Voices from the Holocaust by Jon E. Lewis

Author:Jon E. Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781780330822
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

The Deputy Commandant Kicks a Baby to Death, Treblinka Railway Station, 1 September 1942

FRANCISZEK ZABECKI

The writer was a railwayman at Treblinka railway station. Fugitives from the death camp and from the trains waiting to enter, frequently hid in the thicket alongside the track.

One of the SS men who had arrived at the station that day – he was Kurt Franz, Deputy Commandant of the camp – came out with his dog along the road. The dog, scenting something, pulled the SS man after it into the thicket. A Jewess was lying there with a baby; probably she was already dead. The baby, a few months old, was crying, and nestling against its mother’s bosom.

The dog, let off the lead, tracked them down, but at a certain distance it crouched on the ground. It looked as if it was getting ready to jump, to bite them and tear them to pieces. However, after a time it began to cringe and whimper dolefully, and approached the people lying on the ground; crouching, it licked the baby on its hands, face and head.

The SS man came up to the scene with his gun in his hand. He sensed the dog’s weakness. The dog began to wag its tail, turning its head towards the boots of the SS man. The German swore violently and flogged the dog with his stick. The dog looked up and fled. Several times the German kicked the dead woman, and then began to kick the baby and trample on its head. Later, he walked through the bushes, whistling for his dog.

The dog did not seem to hear, although it was not far away; it ran through the bushes whimpering softly; it appeared to be looking for the people. After a time the SS man came out on to the road, and the dog ran up to its ‘master’. The German then began to beat it mercilessly with a whip. The dog howled, barked, even jumped up to the German’s chest as if it were rabid, but the blows with the whip got the better of it. On the ‘master’s’ command it lay down.

The German went a few paces away, and ordered the dog to stand. The dog obeyed with order perfectly. It carefully licked the boots, undoubtedly spattered with the baby’s blood, under its muzzle.

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