Jewish Woman Describes Four-day Extermination of Jews in Radom Ghetto

An eye-witness account of Nazi atrocities on Jews in the Radom ghetto which was “liquidated” by the German occupational authorities in Poland, was released today by the American Representation of Polish Jewry which is affiliated with the World Jewish Congress. The report comes from a Jewish woman who spent three years in Poland under the Nazis and succeeded in escaping at the end of 1942.

“On a Sunday shortly before my escape,” the woman testified, “the inhabitants of the ghetto were in the streets, for Sunday was a day of rest and the factories were closed. Suddenly they noticed that Germans had arrived and had set up great searchlights in the middle of the streets. Among the numerous Gestapo men there was a lot of unusual activity. The ghetto was seized with panic. There were those who said that it was now our turn, for we knew what had been happening in other towns. But no one wanted to believe this. A little group of people got out of the ghetto and hid in the factories where they were employed. After a few hours, permission to leave the ghetto was denied. A ring of German gendarmes guarded all the street exits.

“At eight o’clock a military guard arrived in the ghetto. At one in the morning all the street lamps were turned off at once. A cannonade began and terrifying whistles were heard. I and several other Jews were hidden in the factory where I worked. I knew nothing of what was happening, I heard only shouts and shots.

“The screams were so terrifying that we, who were hidden, felt we would go out of our minds. This went on for some hours. When all was quiet we asked the Polish watchman to go as near as possible to the ghetto and find out what had happened. When he returned he said the Germans were not letting anybody inside.

“At dawn, through chinks in the window shutters, we saw the Germans driving crowds of Jews along. It was a terrible sight – women, children, men, driven like cattle towards the railway station. Among them I saw my own sister. I saw a German tear her two-year old child cut of her arms and fling him away. Those who could not run were shot through the head.

NAZIS DON’T PERMIT IDENTIFICATION OF BODIES OF JEWS

“My factory was not far from the station. I saw the Jews packed into trucks, and they were ordered to throw out the bundles they had taken with them. This went on until seven a.m. The trucks were scaled and left standing. All day it was quiet, but at midnight it began again. This extermination of the Jews at Radon went on for four days. The bundles of things were carried off to special warehouses. Those shot were buried in a common grave in the park. There were 400 killed altogether.

“The Germans did not permit anyone to identify the bodies – so to this day no one knows who was shot. I myself do not know what happened to my sister and brother-in-law and their children. Among those driven off were members of the Jewish Council.

“After the deportation of the Jews the two old ghettos were closed down. The remaining 3,500 Jews were transferred to two small streets, Zytnia and Brudna. It is difficult to describe the conditions in which these Jews lived. They were compelled to work twelve hours a day. The Germans stopped calling us by our names, and referred to us by numbers. Woe unto him who failed to answer to his number. I did not work long in these conditions. I found a means of escaping. I must add that during the period of the deportations many Jews fled to the forest and joined the Polish underground organization.”