Trains to Treblinka by Charles Causey

Author:Charles Causey [Causey, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/Holocaust
Publisher: Elm Hill
Published: 2020-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Only Tchechia knew that Rakowski was storing the gold for their own personal escape. The two of them—unknown to anyone else—had planned to depart the camp the very evening Kapo Rakowski was executed. His sudden death was a shock but Tchechia did not cry. She knew that it would not help. Instead she decided to find another way to escape.

PART 3

Camp 2

Chapter 19

When Zelo and Adasch first walked up to Camp 2, they both knew they were lucky to be alive…lucky they were not instead taken to the Lazarette. The first immediate impact to their senses was the stench. Though only a few meters from where they had lived before, the smell was more of an assault on their senses at their new quarters. They had witnessed plenty of misery in Camp 1, but in no way did it mentally prepare them for what they experienced in Camp 2.

They learned that there were two main gassing chambers. Each chamber possessed nickel-plated metal showerheads in the ceiling, and small orange terra-cotta tiles on the floor. During gassings, each chamber was crammed with 350–400 people at a time. Babies and small children were routinely tossed inside over the occupants’ heads once it was too tight to fit any more adult-sized bodies. The doors tightly closed and a shout proclaimed, “Ivan, water!” A petrol-driven engine immediately started up, which sent carbon monoxide gas into the pipes that was released through the showerheads in each chamber.

The process to suffocate the unsuspecting Jews took roughly thirty to forty minutes. Then the order would be given to open the hermetically fitted iron doors facing Camp 2 so that the removal of bodies could begin. On days when the Nazi guards felt especially cruel they would delay the full treatment of gas in order to spread out the torture over six to twelve hours…then laugh about it.

When the guards could no longer hear any screaming, the extermination mission would be accomplished. “All asleep!” they shouted. The Jewish workers would then open the doors and the bodies closest to the door would fall out.

Immediately after his arrival, Zelo was introduced to the labor he would perform for hours on end, every day—the processing of corpses. A large team of Jews spent their days hauling bodies from the gassing chambers to the large roaster racks to be burned. The Nazi mission at Camp 2 was to exterminate and dispose of the thousands of pitiful souls who had not been selected as Jewish workers at Camp 1.

Zelo was assigned to the transport squad. Once the gassing operation was cleared for removal the transporters ran everywhere. They ran to the large multichambered brick building. They hustled to extract the clammy corpses out of the rooms and place them outside. They loaded two adult bodies or three child-sized bodies onto a stretcher, and then ran toward the large burning pits. En route they would halt to allow amateur Jewish dentists extract teeth and thoroughly check all body cavities for gold, porcelain, and other precious substances.

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