Freight trains jammed with Hungarian Jews have been arriving daily at the Oswiecim “death camp” in Poland since the middle of May, the Polish Government was informed today in a dispatch from underground observers.
The deportees, the underground message said, are gassed in two chambers-1,000 at a time – and their bodies incinerated in four crematoria and on open pyres. The Jews are not informed that they are being sent to their death, but are told, rather, that they are to be exchanged for German war prisoners held by the Allies.
An indication of the number of Jews who have arrived at Oswiecim can be gathered from the underground’s disclosure that a mound of baggage more than 300 yards long, over 200 yards wide, and five yards high is piled up on the platform of the Oswiecim railroad station. Each deportee is allowed to take along only 50 pounds of luggage.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
