The approximately 4,000 still living, remaining Jews were sent to the camps of the ammunition factories HASAG-Apparatebau (Pelcery) and HASAG-Eizenhuta (Rakow) after the liquidation of the “small ghetto.” These were the factories that belonged to the Polish and French joint-stock company. The Germans confiscated this factory and they converted it into ammunition factories. The security police temporarily borrowed 230 men from the ammunition factory who were housed on Garibaldi Street. At first these borrowed Jews were employed at cleaning the Jewish possessions that remained in the “small ghetto,” as well as with removing the corpses that lay around here. The Jewish policemen also were employed doing the same thing. A number of the borrowed Jews were later sent to HASAG-Pelcery where they were murdered along with many other Jews and a number remained housed for a longer time at Garibaldi Street and worked for the Germans as craftsmen, as tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, locksmiths and sorted [things] in the warehouses of the security police.

The routne was stricter in the HASAG-Pelcery than in the HASAG-Eizenhuta. Among the German leaders in the HASAG-Eizenhuta ammunition camp was a higher rank police constable, Milhof, who greatly eased the fate of the Jews who were placed in his jurisdiction. During the liquidation of the small ghetto, this same [police constable] rescued the sick from the hospital and brought them to the HASAG-Eizenhuta factory in trucks. Later, Milhof was removed from his office and sent to the front. Glatter, the young Jewish doctor who helped him rescue the sick and in general did a great deal to ease the fate of the prisoners, was sent to another camp in Germany with all of the Jewish doctors from that camp, where he perished.

The road to Calvary for the Jewish prisoners in the HASAG-Apparatebau began during the large expulsion in September 1942.


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From all of the temporary workplaces where the surviving Jews were housed, this was the worst. Now the larger number of the 4,000 surviving Jews was sent here. The mood here among those in the HASAG was an oppressed one. Some had lost their last child, some, their last relative and some, their last friend. Everyone felt alone.

At first they were dragged to the factory halls on the bare ground and food was brought from the ruined small ghetto on platforms from the food reserves that still remained there. Those in the HASAG assembled every night after work in the empty factory locations. Here they erected primitive kitchens from a few bricks and they cooked a few potatoes in the pots they had brought with them or a little coffee. However, not everyone had the good fortune to receive a few potatoes from a Polish worker acquaintance and not everyone brought a pot with him into the ghetto. The foremen and the work security could not bear this and the “freedom” to gather after work, and the empty factory locations were seized quickly. They continued pushing through the day with a half-liter soup, mostly made of dried beets (“sour soup” in HASAG-speak), with half a liter of coffee made of burned and rancid barley and 20 deka [a metric weight] bread per man.

The explosion of dynamite bombs reached here ceaselessly and penetrated from the houses in the small ghetto. At the same time, when the security police ripped open houses, murdering and robbing, the members of the security police Klem and his nearest trusted men: Stiglitz (a German), Kmiczikewicz (a Polish admirer, who was sentenced by a Polish court to the death penalty), Steininger (a German), Daraszenka and Paveliak (Ukrainians) left the HASAG for the ghetto. They searched there, looking for bunkers, murdering and robbing, taking part in mass executions. Bernard Kurland was designated as the Jewish representative, with whom the factory director established contact. Liht, the factory director had made him believe that the prisoners needed to be fed better so their productivity would be better. The factory directors arranged open bread [sales]. They themselves provided the bread. Jews bought and the directors thus had a good income from this.


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Kurland also arranged for a tailoring and shoemaking workshop with the permission of the directors, as well as a laundry where Jewish craftsmen were employed, who needed to serve the prisoners. However, the routine was not eased further. Work security and foremen attacked their victims like wild animals. Groups that assembled on the square were shot at like birds. Mrs. Wolska (née Wajnrajch) fell in terrible agony from such shooting and she died in the woman's hall after more than two weeks of suffering. Here we found a worker with broken ribs that Apel, the construction foreman, had broken and here we found workers cramped in pain from being battered by work security with rifle butts.

However, the “residents of the HASAG” began to grow accustomed to their new hell and the feeling of deep pain began to atrophy. The thought sneaked in: perhaps? Perhaps, at least we will remain alive here? It is an ammunition factory of sorts and they still need hands to work!”

