Nikolai Malagon
Record of Questioning of Witness
City of Zaporozh'ye, March 18, 1978
[Interrogation of] Malagon, Nikolai Petrovich, born in 1919, native and resident
of the village of Novo-Petrovka, Berdyansk Rayon, Zaporozhe
Oblast', Ukrainian, citizen of the USSR, manual worker,
married.
Most probably he was a Pole, because he spoke Polish well. The
commander of our squad was Brovt, I do not remember his first name
and patronymic; he was a teacher by profession and lived before the
war in the Volga area. The commanders of the other companies were
likewise Germans.
In the Trawniki camp it was explained to us that
we were to be trained for service in the German army to guard
camps. Two or three weeks after their arrival at the Trawniki camp
all four companies of war prisoners gave a pledge of loyalty. A
German officer read the text of the pledge, a translator translated
and then each war prisoner signed his name under the text of the
pledge and left a finger print.
The pledge said something like the
following: "We war prisoners enter voluntarily into the German 'SS'
troops and will defend the interests of Great Germany". Then we
learned that we were to be trained to become wachmans, i.e. guards
or sentries. At first we wore our own clothing, then we were given
the uniform of Belgian soldiers, a sometime later we were all given
a special uniform: a black suit /trousers and jacket/, a black
overcoat with grey collar and cuffs and black forage caps. We were
also given buttons on which was engraved a skull and crossed bones.
These buttons were sewn to the cap.
In the camp we were trained by
the company commanders; we were mainly engaged in drill exercises.
We walked about the streets, sang German songs and at the same time
were given military drill training. We did not attend shooting
practice. We were not given weapons during training, but during
this time we studied the parts of a German rifle. After having
completed my training in the Trawniki camp, I was given the rank of
"wachman". I remained in the Trawniki camp from October-November
1941 to March 1942 and ten, together with ten other wachmans, we
were sent to the small town of Zamoscie, where we guarded the
property of a colonel.
After a month we returned to the Trawniki camp, but of the four
companies of guards, nobody was left except the servicing
personnel. As I learned later, part of the guards had been sent to
the Treblinka concentration camp and the rest to the
Belzec and
Lublin camps. After some time I was also sent to the Lublin camp
where a team of guards (wachman) was being collected. After about
five days some 50 men were assembled and we went to Warsaw where we
took on guard duty for an entire train, the cars of which contained
Jews: men, women and children.
At that time I was armed with a
French rifle with about 30 cartridges in it. Our team was headed by
a certain Komarkin, the first name and patronymic of whom I do not
know, but he spoke Polish well. We brought the train with the Jews
to the Treblinka camp, which was situated near the station of
Treblinka on Polish territory. A one-track railroad extended from
the railroad station to the camp. Some of the train's cars were
driven into the territory of the camp and part remained at the
station.
When we arrived to the camp, other guards were already in the
cordon and these began to receive the Jews we had brought. From
this day I started my service in the Treblinka camp. This camp was
created by the Germans with the express purpose of destroying
citizens of Jewish nationality. I saw that trains carrying citizens
of Jewish nationality: men, women, children, old man and woman
arrived regularly at the camp. These citizens were driven into a
special barrack, where they removed all their cothing and threw
their valuables into specially placed suitcases. Then they were
chased naked to the gas chambers through special passages made of
barbed wire covered with pine branches. Pipes carrying exhaust gas
from running diesel motors were installed in the gas chambers and
the people inside perished. The dead were then thrown into special
pits and later burnt on pyres.
This work was performed by special teams composed of individuals of
Jewish nationality. In this camp there was also a so-called
"infirmary" which was situated near the barrack where the people
arriving undressed and not far from the unloading area. The
infirmary was in appearance an area fenced in by barbed wire which
as camouflaged with pine branches. In this area there was a pit;
there were no other constructions on the on the territory of the
infirmary. Those among the newly arrived were placed in the
infirmary who could not reach by themselves the barracks in which
they undressed and gave away their valuables.
The principle worker
in the infirmary was a man by the last name of Rebeka, I do not
know his first name and patronymic; he resembled a Jew. This was
the man who exterminated in the infirmary the citizens who were
ailing and could not walk without help. Rebeka sometimes boasted
that he worked so hard the barrel of his sub-machine gun had become
red.
I did not participate personally in the shooting of the Jews
brought in, but was only in the cordon, took part in the unloading
of the Jews from the train cars, and mostly, together with the
team, prepared pine and fir branches that camouflaged the barbed
wires, a single line of which extended around the entire camp, and
the wire of which were made the passages leading from the barracks
to the gas chambers. The barbed wire around the so-called infirmary
was similarly camouflaged with branches.
I remained in the Treblinka camp at least three or four months and
saw that at least one trainload of citizens of Jewish nationality
arrived there every day and were then exterminated in the gas
chambers and in the infirmary. During this time many Jews died
there, but I cannot state the exact number. There were cases when
the Jews brought to the camp for extermination made armed
resistance: shot from pistols or threw grenades. There was no
rioting among the prisoners during my time of service in the
Treblinka camp. I heard that some sort of revolt had taken place,
but at that time I was no longer employed in the camp.
