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On the 8^th of September 1939 the Germans bombed Krasnik. There were many dead and wounded. The majority of the victims of the bombardment fell at the very old Jewish cemetery beyond Podwolna Street where the people not wanting to be in a building came in search of safety.

German troops entered the city on the morning of the 15^th of September. There immediately were seizures of Jews for labor. On the same day at 12 o'clock, the Rabbi Reb Yakov Wajsbart, may the memory of a righteous man be blessed, the old priest and Barszczewski, the apothecary, were taken as hostages and held at the marketplace until nightfall.

One day, Sammer, the local commandant, summoned several Jews, former members of the kehile [organized Jewish community] managing committee including: Yosele Bek, Moshe Hofert, Shlomo Kon, Zaynwel-Leib Szur – and demanded a contribution of money from the Jewish population of 40,000 zlotes. The sum had to be collected in two days.

As soon as the Germans entered the city, the Wehrmacht [unified German military forces] ordered Jews to [report for] various work. The headquarters constantly increased the number of demanded workers. Their number reached from 500 to 600 daily. The gathering point was near the synagogue on Rochewer Road. They were sent from there to various workplaces, such as: to the barracks, to Budzyń, to the train station and so on…

The first person who was ordered to designate Jews for labor was the watchmaker Fishl Rabinowicz. Later, Meir Pintele [the dot] (Meir Radels). At that time (before the creation of the Judenrat [Jewish council created by the Germans] Fishl Rabinowicz, in general, was the man trusted by the Wehrmacht headquarters.

The profaning of the synagogue and house of prayer, which were turned into horse stalls, caused great agitation and sorrow for the Jewish population.

In November, as ordered by the German regime, the Judenrat was created, consisting of 12 people. It operated in the residence of Yekele Grinapel at Narutowicza Street. Later it moved to the residence of Shmuel Nodelman (Shmuel Proszek [powder]) at Rynek. The Germans came daily with a clamor and demanded various objects, furniture, linens, bedding and the like. All of their demands had to be carried out on time.

The first chairman of the Judenrat was Dr. Yosef Szapiro. The composition later changed. The chairman was Shimkha Kon (in 1940).

In December 1939 12 hundred Jews were brought to Krasnik from Lodz and they were housed with Jews – residents of Krasnik. Those from Lodz consisted of mainly the poor. An aid committee was created that took as its task to provide housing and food to the deported [from Lodz].

The man of trust for the German gendarmerie was Beyrech Szajman, a member of the underworld (Mordekhai Trajniak's son-in-law). He specialized in showing the gendarmerie the locations where the Jewish merchants had hidden their goods. In such a manner he extorted large sums of money for himself from the merchants. [He] demanded 500 rubles a week from the rabbi or otherwise he threatened him with a ban on Jewish ritual slaughtering [of meat]. The fear of Beyrech Szajman was so great that the elite of the city came with presents to the wedding of his daughter. The information about his extortion of money from the Jewish population reached

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the Germans – and they sent him to Auschwitz at the end of 1941. He never returned.

Commerce was ended. Only certain individuals received permission from the German to bring goods from other cities. Artisans could not maintain their workshops because of a shortage of raw materials. Richer Jews lived on their prior savings. The poor leased themselves to go to forced labor for the Germans in place of the rich. A number of Jews took part in smuggling articles of food from surrounding villages. The gendarmerie finding such Jews on the roads took their goods and beat them mercilessly. If such a Jew was found with a piece of meat, he was shot on the spot. Later, Jews who were found outside the borders of the city were shot, after the publication of a law that Jews were not permitted to go far from their places of residence. The need among those deported from Lodz was particularly great.

Jewish Social Self-Aid (ZSS – Zydowska Samopomoc Spoleczna) was organized in 1940. The chairman was Dr. Szapiro (he had resigned from the Judenrat). A kitchen was created in the Lubliner shtibl [one-room synagogue]. Over a thousand lunches were given out every day. The very needy were given monetary support. The means with which to support the kitchen and to carry on the activities of the ZSS came from the richer Jews in the form of weekly payments.

Various diseases spread among the Jewish population because of the great need, lack of food products and bad living conditions. Typhus raged with particular strength. A hospital for Jews was created then in Kwiatkowice (near Stróża). Dr. Szapiro organized the hospital. The feldsher [barber-surgeon] Pinkus also worked there. Doctor Szapiro himself was infected with a disease and lay in bed for several weeks.

The Judenrat created a labor office, which was led by Rafal Kocenberg (Yekele the cantor's son) and Batrus (from Lodz) in the spring of 1940.

The labor office was a nest of corruption and bribery. They protected their own with individual remedies: or in general they were not sent demands to appear for work, or they were designated for easier workplaces. For one of their own or for an appropriate bribe they honored each work certificate, providing what were German work locations as opposed to others who received orders to go to work in locations far from the city or at hard labor.

During the evening hours, a workers' exchange was developed at the labor office. The poor Jews leased themselves to work in place of the rich. The prices were dependent on the character of the work, on the location as well as how the Germans handled the Jews at a particular workplace. There were locations where the Germans acted brutally toward the Jewish workers, demanded that they carry out heavy labor at a rapid pace and did not spare them from any murderous blows.