They lived here for three weeks and two days, hungry, broken, but with a glimmer of new hope. Three weeks and two days, hungry, eaten by lice and by bed bugs and tortured by work and foremen.

The 19^th of June 1943. The bangs from the houses in the small ghetto were not yet stilled and here in the ammunition factory of HASAG Apparatebau, there was a new commotion. Every German foreman put together some sort of list of workers who were found under his supervision. The foreman Apel “Marsz” (he received the nickname from the workers because after beating someone he would shout: “Stand up and morsz” instead of marsz [march]) pointed to a worker who wore boots and boasted to another foreman that these boots would be his in the morning. Prisoners interpreted this as all of their personal clothing would be taken from them and exchanged for camp clothing; others maintained that only their boots would be taken, but not one imagined that a new misfortune was being prepared that would bring with it hundreds of victims. Between 11 and 12 on the same night, all of the prisoners were awaked from sleep and driven outside. Everyone had to march through a small alley where a “selection” took place. This time it was carried out by the factory director, Liht: by the technical director, Bretschneider; by the political officer, Arnt; by the technical manager- engineers:


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Spaltenholtz, Francke, Pasold; through foremen: Binter, Apel, Nicialek, Wirbac, Kehler, Walter and many other foremen. Klem, the leader of the work security, also carried out the “selections,” helped by labor security [members]: Sztiglic, Szewtszenko, Daraszenka, Kmiczikewicz, Paweliak and so on. Hantke and Laszinski, the two security police, were also on the spot and [they] assisted and oversaw that everything was properly carried out. Degenhardt was at the “colony” (the directors and foremen lived here) with a larger group of security policemen. Hantke and Laszinski constantly gave instructions about how to carry out the “craft.” They looked separately into each of our faces and evaluated us. Who seemed too old to them, too young or looked weak were stood apart. One “qualified” for death because he had a bald spot and a second – because he had a too beautiful and thick head of hair and appeared arrogant; another – because he wore glasses and another – because he walked a little bent; several women were pulled out of the rows because they were young and beautiful and because they were not beautiful enough. Each foreman was now an independent ruler over the life and death of his slaves. Each foreman pulled out from his group of workers those who had to go to death as “a sluggard.” A young man, who wore nice boots was pulled out from among the others; Spaltenholtz pulled out the 18-year old Bialogurska from the rows and left her to stand [among those to be] killed, meanwhile calling: “You, blond, are too pretty to work; those such as you are only for amusement!” There, Klem dragged the young sanitary worker, Galster, because he gave evidence for a sick person that the other one needed a few days off from his work. At the same time, Pasold and the labor security leader turned to Galster's young wife who had turned to them to free her husband. All of those placed on the side were taken away to the “colony,” which were located in the cellar-bunkers that served for holding arrested prisoners and where they would be tortured. All of the Jewish policemen in the small ghetto also were grouped and confined in these cellar-bunkers. Kurland, as the Jewish camp leader, who assisted during the selection, also was taken and thrown into a cellar-bunker.


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A frightful lamentation carried through the entire factory. Those who were taken away to death now lamented; those remaining – those surviving temporarily – also cried and wailed. Two hundred sixty men now were pulled out of the ranks; 260 men were thrown into a dark cellar and spent their last night of a terrifying nightmare. Early in the morning, the foremen dragged out individual prisoners who had turned to them about the rescue of those closest to them. We saw how Spaltenholtz, among others, led the former chairman of the Lodz refugees in the large ghetto, Jaroczinski, who through Spaltenholtz tried to rescue his wife, who the night before had been thrown into a “bunker.” All who naively believed that their foremen would help them pull those closest to them from the claws of death were taken to the “bunker” by the same foremen, where they shared the fate of those closest to them…

On the 20^th of July 1943, 11 o'clock in the morning, dozens of people struggled to be with those closest to them in the dark cellars, to at least take a last look at their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters or children. Factory security and foremen ran around through the factory square and searched for victims. Here, Klem led the very well-known and respected by everyone female doctor Wajsberg; a member of factory security dragged a young, good looking young man, Markowicz, in whom Klem had always shown an interest; here was dragged a small eight-year old girl, who was sneaked into the HASAG just a few days before, with whom even the sadistic foreman Kehler would often play: here the factory security pulled the very talented 18-19-year old Juzshek Jung (“walking encyclopedia – he was called) out of a hiding place and threw him in with those sentenced to death.

