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Joseph Gringlas - January 14, 1993

they marched you to Gleiwitz.

Yeah, all night we marched-was marching into Gleiwitz. And I-wewalked and walked, walked, it, it was snow, cold. And came into Gleiwitz,in the morning my eyes opened up. It was already daylight from-they walkedall night long. My eyes opened up and I could see again. And then when I couldsee I saw again what happened. Gleiwitz was like a place, a gathering together,all from other camps around into Gleiwitz. To waiting for-to, probably theywaited for trains to load us away from the, Poland. So went to-at the barrack,there was barrack a lot of people. And I, and I opened the, by the door you'rewalking in and I saw something happened terrible. When you, was so many inthat barrack, when you get in they would go on top of you. There was no wayto-there was no room to stay there. So I got out fast with my brother. I saidif you go in through that trap, on the top of you because there's so manype...you know, like people inside the barrack. So we stayed, went to the toilet,stayed in the toil....It was just a little bit away from the cold weatheroutside. And I was there, I, I, I think we stayed a few-and they get it all,they came so many, all the camps around whatever it was they put them intoGleiwitz. In middle of the night they had the trains ready, to have, havewagon trains. And they came in, it was the SS ca...came in the barracks andscream, "Raus, raus, raus, raus!" Just in the daylight and, and my brotherwas hit be...one of the guns in the back, he was bleeding. He got hit. Andthey put us in the open train, opening. But it's, they filled us up like herringin that because they, when there's more people to get into the trains. Andwe-as the train started going out from Gleiwitz, they took out the-this wasthe, two-two and a half weeks on the train, without food, to explain...

Towards Germany...

without drinks. The only thing what we ate is snow that camedown on us. And that train they put us so many people in that any, any personwas in the middle was just-was finished. On top of the other. And all thetime on the train I stayed at the edge of the train, holding on, on the edge.And that was at night and day like this. After traveling for a few place...afew hours, they suddenly stop because SS prob...it was on top SS, gua...withmachine guns. And they stopped probably they had to go down and change guards,I don't know. And then suddenly on the sta...one of the station they openedup the, opened up the train and they throw bread from the top down on theground. You can imagine what happened, what I saw. I was in the back, whenI told you the back holding on. The front, behind me they were out, goingout grabbing the bread. As soon they grabbed the bread, it went a lot of out,grabbing the bread, the ma...eh, hits from the guns of the SS, killed themright on the spot. There was a play for them, to, they knew we were hungry,we didn't, we weren't fed for, for a few days. They thought the people arenot, you know you're hungry, you run out to get a piece of bread. And themachi...you hear "drrr", machine gun, all of them finished. So we knew whatthey're playing around. And they don't want to feed you, they want to starveyou to death. Finally this, this trip went through-in Gleiwitz it took us,like going to, in, Gleiwitz is not far if you go up north, northwest and youin Germany, through train. But probably it was bombarded aboard, they tookus to Czechoslovakia, from Czechoslovakia to Germany ???. One time in themorning when the train going by and I saw a big bridge on top, people goingto work. Eh, the people they ??? people in Czechoslovakia at that time. Andthey probably had lunches with them, going to work in the morning, they throwtheir apples and chocolate and bread on top of us. And they were throwingus to get-they knew exactly what inside is, what the people that-us-from thecamps transporting. So they throw the, whatever they took for them, with themselvesthe lunches for them, they throw it into us to feed us, to give us the food.And as soon they throw that food and the ne...and the Germans saw that theywere hitting, shoot...uh, kill...uh, shooting, hitting them to the bridge,they shouldn't do that. And then it came on the top of us, a piece of bread,apple or a chocolate. That were the chocolate people.