Jews were forbidden to enter public offices. They could not even benefit from the services of the post office; they could not mail a letter, packages, [send] telegrams or carry out conversations on the telephone. They also could not receive correspondence from abroad.

A post office was created at the Judenrat that was headed by the Wajntraub brothers. Only they were permitted to go to the German post office once a day, hand in the entire correspondence from the Jewish population and take the incoming letters for them. There also was a telegraphic connection with the outside world through the involvement of the Jewish post office.

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In the beginning of 1941 the Jewish ordenungdienst [Jewish police force organized by the Germans] was created which consisted of 10 men and Pesakh Kawa, the commandant.

There was never any closed ghetto in Krasnik, in the fullest sense of the word. Some of the Jews were removed from their residences on the main streets, particularly on Kościuszko Street where many German officials lived.

However, the Germans wanted much fewer Jews to be seen in the city, particularly during the work hours. According to the first plan, the ordenungdienst had the task of making sure that Jews did not appear in the main streets, such as: Rynek, Kościuszko and Naturowcza as well as the Jews did not violate the curfew that for them began at five o'clock in the afternoon. Later, the Jewish ordenungdienst was the executive organ for all regulations from the German regime and from the Judenrat.

In 1942 the Germans decided to move the seat of government of the county leadership from Janow to Krasnik. Several buildings on Pilsudski Street were requisitioned for this purpose.

In May the county chief Lenk demanded that the Judenrat provide 100 good artisans whose task was to adapt the buildings as well as to make all of the necessary furniture for the offices of the county leadership.

The men were recruited from Krasnik and the surrounding shtetlekh [towns]. Fifty unskilled workers were taken in addition to the 100 qualified artisans. The collection point was at the cemetery. There also was a place to stay overnight for those who arrived.

This was the start of the labor camp in the city of Krasnik.

(Photo, caption: Labor camp in Krasnik)

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(Photo, caption: The Krasnik camp: the synagogue, the house of prayer and Goldfeld's house [the leader of the camp].)

Several hundred Jews remained in the city at the “secure” workplaces after the last deportation of the Krasnik Jewish population to Bełżec to death. That day they all were assembled at the synagogue courtyard, of which 150 men were left at the city camp. Those remaining were taken to the labor camp in Budzyń.

The majority of the prisoners at the city camp consisted of highly qualified artisans. They also left some unskilled laborers and 10 men from the Jewish ordenungdienst.

Workshops were located in the camp for the following trades: cabinetmakers, upholsters, tailors for men's and women's clothing, furriers, gaiter makers, shoemakers, harness makers, tanners, locksmiths, blacksmiths, electrical technicians, rope makers, housepainters, furniture painters, sign painters, goldsmiths, watchmakers, bakers, hairdressers, a dentist and dental technicians. Dr. Yosef Szapiro was left as the doctor.

The camp occupied the following buildings:

The synagogue where the carpentry machines, the locksmith and the blacksmith workshops were located on the ground floor and the carpentry workshops on [the second] floor.

The house of prayer building where the sleep hall, the kitchen and workshops to repair radio apparatus were located on the ground floor. The workshops of the upholsters, electricians, rope makers, furniture painters and sign painters were located in the women's house of prayer (second floor).

The remaining workshops, the laundry and warehouses for food products were arranged in Chaim Walberger's (“Feke”) house where the Talmud Torah [religious school for poor boys] once was located. (Let it be remembered that Berl Chwadluk, a Lithuanian Jew, a blacksmith by trade, lived in this house before the war. He was later the shamas [sexton] in the house of prayer and the shul-klaper [synagogue striker – man who knocked on the shutters of houses to wake the men for morning prayers] who was considered a lamed vovnik [one of the 36 righteous men upon whom the survival of the world rests].)

The house on Gensza Street (Avrahamele Goldfeld's house) was where the headquarters of the Judenrat commandant was located on the second floor and the camp office, the dentist, dental technician and the Jewish ordenungdienst were located on the ground floor.

Nakhimle Cesler's house (corner of Gensza and Buczniszna) was where Aloizi Grener, the camp commandant lived (on the second floor), while the other S.S. members and Ukrainians lived (on the ground floor).

Yekil Grinwald's house was where the rooms for the sick and the bakery were located on the second floor along with the residences for the master carpenters and other, better craftsmen.

Two barracks was built later: on the lot of Hersh Melamed [religious school teacher] and Yakov Winer in which the sleep room for the women and a furniture warehouse was located and on the lots of Yisroel Enger and Avrahamle Melamed where the second furniture warehouse was located and small sleep room for men.

At first the city camp was a division of the camp in Budzyń. The S.S. man, [Reinhold] Feix, then had authority over the camp and over the Jewish war prisoners from Budzyń. This lasted for a short time. Later the city camp received independent administrative rights under the name: Labor Camp Under the Group Leader of the Lublin S.S. and Police. During the later years the group of Jews who worked at building the Skrent benzene station (Wiracz) also were regarded as a division of the camp in Krasnik because they were located at the turnoff from the road to the train station.

The commandant of the camp was Government Unterscharführer [junior squad leader] Eloizi Greger, Jewish Commandant – Pesakh Kawa. Ulrich from Lublin (later – Offerman) had supervision of the camp (on behalf of the group leader).