At the same time Degenhardt announced to the Jews who were housed on Garibaldi Street near the police warehouses that whoever had relatives in the HASAG Apparatebau and wanted to be with them could express their wish and their request would be filled immediately. Women who had husbands there reported; men reported who had wives there; mothers, sisters, brothers and children reported.


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Degenhardt fulfilled their request. More than 100 men received permission and the opportunity to enter HASAG to be with those who were the only people left who were close to them. With joyously beating hearts, more than 100 “fortunate ones” climbed into the vehicles provided by Degenhardt for their sake. The vehicles flew quickly through the so well known Czenstochow streets: Garibaldi, Wilson Street, the Second Aleje and Aleje Wolnosci. People were taken with the hope of meeting with those nearest to them and were thrown in the dark cellars where death already floated in the air. The women and the children of the Jewish policemen finally were led away and confined in the same cellars (only the wife of policeman Kohn and her small son hid).

A terrible struggle began in the dark cellars at the “colony” of HASAG Apparatebau. Here not quite 500 Jews sentenced to death struggled with their German foremen and factory security; they did not allow themselves to be led to death. The struggle was a bitter one, but this time, too, the victor was the German hangman… Each victim was dazed by a hammer before being dragged out to the vehicles that were to take the victims to be shot at the Jewish cemetery. The foreman Apel “Morcz” excelled most in this “trade.” (From this came his later nickname – Hamerl [little hammer].) “Morcz” already wore the boots he had noticed the night before on the feet of a young worker and other foremen strolled around the factory square drunk and boasted of their strength.

The still living cried quietly and the dark cellar walls of the bunkers of the arrested with some barely legible scratched out writing of the just murdered cried with them:

“Rubinku Feldman, I tell you, son, bear up well! Your mother, Ch. Feldman”

“Dear Ruwin, I go away calmly to death; do not lose hope! I kiss you! Your mother, Chana.”

“I go away calmly! Yuczek Yung”

“Zosia Wigdor bids farewell to her husband Kalman; I leave calmly! Zosia Wigdor”


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“Herr Zalcberg! I believed that you would save me. I am disappointed!” (Signature is illegible, probably – Mrs. Beatus)

“I am already tired of running from death. I go away calmly. How will my children live? What will become of them? Signed – Kh. Sh.”

The Jewish cemetery again increased with a mass grave of about 500 men. The German civilian foremen, the lame work security leader, Klem, and his work security and the entire factory directorate showed that they knew the sacred “religious service” no worse than the security police and the Gestapo.

Wooden barracks were then quickly erected in the HASAG-Apparatebau camp in an area of barely a square kilometer. This location was fenced in with barbed wire and equipped with electrical current. Observation booths were set up on the outside of the wire. In addition to this, the entire outside area was thickly guarded by work security. Long, one-story plank beds were erected in the barracks where hundreds of people slept underneath and on top one next to the other. This became the residential location for almost 3,000 men and women.

Every day brought its number of victims: someone was shot by a work security member just for amusement; someone – by a member of the Gestapo for some sin; someone for trying to escape from the camp and someone – by a foreman as a “sluggard.” A child was born; it had to be murdered immediately. If someone became seriously ill, the lame work security leader also found a solution for him…

After a “selection” was carried out on the first day, there were cases of escapes from the camp. As a reprisal, six young workers were bound with wire and were kept in the square the entire day under the threat of being shot if the escapees did not return. Later, the Jewish group foremen (kapos) of the groups to which the escapees belonged were made responsible.

