the name of this camp, one of the first). It was sitting a little bit, resting. People went to nearby farms to beg some food, a few potatoes, a piece of bread.
One time there was a (situation). We was standing, they were looking to see if someone had a potato or something. There would be a beating. After a short time, I was carrying a friend's potatoes. They came back, the Gestapo. They called back the seven people they had on the list [Note: These were people suspected of sneaking away to "steal" food from the farms/homes of people living near the camp.] What kinds of beatings we had, my God.
One Gestapo, pushed the legs so we could not move. Another held the feet so we could not move. What was the question, the question, they had the beating. I was the seventh guy in the list. Five people signed. The sixth one, a very strong, a big guy, said: 'Why are you beating me?'
They said: 'Because you a Jew.'
They didn't have a reason.
I was black and blue, my God. After 2-4 weeks, I don't know how long it was, they told us...They took away the five who'd signed their names. The Gestapo. We didn't know what had happened to them.
In January 1 or 2, 1942, they brought them back to the camp. We woke up on a Sunday. The gallows was already made in the camp. They brought back the five people and they hung them. Because they left the workplace to beg food.
The officers, they read it out--the verdict. They called out the whole camp and they called the verdict and they hanged them. Then we had to run around the gallows for two hours and we had to look how they hanged.
[To me] You say: Why?
It's no 'why?'
In Germany...they come into your house and shoot you. They had special commanders they sent into the ghettos and they was killing people.
In 1942 was the hanging. After we walked around the gallows for two hours, they picked out (a 50 year old) man and they had to look up straight at the dead people because they didn't go fast enough.
I came to the barracks and couldn't breathe. My friend pat me on the back. Oh my God! When my mother find out they hang me.
In my town, they make a death camp. At the time, they didn't have gas chambers. They had buses. This was the first camp, I think, in Poland.
In January, we received, my town [his hometown of Dabien, Poland], there was 29 people in one room. Everybody got a postcard and they...the Gestapo took the Jewish people to 'resettle.' So, 5 kilometers [3.1 miles] from my town, they make a camp: Chelmno.
They was waiting to be resettled. So they was waiting...buses made [with exhaust going into bus]. Men, children, pregnant woman...in two days, three days, they was dead.
I was saying [while worried about mother's reaction about my being hanged in the camp], 'My God...' But my mother was already dead.
The whole city...my one brother....two sisters...father. The whole city."
This conversation took place on Sunday, April 21st, 2013 with me in The Bronx, New York. Words in [ ] brackets indicate my additions/notes. I've attempted to quote Jacob as much as possible, in his direct words. Please read future updates with more of Jacob's tragic but, ultim...ately, triumphant story...
Jacob, as he prefers to be called, served in the Polish army from 1935-1937.
"There was no lunch (in the concentration camp H______; need to confirm the name of this camp, one of the first). It was sitting a little bit, resting. People went to nearby farms to beg some food, a few potatoes, a piece of bread.
One time there was a (situation). We was standing, they were looking to see if someone had a potato or something. There would be a beating. After a short time, I was carrying a friend's potatoes. They came back, the Gestapo. They called back the seven people they had on the list [Note: These were people suspected of sneaking away to "steal" food from the farms/homes of people living near the camp.] What kinds of beatings we had, my God.
One Gestapo, pushed the legs so we could not move. Another held the feet so we could not move. What was the question, the question, they had the beating. I was the seventh guy in the list. Five people signed. The sixth one, a very strong, a big guy, said: 'Why are you beating me?'
They said: 'Because you a Jew.'
They didn't have a reason.
I was black and blue, my God. After 2-4 weeks, I don't know how long it was, they told us...They took away the five who'd signed their names. The Gestapo. We didn't know what had happened to them.
In January 1 or 2, 1942, they brought them back to the camp. We woke up on a Sunday. The gallows was already made in the camp. They brought back the five people and they hung them. Because they left the workplace to beg food.
The officers, they read it out--the verdict. They called out the whole camp and they called the verdict and they hanged them. Then we had to run around the gallows for two hours and we had to look how they hanged.
[To me] You say: Why?
It's no 'why?'
In Germany...they come into your house and shoot you. They had special commanders they sent into the ghettos and they was killing people.
In 1942 was the hanging. After we walked around the gallows for two hours, they picked out (a 50 year old) man and they had to look up straight at the dead people because they didn't go fast enough.
I came to the barracks and couldn't breathe. My friend pat me on the back. Oh my God! When my mother find out they hang me.
In my town, they make a death camp. At the time, they didn't have gas chambers. They had buses. This was the first camp, I think, in Poland.
In January, we received, my town [his hometown of Dabien, Poland], there was 29 people in one room. Everybody got a postcard and they...the Gestapo took the Jewish people to 'resettle.' So, 5 kilometers [3.1 miles] from my town, they make a camp: Chelmno.
They was waiting to be resettled. So they was waiting...buses made [with exhaust going into bus]. Men, children, pregnant woman...in two days, three days, they was dead.
I was saying [while worried about mother's reaction about my being hanged in the camp], 'My God...' But my mother was already dead.
The whole city...my one brother....two sisters...father. The whole city."