The number of prisoners in the camp gradually increased. Prisoners were brought from the work camp in Budzyń where the conditions were very hard. Over a dozen Jews were brought from Bełżyce after the savage liquidation of the Jews there in the spring of 1943. There were cases of craft specialists being brought from other camps: from the labor camp in Demblin – two carpenters, the Rubinsztajn brothers and a Slovak Jew named Mondel; from Budzyń – a group of Warsaw Jews, after the liquidation of the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw. They also sent individual prisoners from the city camp to Budzyń as punishment for having committed crimes.

At first the camp consisted of only men. Later they permitted women to be brought. In total there were over 20 women, mainly employed at washing and repairing the clothing of prisoners.

In May 1943 Commandant Greger permitted the prisoners to bring their closest [relatives] (wife and children), who were still located outside the camp into the camp. Therefore, he was well rewarded. From then on, several children were found in the camp (a number of them the children of women who were hidden in the camp building). The small group of children stood at a special place during the morning and evening roll calls and one of them saluted and announced the number. This was a grotesque and sad scene.

The camp existed until the 22^nd of July 1944. The number of prisoners then reached around 300 men (along with the prisoners from Skrent).

Two cases occurred during the time in which the camp existed in which Commandant Greger himself murdered two Jews in front of the prisoners.

The Jew from Bełżyce, Moshe Graf, was in charge of two horses and a wagon then in the camp. One day Greger shot him in the head with a pistol. He was still alive and pleaded for help; Greger sent a Ukrainian to him who shot him with a rifle.

– I did not like his eyes – Greger supposedly said later.

Our camp at first had contact with the camp in Budzyń; visiting

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each other was a frequent phenomenon. Because of the functions that he carried out in the Budzyń camp, Moshe Szif had the opportunity to come to the city [Krasnik] and was a frequent visitor to the city camp. However these visits did not find favor in Greger's eyes and he ordered that he not be allowed into the camp. He shot at Szif with his pistol once when from his balcony he noticed him strolling not far from the camp. Greger ordered that Szif, in a dying state, be carried into the camp and asked Dr. Szapiro to say that he died of a heart attack.

It was said that because of this a conflict broke out between Greger and the commandant of Budzyń, Feix, who was supposed to have said: “If you shoot my Jews, I will shoot yours...”

It should be understood that shooting a Jew did not lead to any bloodshed between the two murderers.

Leibele Futerman escaped from the camp in the spring of 1943. He left for Sandomierz where his wife and child were hiding with a Christian. Ulrich from Lublin, the supervisor of the camp, learned of this when he was [at the camp] on his weekly visit. At his order, three prisoners were placed in camp arrest and would be shot if Leibele Futerman were not brought back.

The Jewish headquarters revealed where Futerman had escaped to in order to save the three hostages. (It must be added that Futerman escaped with the knowledge of the Jewish commandant. He was his relative.) Ulrich, accompanied by the Jewish ordenungdienst went after him and caught him on the road.

He brought back his clothing…

A roll call of the prisoners was held and Urlich warned that if a case of escape from the camp were repeated, he would send the prisoners to Maidanek.

An electrician and radio mechanic, Chaim Wurman, a young man from Kurów, was brought to the camp. Thanks to him a workshop was organized to repair radio apparatus for the Germans. He deliberately said that it would take longer to repair the apparatus so that it would be possible to receive foreign radio broadcasts on the repaired apparatus. However, he could not make use of the apparatus because the S.S. members and guards constantly walked around the camp and there was the threat of death for the crime of hearing a foreign broadcast. He put together an apparatus with earphones from remaining radio parts. He would receive news from abroad in the evening hours. The apparatus was hidden in his bed during the day. He was given a top bed for this purpose.

The matter was later solved in another way: we had a guard, the Russian Ivan Kosion, who came from Novosibirsk, a former young lieutenant in the Red Army, a tall and good looking young man, a quiet one who rarely spoke with anyone. But he “connected” with Jewish lads. He always was helpful with advice during difficult times. He explained that he had entered the Ukrainian division, S.S. Galicia, to avoid death.

Kosion had night duty. Chaim Wurman sat in his workshop at a fully lit apparatus and clearly heard Moscow and London. Kosion stood watch before the house of prayer (the radio workshop was located there in the anteroom) and in the quiet of the night heard whether an unwished for person was approaching. (Greger would carry on such night inspections from time to time, particularly when he would come home late from a spree. There were also instances when Kosion himself sat at the apparatus and heard Moscow – and Jews made sure that there would be no obstacle.

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Yitzhak Rozenbusz told me:

During the winter months 1942/43 (that is before Wurman came to the camp) the partisans – meeting him and Yehiel-Alter Rolnik in the city – gave him a radio apparatus for the camp. Yitzhak Rozenbusz brought it into the camp with the food products. He installed it in the cellar of Avrahamle Goldfeld's house that served for detentions and then as a potato storehouse. He listened to radio broadcasts with Kosion. Later the apparatus had to be destroyed because too many people knew about it.

When the camp was taken to the west, a group of Jews escaped on the road and returned to Krasnik – Ivan Kosion came with them. He was arrested by the Red Army. Jews intervened forcefully – and he was brought back.