Stomach typhus broke out during the first weeks and thanks to the tireless work of Doctor Wajsberg, the young Jewish doctors:


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Julek Przyrowski from Czenstochow and Dr. Lunksi from Lodz as well as thanks to the nurses who were found here among the prisoners, the situation subsided so that there were no victims and the Germans did not learn of this incident. There also were individual German foremen, rare exceptions, who showed humanity toward the prisoners, such as: Hulitsh, the foreman for transport, who never raised his hand to a worker and looked away when several of the workers carried on secret workshops and earned several gildn in this way; the foreman Berger also did not hit any workers; however, he liked to go through the barracks to look for pious Jews who prayed and laughed at them that they “pray to a God that the American Jews had captured,” and the foreman Harn from the mechanical workshop, who even helped Jews escape from the camp and, therefore, was arrested. Hulitsh and Harn survived and appeared as witnesses at the indictment against the German murderous foremen from the Czenstochow HASAG at the trial in Leipzig that took place during the summer of 1949. However, the much larger number of German foremen and, particularly the forewomen, were sadists and murderers. A particular sadism was shown by the forewomen: Tietga Mariana, Retga Frida, Klara (“the beautiful Klara”) Marchewka and Pietrucha. Teitga Mariana with the foremen and work police took part in the aktsias [actions, usually deportations] against the Jews that were carried out in the HASAG-Apparatebau on the 19^th of July 1943. The forewomen would stop the women at their work after 12 hours of labor. Then the women laborers would sleep in the barracks for one or two hours; they were awakened and sleepy, half dressed, they were led under the watch of work security to “collect” their portion of blows for not carrying out their work quota. The forewomen themselves would designate the number of blows that each woman worker needed to receive and often, during the execution of the blows, hold the designated worker by the feet or by the head. “The beautiful Klara” became well-known with her threat to beat the male workers and not only with her fists, but also with the ammunition boxes. Spaltenholtz was not satisfied with only blows and leading the guard, but he also forced them to help with the same actions [administrating blows].


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Martin Kehler would murderously beat the workers, lead the guard to the flogging and cut off the hair of women for every small “sin.” He would torture Polish workers in another manner. He would ostensibly lead them to the bath. There, he would soap them up and rub their bodies with a floor brush. In his relationship to the Jewish workers, Gustav always would show that he was a devoted member of the N.S.D.A.P. (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – National Socialist German Workers Party] and he, himself, sent 40 workers to death during the July “selection.” Walter Frosse would especially ill treat women. Johannes Nikke tortured the workers and was not satisfied with the usual number of 25 lashes during the whippings; for him the usual number of lashes was 50. He especially severely beat a certain Walman with a rubber club. Certain groups of workers would receive a free day every other Sunday. Nikke would then take this group out of the barracks and force them to wash the cement floors in the factory halls. To wash these floors they received used, thin gloves as rags, which had previously served to check the bullet cartridge cases. Therefore, the “free” Sunday became frightening days for the women workers who were thrown within his reach.

Apel and Fasold showed the most sadism. Apel beat everyone who came under his hand for no reason. He attacked workers and beat them with everything that came to him at that moment: with a board, with a piece of iron, with a hammer. He mainly beat them in the stomach and in the sexual organs with his fists. Fasold (“Boxer”) would attack workers for no reason, beat them and had no respect for women or children. The way he beat 15-year old Tuvya Nemiec remains in everyone's memory. Tuvya worked in the infantry division. He had to gather the barrels of spoiled bullet cartridge cases from the moving machines and carry them to another spot where large barrels stood for that purpose. The small, starving and exhausted Tuvya had to “stroll” this way with the heavy barrels back and forth for 12 hours. Twelve hours a day – during the day shift and 12 hours a night – during the night shift. Tuvya would walk with eyes closed from exhaustion carrying the kettles.


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The way there and back already was very well known to him, so that he could allow such a “joke.” Many times he felt that his feet would no longer serve him; then he put down the kettle, sat down on it and looked to the side with his eyes to see if “someone” was coming. However, there were moments when his eyes were pasted and Tuvya began to dream. Fasold caught him in such a “crime.” He lifted Tuvya from the kettle by his ear, boxed him with his right hand in his left cheek; Tuvya wobbled to his right and before he was able to fall, he felt a second blow in the right cheek. Fasold grabbed him by his feet, lifted him in the air and quickly carried him away. Tuvya strained to lift his arms so that they would not be dragged along the cement floor. He lifted his arms and pressed them to his sides, but they fell down powerless and dragged further along. Fasold stopped at a not-full barrel of bullet casings with his victim and threw him in with his head down. Only half his body went into the barrel. Fasold, crazy with his superior power over the small boy, began to press Tuyva's sexual organs with one hand and began to press the second half of his body deeper into the barrel. Tuvya's screams reached the workers who stood at the machines and the noise of the machines was surpassed by the terrible moans from the women workers. Fasold roused himself from his wildness, looked around as if he was searching for the “arrogant” women who dared to interrupt his sadistic pleasure and quickly left the factory hall. From then on, the small Tuvya's tired feet would no longer fully obey and fulfill their duties.