The Treblinka camp had no accomodations in which to keep the
prisoners brought there, because those that arrived were
immediately exterminated. On the territory of the camp there were
only two barracks in which the working teams lived. I can draw an
approximate plan of the Treblinka camp which I request to be
attached to the present report of the interrogation. On this plan I
only cannot determine the location of the countries of the world.
I met guard Fedorenko, I do not recall his first name and his
patronymic, in the Trawniki as well as in the Treblinka camps. I
met him only seldom, because he served in another platoon. I
remember well his person and therefore can identify him on a
photograph. In the Trawniki camp Fedorenko was also trained to be a
guard (wachman) and wore a special "SS" uniform. After he had
completed his training in the Trawniki camp, Fedorenko was given
the title of wachman (guard). Each wachman was given 10 marks per
month for tobacco. I cannot easily say how Fedorenko came to be in
the Trawniki camp undergoing training for the duties of a wachman,
because I did not speak to him about this.
I did not meet Fedorenko
in the Chelm camp and therefore I cannot say from which camp
precisely he was sent to be trained in the Trawniki camp. I also
met Fedorenko in the Treblinka camp, but I cannot at present
remember if he was employed in this camp or brought there Jewish
citizens for extermination. I remember Fedorenko only with the rank
of wachman, and I do not know whether he was promoted to higher
ranks and what was the attitude of the German authorities toward
him. I find it difficult to say whether Fedorenko participated in
the extermination of citizens of Jewish nationality in the
Treblinka camp because I was not present at this. After the
Treblinka camp in 1943 I did not meet Fedorenko again and his
subsequent fate is unknown to me.
When the prisoners were brought to the Treblinka camp, the trains
were unloaded by Germans and guards with the rank of oberwachman,
zugwachman who chased the prisoners from the cars with whips and
pistols, beat them and shot at them. I hesitate to say whether
Fedorenko participated or not in such actions, because I did not
see this. I also did not see Fedorenko shoot down prisoners in the
barracks or near the gas chambers. When the trains carrying the
Jews arrived, the guards were usually in cordon formation, and the
Jews were escorted to the barracks by Germans, while the Jews were
exterminated by the working teams under the supervision of Germans.
Near the diesel engines by the gas chambers there worked a guard
(wachman) by the name of Nikolay Marchenko, and wachman Rebeka
worked in the so-called "infirmary". I remember that Marchenko wore
a leather jacket and carried a pistol. These two guards did
exterminate prisoners, who else among the guards took part in the
extermination of prisoners I find difficult to say. When one of
the prisoners on the unloading area threw a grenade, one of the
guards was killed. The other guards standing in cordon formation
immediately retaliated against the prisoners who had thrown the
grenade, that is they shot them then and there. Who of the guards
participated in this action and was Fedorenko among them I do not
know.
The guards with the rank of oberwachman, zugwachman, and
rotenwachman were closer to the Germans, they participated in the
unloading of the Jews from the train cars, and in doing so they
threw people out of the train cars and shot some of them right
there. Together with the Germans they also escorted the prisoners
to the barrack where these removed their clothes and handed over
their valuables. I cannot personally say how many prisoners were
exterminated daily in the camp, but the camp had no facilities to
accomodate the prisoners. All the prisoners who arrived were
exterminated on the day of arrival in the gas chambers. The bodies
were thrown into pits and later burned. At least a trainload of
people arrived everyday, but how many doomed persons it contained I
find it difficult to say.
I do not know whether Fedorenko was given
the rank of oberwachman and rotenwachman; I did not see him in
these ranks. I also did not personally see Fedorenko take a
personal part in the extermination of prisoners in the gas chambers
or in the "infirmary". I was not in the camp at the time the
prisoners rioted and therefore I cannot say whether Fedorenko took
part or not in the quelling of this riot. About March-April 1943 I
started service at Oswiecim and then at Buchenwald.
I do not know how the Treblinka camp was liquidated and where
Fedorenko was sent on service after that. I did not meet Fedorenko
after the war. I cannot speak in detail of the activity of
Fedorenko in the Trawniki and Treblinka camps because we served in
different platoons and companies, also met only a few times and
moreover were not in close relationship. I was not present at any
action of Fedorenko and other guards toward the prisoners and
therefore I cannot say whether Fedorenko also stole from the
prisoners or not.
I cannot add anything more concerning the questions asked. The
testimony is written down correctly and was read personally by
witness Malagon, N.P.
A map-diagram of the Treblinka camp is appended to the report.
The interrogation was completed at 1.00 p.m.
Interrogation was conducted by Senior Investigator of the
Procuratorate of the Zaporozh'ye Region, Senior Councillor of
Justice Ya . V. Litvinenko
The xerox copy is true: Chief of USSR Procuratorate's Office G.M.
Shvydak
[Transcription note: Malagon's map and explanations of characters
used within it are included with the testimony. knm]
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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Fedorenko, Marchenko, the Infirmary, killing the Jews...