The food supply for the camp was bad in one way and in another way – a relatively good one.

The food supply that the prisoners received from the Germans (from the camp kitchen) was a bad one; the food supply that the prisoners created themselves was a relatively good one.

The majority of prisoners were residents of Krasnik. A number had brought a few valuable items to the camp. Others had [left] them with Christian acquaintances.

Food would be brought to the camp through various devious ways. There were Christians who were involved because of business.

There was a brick oven in every workshop. After work began the concern with cooking. Small groups were created, mostly of relatives or close acquaintances who cooked together. The more well-to-do provided food for the poorer ones. It is worthwhile to remember Chaim Adler, who continually gave food to several poor Jews, complete strangers.

The most popular food was kliskelekh [small, soft, unfilled dumpling] with beans.

Poor Jews would also obtain money by selling articles of clothing.

Transports of clothing left by the annihilated Jews in other camps would be brought into the camp from time to time. The clothing was divided among the prisoners in exchange for the clothing worn out at work. Poor Jews would receive larger allocations and they would sell the extra articles of clothing.

Various trifles would be found in the clothing such as theater tickets, etc. according to which could be established the countries from which they came.

The camp regime made sure that the prisoners were not dressed in rags or dirty. At the morning roll call everyone had to have their shoes or boots polished with wax.

The Jews who would work outside the camp (at the Gestapo) were involved with selling the articles of clothing. There were also select individuals who had the opportunity to go to the city. They would leave the camp accompanied by a guard. Officially it was in order to take care of something for the camp.

The cooking of food in the workshops was officially forbidden. Greger would arrive in the workshops unexpectedly from time to time and if he found that we were cooking he screamed. We would designate guards. The children made the best ones. When they noticed Greger (or another S.S. man) marching in the courtyard of the camp, they gave a bink (shouted “six”) from workshop to workshop – and the cooking temporarily stopped.

They baked matzos for Passover. There were pious Jews who did not eat any khometz [leavened products] during the eight days of Passover.

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In January 1943, at the order of Sturmführer Ulrich, they “borrowed” 10 prisoners from our camp and they were sent to Tomaszów Lubelski, where they were to carry out the renovation of the buildings that were occupied by the S.S. The following artisans were chosen: Shmuel Brand (mason), Shimeon Zilberfajn, Moshe Porcelan, Yudkewicz, Yekul the baker's son-in-law, Shevekh Czizme's son-in-law (all five house painters), Zaduk Herszenharc and someone from Warsaw (electrician), Szwarc (locksmith) and someone from Zaklików (carpenter).

They were “borrowed” for four weeks, but Shmuel Brand did not return until August.

The Jews immediately learned that the S.S. members for whom they were [working] were those who were running the annihilation camp in Bełżec (several kilometers from Tomaszów).

Shmuel Brand said:

The Germans murdered Szwarc the locksmith in a bestial way in May. Three S.S. members beat him for so long with wooden sticks until he died on the spot.

Szwarc came from Vienna. The Germans made him supervisor of their residences. One day they carried out a personal search of him and found stolen cigarettes. They immediately murdered him.

In truth he had been designated for liquidation even earlier. He had received an order to dig a pit several days earlier in which he later was buried. It was learned later that among other offenses the Germans accused him of listening to foreign radio broadcasts when they were away from their residences.

Shmuel Brand returned to the camp in accordance with the demand of Sturmführer Ulrich. There was a great need for a mason in the camp at that time. The remaining eight “borrowed” Jews never returned.

Sturmführer Ulrich would visit the camp once a week, mainly every Wednesday. He often came accompanied by his comrades who always left filled with gifts.

In the last third of the month of April 1943, Ulrich did not appear at the camp. He first came in May and ordered a roll call of all of the prisoners. He assured us (not the first time and not the last) that we would survive the war in the camp; we only needed to work calmly and so on.

Urlich did not mention a word about the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, but we all understood why he had gathered us for a special roll call and to give us a speech. We had been informed about the Warsaw Uprising by outside sources.

Several thousand Jews were brought to Budzyń from the Warsaw ghetto. Greger and Kawa drove there and brought 27 men who had said they were carpenters to our camp.

The people were not broken but ready to struggle further. We would listen to their descriptions of the fight in the Warsaw ghetto with reverence. The stories brought encouragement into the monotonous camp life. They would fill every hour free from work. We wanted to know even more details.

The impulsiveness and readiness to fight of the Warsaw Jews brought apprehension to the Jewish commandant of the camp who did not believe that they would sit quietly in the camp.

Under the pretext that they were not good craftsmen, a number (those ready to fight) were sent back to Budzyń as well as to a workplace in Lublin.

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Among the Jews who were brought to Budzyń after the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising were a group of Warsaw community activists, such as: Lipa Bloch, director of Keren-Kayemet L'Yisroel [Jewish National Fund], Dr. Wdowinski, the leader of the Revisionists, Rabbi Sztachamer, editor of the Agudahist [orthodox organization] Togblat [Daily Newspaper], Rabbi Dovid Szapiro and others.

Lipa Bloch was brought to us in the camp from Budzyń. He worked in the office as aide to the bookkeeper.