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Every day or night brought other dismal news: here work police fired into the women's barracks when it was dark and there were victims; here, Hauzner, the foreman, shot a woman because she was “lazy” at work; there, a member of work security shot a boy because he spent to much time in the toilet; here, Klem led away the sick to the Jewish cemetery where the labor security shot them; there, a drunk foreman entered the women's hall, chose the youngest girl and took her away for an entire night; here, a member of the Gestapo led someone away and that person never returned; there, three young workers were arrested for “stealing” a few pieces of bread and they were murdered; here, Stiglitz (representative of labor security) beat a woman with his stick until she began to faint and then she was dragged away and shot; here, Michal Skalenko, a member of the labor security, beat Liberman, dragged him to a cellar bunker and there, with Stiglitz's help, tortured him to death. They stopped believing that they would survive and they only posed the question: who [would perish] earlier and who later? From time to time smaller groups of prisoners were put into unfinished barracks and from there they were taken to the death camps.

The days in the camps were “monotonous,” although there were frequent shocks. Every day at five o'clock in the morning, everyone had to be at the count (roll call). The Jewish camp leader and his aids carried out the count in the presence of labor security and foremen. Each kapo announced the number of “prisoners” for which he was responsible and presented the certificates from a doctor for the sick in their group who were missing from the count. Stiglitz created a circus: for being a few seconds late to the roll call; he forced the men who were late to throw their hats on the roof until they remained lying there. After that, the “guilty ones” had to scramble up there to take them down. For the same sin, he forced older women to choose young boys from the rows and kiss them. For similar “sins,” he forced young girls to do the same thing with older Jews [men]. Those who were late also were registered so that after 12 hours of work, they themselves should report to labor security guards and there “collect” up to 25 lashes. Several returned with only a “kratke” [number sign] (marks on the buttocks) and others wandered from the guard immediately into the hospital.


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During the roll call young work security members tried out their skill at riding bicycles. Zig-zagging, they rode over the toes of the prisoners while they stood in a straight row. If any of those suffering dared to murmur, they received his judgment on the spot or later at the guardhouse.

At the same time, outside the camp, a strenuous hunt for Jews took place in the city. The city leadership organized a special Jewish incendiary exhibition under the title, “the Jewish World Plague,” where the Jews were presented as terrible criminals. Inflammatory leaflets and calendars were distributed with caricatures that presented the Jews as swindlers, criminals, communists and as those who ruled the world. Poles, with whom Jews were found hiding, were sentenced and shot. A note arrived at the camp from Avraham Kaplan, the formerly active ŻOB member who was hiding with a Pole, stating that his situation was difficult and that some way should be found for him to enter the HASAG. However, news was quickly received that the active ŻOB member and other Jews were murdered in a bunker by a band of robbers, at the head of which stood the well-known anti-Semitic merchant, Walaszczik, who led the boycott and picket activities against Jewish merchants before the war (the Polish People's Court administered the earned sentence to the murderer). Jews, who had no way out to the “Aryan side,” smuggled themselves into the camps with groups of Polish workers who, meanwhile, lent the Jews work cards of Polish workers who had gotten sick. In general, it must be remembered that Polish workers smuggled in food, cigarettes and even medicines for the Jewish prisoners. The Polish communist, Imiollek, who remained in contact with the Jewish communists in the name of the P.P.R. [Polska Partia Robotnicza – Polish Workers' Party], actively helped. The Jews who smuggled themselves into Rokow in this manner, remained there because Milhof immediately took them into the list of the Jewish prisoners and the other Germans did not know. It was worse for those who smuggled themselves into Pelcery. They were given over to the Gestapo, where they perished, by work security members.


