Archive/File: holocaust/poland/reinhard/belzec cornides.001 Last-Modified: 1994/10/26 "On 30 August 1942 a German non-commissioned officer, Wilhelm Cornides, was in Rzeszow, on his way to Cholm by train. In his diary he recorded that a railway policeman in Rzeszow had told him that 'a marble plaque with golden letters will be erected on 1 September, because then the city will be free of Jews.' The policeman also told him that trains filled with Jews 'pass almost daily through the shunting yards, are dispatched immediately on their way, and return swept clean, most often the same evening.' Some 6,000 Jews from Jaroslaw, the policeman added, 'were recently killed in one day.' Cornides then took the regular passenger train from Rzeszow to Cholm, reaching Rawa Ruska on 31 August, and recording in his diary, while staying in the 'German House' there: At ten minutes past noon I saw a transport train run into the station. On the rood and running boards sat guards with rifles. One could see from a distance that the cars were jammed full of people. I turned and walked along the whole train: it consisted of thirty-eight cattle cars and one passenger car. In each of the cars there were at least sixty Jews (in the case of the enlisted men's or prisoner transports these wagons would hold forty men; however, the benches had been removed and one could see that those who were locked in here had to stand pressed together). Some of the doors were opened a crack, the windows criss-crossed with barbed wire. Among the locked-in people there were a few men and most of those were old; everything else was women, girls and children. Many children crowded at the windows and the narrow door openings. The youngest were surely not more than two years old. As soon as the train halted, the Jews attempted to pass out bottles in order to get water. The train, however, was surrounded by SS guards, so that no one could come near. At that moment a train arrived from the direction of Jaroslaw; the travellers streamed toward the exit without bothering about the transport. A few Jews who were busy loading a car for the armed forces waved their caps to the locked-in people. I talked to a policeman on duty at the railway station. Upon my question as to where the Jews actually came from, he answered: 'Those are probably the last ones from Lvov. That has been going on now for five weeks uninterruptedly. In Jaroslaw they let remain only eight, no one knows why.' I asked: 'How far are they going?' Then he said: 'To Belzec.' 'And then?' 'Poison.' I asked 'Gas?' He shrugged his shoulders. Then he said only: 'At the beginning they always shot them, I believe.' Here in the German House I just talked with two soldiers from front-line prisoner-of-war camp 325. They said that these transports had lately passed through every day, mostly at night. Yesterday a seventy-car one is supposed to have gone through. From Rawa Ruska, Cornides took the afternoon train to Cholm. The things he learned on this journey were so extraordinary that he made three separate entries in his diary within an hour, the first at 5.30 pm. When we boarded at 4.40 pm an empty transport had just arrived. I walked along the train twice and counted fifty-six cars. On the doors had been written in chalk: 60, 70, once 90, occasionally 40 - obviously the number of Jews that were carried inside. In my compartment I spoke with a railway policeman's wife who is currently visiting here husband here. She says these transports are now passing through daily, sometimes also with German Jews. Yesterday six children's bodies were found along the track. The woman thinks that the Jews themselves had killed these children - but they must have succumbed during the trip. The railway policeman who comes along as train escort joined us in our compartment. He confirmed the woman's statements about the children's bodies which were found along the track yesterday. I asked: 'Do the Jews know then what is happening with them? The woman answered: 'Those who come from far won't know anything, but here in the vicinity they know already. They attempt to run away then, if they notice that someone is coming for them. So, for example, most recently in Cholm where three were shot on the way through the city.' 'In the railway documents these trains run under the name of resettlement transports,' remarked the railway policeman.... Camp Belzec is supposed to be located right on the railway line and the woman promised to show it to me when we pass it. [...] 6.20 pm. We passed camp Belzec. Before then, we travelled for some time through a tall pine forest. When the woman called, 'Now it comes,' one could see a high hedge of fir trees. A strong sweetish odour could be made out distinctly. 'But they are stinking already,' says the woman. 'Oh nonsense, it is only the gas,' the railway policeman said laughing. Meanwhile - we had gone on about 200 metres - the sweetish odour was transformed into a strong smell of something burning. 'That is from the crematory,' says the policeman. A short distance farther the fence stopped. In front of it, one could see a guard house with an SS post. A double track led into the camp. One track branched off from the main line, the other ran over a turntable from the camp to a row of sheds some 250 metres away. A frieght car happened to stand on the table. Several Jews were busy turning the disc. SS guards, rifle under the arm, stood by. One of the sheds was open; one could distinctly see that it was filled with bundles of clothes to the ceiling. As we went on, I looked back one more time. The fence was too high to see anything at all. The woman says that sometimes, while going by, one could see smoke rising from the camp, but I could notice nothing of the sort. My estimate is that the camp measures about 800 by 400 metres." (Gilbert, 92-95) Work Cited Gilbert, Martin. Final Journey: The Fate of the Jews in Nazi Germany. New York: Mayflower Books, 1979
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.