Bringing individual personalities from Budzyń had actually been done for a long time, almost from the moment that they brought the Jews to Budzyń from the Warsaw ghetto. Chaim Popowski, a left Poalei Zionist [Marxist Zionists] who came to us as a carpenter with the group from the Warsaw ghetto, was particularly interested in this matter [the transfer of the Jews from the Warsaw ghetto]. Rumors circulated that the Jewish Agency was interested in this matter.

It was also said that a blonde girl came to the camp accompanied by a man in the uniform of a railroad official about this matter. (It is necessary to clarify that orders from private people [for goods such as furniture] also were taken in the camp and every non-Jew had the opportunity to enter the office where orders were taken.)

Chaim Popowski traveled to Budzyń several times about this [transfer of prisoners] and carried out negotiations there. Why this ended only in bringing Lipa Bloch is not clear to me. Possibly because there was no room for more people with us and for the giver of assignments, Bloch was the most important person.

It was revealed later that [no one] could be taken out of our camp, where there were a proportionally smaller number of people, who were counted twice a day – in the morning and evening roll calls. It was a conjecture that someone could more easily be brought from Budzyń because there were approximately 3,000 Jews there and if one went missing, the Jewish commandant had another one in reserve. These were Jews escaping to the Aryan side because they no longer had any possibility of hiding. They would sneak into the ranks of the prisoners returning from work outside the camp.

Lipa Block perished on the road when the prisoners were taken west after the liquidation of the camp.

In 1943, a letter from Krakow from JUS [Jüdische Unterstützungsstelle – Jewish Aid Office) led by Dr. M. Weichert spoke about creating a division of JUS in our camp.

Pesakh Kawa was supposed to go to Krakow about this matter (accompanied by an S.S. man). He planned to create a division [in the camp] that would also take care of Budzyń and other camps. I do not remember if the trip took place.

The news that a legal institution still existed under the General Government was a sensation for us. We commented on the fact, which brought exhilaration among a number of prisoners.

A transport of medicine and foreign food products, mainly canned fruit (Portuguese), arrived from JUS.

I do not remember that there was a distribution of the food items among the prisoners. Probably, the select individuals (the so called Tribe of Levi) did eat from the [items].

Larger quantities of medications were given to the partisans with whom the camp maintained contact.

One day when the prisoners in the camp were led out (during the liquidation) the gates of the warehouses were opened and everyone could take food for the trip, as much as their hearts desired. However, how much could they take with them when most of prisoners did not plan to march far?

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An evening of entertainment was arranged for the prisoners in the camp and several Jewish musicians were especially brought from Budzyń for the evening. One of them was named Sholem Czurkowski, from Minsk-Mazowiecki where he said he had had connections to Yiddish theater circles in Warsaw. The evening cheered us up; Sholem Czurkowski particularly excelled.

Later, three of the musicians mentioned were regularly brought to our camp: Sholem Czurkowski, Moshe Kon from Warsaw and Avrasha, a musician who played the harmonica.

Czurkowski knew a tremendous number of folk and theater songs. The Krasniker [Krasnik resident] Yehoshuele [diminutive of Yehoshua] Markowicz, who had performed in amateur theater for a number of years, helped him.

We began to sing in the camp. Everyone sang, young and old. In that way, people expressed their pain and longing, the grief for their lost and ruined lives and the desire for a new life.

Sholem Czurkowski organized an amateur theater troupe. Rehearsals took place. Outsiders were invited to the general rehearsals as experts. They performed two plays: Dos Groyse Gevins [The Lottery[ by Sholem Aleichem and Der Zinger fun Zayn Troyer [The Singer of His Sorrow] by Osip Dymov. They also presented two revue performances that the amateur circle performed for the prisoners in Skrent.

Sholem Czurkowski put together the texts of the plays and revue performances from memory. The performers were Sholem Czurkowski, Moshe Kon, Yosef Rozenel, Yehoshua Markowicz, Rozen (from Warsaw), Nokhum Rozenel, Tema Kas, Dboytshele Rozenbusz, Ovadye Wizenberg (played the violin), and Abrasha (played the accordion) and others.

The S.S. men in the camp also came to the performances and through them comrades were invited.

In the summer of 1943 a former resident of Krasnik, the respected Shmuel Erlichman, came to us for a visit from the camp in Paniatowa. I do not remember the purpose of the visit and who accompanied him. It was probably about building a warehouse in our camp. He said that he worked in the construction division of the Paniatowa camp and that they now were working on projects to construct the camp that was to last six years.

He was in a good mood…

The Gruppenführer [group leader] of the S.S. and police of the Lublin district visited our camp in the summer of 1943. Before his arrival, general order was made in the camp. No prisoner was permitted to approach a window during Gen. [Yakob] Sporrenberg's brief period in the camp.

It later appeared that the fate of the Jews in the Krasnik camp had then been decided. That is, whether they should be left or annihilated with the Jews in other camps in the Lublin district who were liquidated in November 1943.

After the liberation, General Sporrenberg was sentenced by the Polish Court in Lublin; he received the death penalty. Former prisoners from our camp appeared as witnesses at the trial.

[There is no 11.]