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The terrible situation of the Jews who were hidden on the “Aryan side” eliminated the desire of those in the HASAG to escape from the camp, although the situation there was also terrible. Machl Wajskop, the ŻOB [Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa – Jewish Fighting Organization] activist who wanted to join his fighting comrades in the Koniecpol forests, was among the escapees from the camp. He did not reach his goal and perished on the road.

The negative phenomena can be observed that at the same time: whoever could make use of foul language felt “stronger” and a “competition” developed in the area. They even taught “tasty” jokes to Stiglitz. The small Gliksman, who became a favorite of Stiglitz because of his service of informing to the work security and also began to bully the prisoners, particularly excelled at teaching Stiglitz obscene Jewish expressions.

The greater number of the small number of Jews was transformed into a large frozen melancholy mass. The punitive labor within the large factory walls, the murderous foremen and work security; the heavy machinery at which they had to stand working for the entire 12 hours and sometimes as punishment had to remain for another shift and after the second shift they had to remain at work for 12 more hours with the group of workers to which they belonged, as well as the hunger, with which only a few could cope – brought melancholy results. One met shriveled people whose skin barely kept their bones from falling apart. One also met those who in the large trepers [shoes with wooden soles] or the Holenderkes (shoes made only of wood) barely dragged their feet swollen by hunger. Tuberculosis and other illnesses had their fat harvest here. Clothes of rags and wooden shoes, brought from other closed camps, were the normal clothing here. Clothing sorters found letters that the previous and now murdered owners placed in the pockets during the last minutes of their lives. They were caught reading the letters and perished.

Apathy and resignation spread even further and took control of even more prisoners. There were also cases of suicide. Fajerman, a young man, drowned in the small stream that flowed close to the electricity plant.

Michel Wajskop		“Zosia” Richl Szabszewski
Lejzer Szidlowski		Abramek Wajskop

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And yet a group of stubborn resistance fighters tried to do everything to drive away the despair. Political discussions arranged by the underground workers for a narrow circle would take place in the barracks as well as evenings of song and recitations. The performers at such cultural evenings or cultural Sundays were the few surviving female singers from the former TOZ choir and the Jakubowicz brothers.

After a time they began to endure great hardships from Herman, the work security leader. He was a feldsher [barber-surgeon, similar to a paramedic] by trade and he believed that he had to assist with every operation in the camp hospital. Other German prominent men would come to these operations and the doctor-surgeon had to give a “practical lecture.” In these cases, the sick would receive larger doses of sleep drops so that the surgeon's lecture could last longer. Often, such “lectures” were successful; the operations were successful (the chief doctor – Szperling, the surgeon, was a capable craftsman). However, the sick one paid with his life. Szperling himself bore a little blame in such cases. In his visible submissiveness to the Germans, after ending an operation on the appendix, he would agree to open the stomach of a patient again so a late-arriving German could “assist” at the operation, demonstrating his knowledge. In the camp, they spoke a great deal about Szperling's guilt in the death of a certain Bronka Baum, who was operated on by him and because of the manner in which he operated on her, she later lay in the hospital for several days, [finally] dying. Szperling was one of the few Jews in the camp who provoked hatred to himself among the greater number of the prisoners. The prisoners seldom benefited from the large supply of medicines that were located in the camp apothecary, which had originated with the apothecary at the Judenrat and at TOZ in the large ghetto and, later, the small ghetto, as well as the medicines received from the Krakow Jewish Assistance Office; they seldom even received powders for headaches.


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But Szperling distributed the most expensive items to the Germans and labor security. He did not treat his subordinate personnel any better than the first German foreman; he especially bullied his subordinate Jewish doctors and nurses. His subordinate physical workers in personnel found better conditions with him although he indulged in beating them in moments of excitement; and yet he did good things, too, for their sake, particularly in the moments when he was in a good mood, he boasted to them about his ideas and achievements, unloaded his lexicon, whose variety surpassed the lexicon of the famous cursers in the camp.

