Archive/File: holocaust/rumania jassy.001 Last-Modified: 1994/10/10 "Their faces were smeared with blood, testifying to the kind of ordeal through which they had passed. The policemen held pistols in their hands and pointed them at the victims. Near the police building five or six Germans of the Todt organization stood waiting for them with heavy sticks in their hands. As the group of Jews passed by they showered heavy blows on the unfortunate victims, aiming at their heads. Whoever stumbled and fell, was instantly shot. After six thousand Jews had finally been gathered in the yard of the police building, the policemen and the gendarmes opened fire on them. Those who escaped the bullets were brought to the railway station before dark; but many were shot by assassins on the way. After reaching the station, the Jews were told to lie down on the ground; then the murderers systematically started despoiling them of all their belongings: money, jewels, documents, etc. Eventually the victims were herded into railway trucks, 100 to 120 people in each. They were not given any food, nor a single drop of water. The heat and stench inside were fearful. Before our eyes our children fell, our parents and our friends. They might possibly have been saved if only we had had a few drops of water. There were some who drank their own urine or that of their friends. A little water was afterwards poured into the truck through its holes when the death train was halted at different stations. Meantime, the heat in the truck became fearful, it was literally an inferno. The journey of the living together with the dead lasted for four days; and then the train halted so that the corpses could be removed. After four days more the train reached the Calarasi. On the way the victims were robbed of all the clothes that had been left them. When they went out of the train most of them were nearly naked, wearing little more than their shirts. Another chapter of the torments began when we reached this place. We were left out in the open, hungry, tattered and filthy. Eventually the Jewish community at Calarasi succeeded in coming to our aid. As a result some of the victims were rescued, when they were on the verge of death. The following incident will illustrate the horror of this thirst which was experienced by the unfortunate victims. On the way to Calarasi the train stopped at Mircesti, near a pool of filthy water. The reckless victims or madmen, which ever we ought to call them, broke down the doors of the trucks and made for the pool. They paid no attention to the warnings of the trainmaster that they would be killed and refused to move away form the turbid water. Dozens of them were shot by the guards as they stood in the pool and drank the filthy mess." (Gilbert, 44-5) Work Cited Gilbert, Martin. Final Journey: The Fate of the Jews in Nazi Germany. New York: Mayflower Books, 1979
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