On the first day of November 1943 Greger and other members of the S.S. disappeared from the camp. Only the “pomidor” [tomato], an S.S. man with a red growth on the nape of his neck, remained. We had information from outside that something terrible had happened. All of the Jews in the camps and at the work places in Lublin had been annihilated. The camps at Trawnik and Paniatowa were liquidated. Five hundred Jews who had worked at breaking rock in Rachow were annihilated (these were the remaining Jews from Annopol). This question was on everyone's mind: “What will happen to us?”

Ulrich and Greger appeared in the camp. They asked for a roll call. Again, a speech that we should

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be calm, work normally. Nothing was threatening us. “The other ones” are bandits.

The speech did not make any impression. The mood was oppressive.

We knew of almost all of the camps and workplaces in the Lublin district. We would sporadically receive news about them from various informal messengers. When someone traveled to Lublin (for example: a master craftsman carpenter for materials) he would try to bring even more news about other Jews. Now everything was liquidated. Only three camps remained in the Lublin district: Budzyń, Krasnik and Demplin. When would it be the turn of those remaining? Everyone was pessimistic. We used every connection outside to create hiding places with Christians. It was said that Pesakh Kawa already had all of his possessions outside. “Even his slippers, too,” it was joked.

A rumor emerged that they had asked for the release of Lipa Bloch, for whom a place of refuge had been prepared and that people close to the Jewish command had placed the condition that they would be taken with him. This increased the turmoil among the common people. If the prominent people left, this could bring the liquidation of the camp and, perhaps, the annihilation of the rest of the prisoners. The unskilled workers guarded the house where the commandant Pesakh Kawa and his entourage lived for several nights.

A misfortune befell the camp, but from another direction…

The people in the camp had maintained contact with a partisan division for a long time. The partisans provided several revolvers. We gave them clothing and medicine. We shared the radio apparatus, which Chaim Wurman had prepared in the radio workshop, with them.

After the liquidation of the Jewish camps in November, the group believed that the time had come to escape from the camp and to fight in the ranks of the partisans.

Leading the group were: Chaim Wurman, Palek Broner, Shmaye Sztangas, Leibele Szmulker, Yehoshua Markowicz and others.

We sent Leibele Szmukler to the partisans in Rzeczyca to discuss the ways of bringing the prisoners. There were also those who pointed out the hopelessness for a large number of prisoners to be able to save themselves outside the camp, particularly the older people and children.

Passionate arguments took place then in the camp among the followers of both groups.

The office worker, Faygele Twordoguda, and Feliks Shteinhauer (a Viennese Jew) would take care of the Gestapo correspondence. But they were not permitted to read the correspondence with the addendum “secret.”

In November 1943 they both searched for ways “to look into” the secret correspondence and thus learn what kind of plans the Germans had in regard to our camp. Feliks Shteinhauer learned the secret for opening the writing table. They did find a letter from the Gruppenführer of the S.S. and police in Lublin in which was written that in case of the approach of the [war] front, the prisoners would be taken to Plaszow. This brought us a certain calm.

It was the first day of organizing the camp, in the fall of 1942. The fencing for the camp and the guard was still weak. There still was no exact evidence [of the camp]. Then Perec Wiszniak came to the camp and took orders for “Aryan” kenkartn [identity documents issued by the General Government for non-Germans]. A number of prisoners did obtain kenkartn. Perhaps they would be of use?!

However, the Jewish commandant of the camp demanded that the documents be given to him to handle. If it became necessary to use them, everyone should do so together. He said the motivation for his action was that if individual people freely decided about leaving the camp, it could

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cause the death of others and, perhaps, the liquidation of the camp.

In February 1944 the Gestapo took the baker, Shmaye Grinwald, and his bride, Chanka, and, later, the Jewish commandant, Pesakh Kawa and his entire family.

Why was Shmaye Grinwald arrested?

One Yeczi Sawicki worked at the German trade firm, Schmidt and Luhman, as a bookkeeper. He also worked at Merszczizne's mill. He was denounced to the Gestapo as a Jew. He was given “cynk” and he succeeded in escaping.* During the interrogation at the Gestapo, the owner of the residence (a baker by trade, an acquaintance of Grinwald) where Sawicki had lived said that Sawicki had been given the residence by the housing office and that he did not know the he was a Jew. Wanting to emphasize his unwillingness to engage with Jews, he blurted out that Grinwald had asked him to create a hiding place in his house for him [Grinwald] and his bride and promised to pay with pieces of gold – which he refused [to do]. The Gestapo then learned that a number of Jews in the camp had prepared “Aryan” kentkartn and that they had been given to Pesakh Kawa; that Doctor Szapiro and his daughter were on the “Aryan” side in Warsaw; that Leibele [diminutive of Leib] Szmukler had spent time with the partisans.

*[Translator's note: Cynk is a Polish word. It refers to information given secretly.]

The Gestapo learned nothing about the connections of the camp with the partisans despite the fact that the rack was used on Leibele Szmukler (dogs tore pieces from his body).

Dogs also ripped pieces from the body of Doctor Szapiro but he did not reveal the place where his wife and child were located.