Yet the tragic situation of the Jews in the HASAG did not kill the drive among everyone to live and also did not atrophy the human feeling of brotherly solidarity. The first, who began to send in help to the HASAG-Apparatebau camp, were the Garibaldczikes – the small number of Jews who were housed on Garibaldi Street. This group of Jews stole furniture and goods from the storehouses of the security police and sold them in various ways to the Poles. The Garibaldczikes taxed themselves on behalf of the Jews in the HASAG and sent [the sum of money] to them through designated trustworthy men: Jechiel Gamulinsk and Itcze Brener, who would divide the sum sent among those suffering from hunger and among those whom the Garibaldczikes had indicated to them on the list they sent. In addition to this, a group of women were organized in the camp itself that collected a weekly payment from which they began to run a kitchen for children and the sick. A great deal of initiative in this work was shown by these women: Fela Ofman and Zosia Weksztajn.

The connection between the Jewish underground and Warsaw ceased after the liquidation of the small ghetto. During the second month after the liquidation, Międzyrzecka, the female courier from Warsaw (“Wladka”), discovered the bunker of the fighting group in the Koniecpol forest and made contact with “Jacek” through the group that was housed in the HASAG-Eizenhuta camp. Through “Jacek's” intercession, “Wladek” also made contact with the Czenstochower underground workers who were in the HASAG-Apparatebau camp.


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“Wladek” began to send money and literature into the camps. From then on the leftist underground workers in the HASAG-Apparatebau camp took over the coordination of the support of the illegal kitchen and enlarged it so that almost all of the sick, the children and young people benefited from it. Mrs. Dzjuba, a female Polish underground worker in Czenstochow, occasionally brought money to the camp. Mrs. Dzjuba would come into the “colony,” give the money to the worker Helman and he would hand it over to the underground workers in the camp. The female cook and leader of the kitchen in the hospital was the nurse Manya Altman (née – Kalin) and the other nurses who worked there helped her. Because the sick rarely were administered the needed medicines from the camp apothecary on time, the doctors, Przyrowski and Lunski indicated which medicines were needed for which patient and they would be bought in the city and smuggled into the camp by Polish workers of their acquaintance in the factory.

The religious Jews also carried on aid work on a small scale. At the head of the religious group were: Noach Edelist and Jechiel Landau. There also were small groups of young people, former members of the Jewish Fighting Organization, who organized a collective life. At the head of this group were: Natka Wiernik (Jacek's wife), Abramek Czarna and Ruczka Dzialowska – “the Mamele” (she received the name “Mamele” for her devotion and the motherly care she showed to her comrades). Abramek and Ruczka belonged to the P.P.R. [Polska Partia Robotnicza – the communist Polish Workers' Party] group. Another group that led a collective life was a Bundist. Eli Sztajnic, Leib Leber, Josef Krojsze and the bakery worker, Betsalel Altman, stood at the head of this collective group. Jewish groups made use of their acquaintance with Polish workers who were employed in the Pelcery and Rakow factories and these workers smuggled in for the Jews food, medicines, legal German newspapers, illegal literature and everything that came from Warsaw with the couriers.


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Contact among the Jews in one camp with the Jews in another camp was established with the intercession of Polish workers.

The camp routine led to those sick with high temperatures having fear of submitting themselves as sick and with their last strength they continued to stand at the machines; the pain and insults coming from each foreman and from every camp guard had to be borne; the hunger and the insecurity today and tomorrow – all of this led to strong apathy that kept spreading. However, the activity of the underground cells brought a little bit of a renewal. The moments when Soviet airplanes appeared brought in a particular renewal and belief. As soon as the factory sirens began their mournful alarm and the camp guards and the foremen escaped to the air-raid shelters, the Jews felt as if they had received a new soul; they felt somewhat freer. Several began to believe that there would be an end to the limitless troubles and others hoped that the factory would be bombed and they would have the honor to die under the factory ruins and not at the hands of the German criminals…

They could not stand still at the machines in the dark nights and also not lie in the barracks. Everyone wanted to know what was happening outside. In the barracks someone else crawled down each time from the plank beds and stealthily took a look to see what was happening outside. In the factory, every minute another worker again pulled himself from the machine and went outside discretely. They wanted to know how it looked when the large and long fiery fingers of the German searchlight tapped the dark skies searching and searching. These long, fiery fingers that searched the skies night after night threw a fear in the Germans and evoked hope in the joyful heartbeats of the Jews. And perhaps still? – many thought and consoled themselves. Perhaps still the terrible hell would end?


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Everyone was sure that the Soviet “bird” would finally bring the redemption. This feeling also was strengthened with the news that the smuggled in legal and illegal newspapers daily brought about the victorious march forward of the Red Army.