The names of those who were shot:

Pesakh Kawa, his son Berish and daughter Frida, Moshe Hofert, his son Yisroel and daughter Baltshe, Yehoshya Futerman (Kawa's son-in-law), the brothers Maks, Layzer and Dovid Kaminer and their three sons, Yakov Wajsbrot, his wife and son, Ahron Perlzon, Shlomo Leib Zisberg, Yitzhak Bek, his wife and son, the brothers Yosef and Leib Szmukler, Ziskind Rozenbusz, Shaul Erlich, Dr. Yosef Szapiro, Mendl Fajn, Berish Erlich, Berner, Abrahamle Rodler, Rachwerger (from Skrent), Shmaye Grinwald, Chana Hirszon.

Pesakh Kawa and his closest [family members] were shot outside the Christian cemetery.

The others were tied one to another with barbed wire and shot at Budzyń on the 27^th of Shevat 5704 [21 February 1944].

After Pesakh Kawa's death, the dental technician, Barensztajn, became the Jewish commandant. Yeshaya Sawicki* survived the war. After the liberation he occupied the office of general prosecutor of the Polish People's Republic, representing the Polish state at the Nurenberg trials.

*[Translator's note: Yeshaya Sawicki is referred to as Yeczi earlier in the text.]

There was again surprising news several days later: Yehiel-Alter Rolnik escaped.

Before creating the camp he had worked at the Jewish ordenungdienst (led the secretariat). He was the quartermaster in the camp. He left the camp every day accompanied by a guard and made purchases of every kind. He did not limit himself only to making purchases, but he also kept in contact with various people outside [the camp], particularly with Mrs. Schmidt.

Mrs. Schmidt was of great benefit to the prisoners in the camp, carried out various tasks, carried letters and money to family members [of the prisoners] who were on the “Aryan” side, as well as brought letters and expensive objects from outside for the prisoners. Her husband was in

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England for which he left with the Polish army. She lived at the corner of Podwalne Street in a separate, small house, from which there was an exit into the meadows.

One day Rolnik left the camp accompanied by a guard, a Yugoslav. Rolnik told him to wait in front of Mrs. Schmidt's house, went inside, left the briefcase with camp documents and left for the meadows through the back door.

The Gestapo shot eight men as an act of revenge for Rolnik's escape: Shimkha Kon, Niunek Kon, Shlomo Mincberg, Yehoshua Nardman, Yisroel-Yekil Erlichzon, Eliazer Sztajngos, Hersh Berman, Sore Grinapel.*

*[Translator's note: the text states that eight men where shot, but Sore – Sarah – is a female's name.]

The death of Mrs. Schmidt left a strong impression among the Poles. One could begin to see their tendency to avoid contact with Jews.

Yehiel-Alter Rolnik survived the war with another 15 Jews from Krasnik and Struża at [the farm] of the peasant Szikro in the village of Słodków.

Rolnik was arrested and taken to Krasnik several months after the liberation. To this day it is not known what happened to him. All intervention on his behalf had no success. He was accused of collaboration with the occupiers (thus declared Nakhum Rozenel at the Russian headquarters).

It was said that the accusations against him were the result of the following circumstances:

He had led Mrs. Schmidt to death; he had contrived to work for the Polish security service that was in the hand of the Polish reactionaries in Krasnik.

They were assigned there to dig a channel under the fence. One of the prisoners, Szpiewak, escaped. Shot then as a punishment were: Avraham Enisman, Dovid Goldfeld and Yakov Griner.

Szpiewak fought in the partisan divisions and survived the war.

At various opportunities at roll calls (usually when a calamity occurred among the Jews somewhere), the Germans said that nothing would happen to us, that we would survive the war in the camp. However, Jews did not forget for a moment that our fate was sealed, that our life hung on every caprice of this or that prominent member of the S.S.

Contact with the partisans continued to be maintained.

In March 1944 a group of 17 men escaped from the camp to the partisans: Chaim Wurman, Palek Broner and his 11-year old son Hersh, two Rubinsztajn brothers, Yekil Buchbinder, two Erlichster brothers, Dornfeld, Shmaye Sztajngot, Mordekhai Twordoguda, Layzer Majzner, Yehezkiel Eidelsztajn, Yosef Zanensztern, one of the two watchmaker brothers.

How did the escape happen?

In addition to the guard Ivan Kosion (about whom I have already written), the members of the group who led the underground activities, included another watchman, Beder a Ukrainian from Poland. He hated the Germans because they had murdered his father.

Beder was able to make a pattern of the key to the entrance gate because he served during the night. Thanks to this, a key to the gate was made. The escape took place in the evening when the same Ukrainian was on guard. He deliberately moved away from the gate. Chaim Wurman opened the gate.

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In the morning the Gestapo took 19 people: relatives and those closest to the escapees, as well as others who did not please the German commandant of the camp. They were: Yehoshua Zisberg, Yosef Futerman, Melekh Szapiro (the man capable of deciding questions according to rabbinical law), Shmuel Gutfrajnd and his son, Berish Eidelsztajn, Avraham-Yitzhak Buchbinder, Abush Wajnberg and his son, one of the watchmaker brothers.

Yisroel Wurman and his son did not have a family connection to Chaim Wurman. They were shot because of the similarity of their family names.

The Gestapo appeared in the camp in the afternoon and arrested 10 people under the pretext that they were rich Jews: Shimshon-Shlomo Himelbla, Leibl Lajcter, Chaim Adler, Shimshon Waserman, Shmuel Flig, Yokhoved Herszberg, Shmuel-Elihu Wajnberg, Leon Barensztajn (from Lodz), Leon Barensztajn (from Warsaw), Sholem Morgensztern (Lublin).

A number of them were later brought to the camp severely beaten and they handed over the money before their deaths.

Anshel Krumholc's son escaped from the camp on the same afternoon, jumping from the roof of a camp building, which was reported. He was chased and shot. The Gestapo immediately took his father. That day, the 8^th of Nisen 5704 [1^st of April 1944], 30 men were shot in a grove near Skrent.

Of the 17 escapees, Danerfeld, the Rubensztajn brothers, Yosef Zanersztern and the rascal Hershele Braner returned.

When Krasnik already was free, Chaim Wurman was still alive. As Faygele Twordogura said, she received a message from him on Sunday the 30^th of July that in the morning, Monday, he would come to the city. But in the morning, the bad news arrived that Chaim was dead.

The remainder of the German Wehrmacht was rampaging in the area and Chaim voluntarily reported to take part in the liquidation of the German troops and he fell as a hero in a clash with the enemy.

In May 1944 the wagon driver Shmuel Wajsbart drove out of the camp accompanied by a German and Ukrainian to buy food items from a peasant. He took them to the village of Pasieka and there he gave then into the hands of the partisans. The German and the Ukrainian guards were killed by the partisans. They took Shmuel into their division where he fought at the liberation of Krasnik. He later entered the regular Polish military and fell in the battle near Warsaw.

Kowel was occupied by the Red Army. Some times in the stillness of the night we would hear – when placing our ears to the ground – how the cannons were banging.

During the early days, the camp mostly filled the orders of the S.S. and the civilian German population (furniture for the German schools, etc.). Now we performed services for the Wehrmacht. Soldiers would come to us directly from the front. Often the soldier took the plane and stood working at a workshop near a Jew. He told us in secret that the war was lost, that he always had been an opponent of Hitler, he was a social democrat and so on.

The front in Kowel lasted for several months. The Red Army renewed its offensive in the sector in July.

Outside the camp at Djiko Street at the river, Zelig Hirszon (Zelig Garber [tanner]) worked tanning pelts for the camp. Through him a person (for the camp) and a person (chosen by the partisan division) would take care of all matters between the groups in the camp and the partisans.

The remaining camp comrades from his group received letters from Chaim Wurman

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in which he wrote about the preparations by the partisans to take us in and even about their readiness to save us at the last minute from our existence in the camp.

Yehoshele Markowicz summoned Faygele Twordogura from the women's barracks in July and showed her a note from Chaim Wurman, in which he wrote: “Be ready, we are coming to you.”

On Shabbos, the 22^nd of July, we were informed that at four o'clock in the morning the people would be taken out on foot toward the west. The Germans could no longer make use of the trains. The Jews from Skrent were brought to us. Through the intervention of Zelig Garber we were informed of the contact with the partisan division about our marching out [of the camp].

In the afternoon – a second announcement that we should prepare at once; we would march out of the camp at 10 o'clock at night. We again sent a messenger to the liaison officer.

We prepared our bundles, in which were found only the most needed and lightest things. The majority decided not to go far on the road; at the first grove – to escape. We taught the Jews [not from Krasnik] that they needed to run in the direction of the villages that are located to the left of the highway that led to the Vistula [river]. The villages were under the influence of the Armia Ludowa [partisan group set up by the Polish Workers' Party, the communists] (Zarzecze and the area). The partisan division with which we were in contact was located there. On the contrary, the villages on the right side were under the influence of the A.K. [Armia Krajowa – Home Army] and other rightist groupings.

A quarrel arose. Some believed that we should rip open the gate and begin to escape. Others believed in the aid of the partisans. Our nerves were very taut. In the morning we received a message that the Gestapo had packed and was ready to leave.

The prisoners were taken out of the camp at 10 o'clock at night, arranged in a column. Only Yehoshua Twordogura, who because of an injured foot could not walk, remained.

One of the group that had contact with the partisans asked him to watch the courtyard of the camp and to wait until the partisans arrive and to inform them in which direction the prisoners had been taken. But no one came.

The night was very black. The air was steamy; it was preparing to rain. Sweat poured from us. At the brickworks – thick trees. There was a shot. The column broke apart. People mostly ran in the direction of the trees. It became apparent that this was not a forest, but a fence of living trees (a hedge), in addition intertwined with barbed wire. The shooting increased. We pushed ourselves through the fencing and we fell from a height. The area inside of the fencing was significantly lower than the area outside; because of this, Shmuel Minc's wife Tema broke a foot while running.

On the 28^th of July the Red Army marched into Krasnik. One hundred and two people from the camp returned, the majority from the villages ruled by the Armia Ludowa.

Those who ran in the direction of Dzierzkowicz did not return, for example: Daniel Tenenbaum, Moshele Bermanzak and others.

Six Jews fell on the spot from the shooting while escaping, among them: Ovadye Teper and Moshele Szif's son. The other prisoners were taken to the camp in Plaszow (near Krakow).

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