Transports of Jews from the Lodz ghetto and from the temporary workplaces began to arrive in January 1944. The Jews in the HASAG-Apparatebau camp saved portions of their bread for those arriving. The Jews from Lodz were fortunate; they had not had as much bread as they received here for a long time. There were various opinions among those from Czenstochow in the camp and the Jews brought from the Lodz ghetto: the Lodzers believed that the HASAG was a paradise in comparison to the conditions that held sway in the Lodz ghetto. Here they ate enough… The Czenstochow Jews believed that the bringing of more Jews was a sign of the creation here of a new collection point where they would annihilate everyone. The labor police leader announced that those who came from Lodz had the right to write letters home and that they also could receive answers from there. The Lodzers made use of the opportunity to write home about their “luck” and they did receive answers. The Lodzers' belief in their new “luck” grew stronger and to the earlier residents of the HASAG the feeling that the permission to carry on correspondences was to fool the Jews from Lodz and to lure them here to be annihilated. The correspondence quickly became forbidden and the mood of those who arrived from Lodz and Plaszow became heavier.

Transports of Jews were brought from the Plaszow camp and from the Lodz ghetto at the beginning of 1944; because of this the number of Jews in the Czenstochow camps increased and two ammunition camps were created and two more camps for Jews: Czestochowianka and HASAG-Warta. The routine in the newly created camps was much more difficult than the two earlier ones. The circumstances for the HASAG workers in Warta were particularly severe as their situation was made more difficult by the designated Jewish camp leader, a German Jew, Jales.

The ammunition factories at Skarżysko were quickly liquidated by the Germans in July 1944 because of the offensive by the Red Army.


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The Jewish camps were also being liquidated there. People from there were brought to Czenstochow and a certain number of Jews from the Skarżysko camps also were sent here. The numbers of Jews increased in all four Czenstochow camps and after the departure of a certain number of the new arrivals to Germany, the complete power over the camps, HASAG-Warta and HASAG-Apparatebau, was taken over by the former German camp leader and security personnel from Skarżysko, the sadly well-known sadist and murderer, [Fritz] Bartenschlager, who while still at Skarżysko became well known for the murder of Jews and mainly for the night sprees that he would lead there. During such a “spree” he would carry out a roll call of the women, choose the youngest and prettiest, hold them an entire night at the disposal of his drunk comrades and these women would be murdered by he himself in the morning. So this sadist began to rule in the two Czenstochow camps and use his well-known torture methods.

The 20^th of July 1944. Several Jews on the night shift at HASAG-Apparatebau came running to the barracks and reported that the masters were not watching the work very closely and kept telling secrets to each other. Others said that they overheard conversations among the masters about an assassination attempt. No one knew exactly what kind of assassination attempt this was. They did not sleep and they waited with impatience for what would happen in the morning. Early the next morning all of the Jews appeared for the roll call earlier than usual. The masters wandered around concerned and the Jews felt bolder. They already knew that an assassination attempt had been made against Hitler and these rumors went from mouth to mouth. Everyone clung to a new hope and asserted that the camp routine had become easier. Two days passed like this [with an easier routine in the camp]. They learned about everything that had happened and their hopes dissipated. They again felt the murderous camp routine and their disappointment created a tougher mood. Yet, they clung to the belief: if the Jews in Skarżysko and Plaszow camps had not been annihilated, but had just been


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been sent over to the Czenstochow camps, the Jews in Czenstochow also would not be annihilated. Thus, the interpretations of every different event changed and, with them, the moods.

In July 1944 contact with Warsaw was completely interrupted and the aid activities stopped for a certain time. In the camp itself, the aid work was carried out with the reserves. At the end of 1944, the Warsaw Jewish underground organization again sent a courier, “Stepan,” and again initiated contact with the camp underground. Letters, literature, 10,000 gildn of support just for Jews and a special fund for comrades who wanted to escape from the camps, were received. In addition to all of this, two letters were received about the liquidation of the Jews in the Pianke and Trawnik camps and an order that if they were not prepared for an armed appearance, the activists should escape. This was the last greeting received from outside until the moment when the Red Army occupied Czenstochow and we were liberated.

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