Isaac Engel - June 16 & 25, 1992
Beatings in Skarzysko
Mm-hm. [pause] What were the foremen like in Skarzysko? Were they--did people get beaten in Skarzysko?
Oh sure.
Do you remember any...anytime--did you get beaten?
Oh sure.
For what reason?
Oh, for little thing. First of all, they had in Skarzysko, they had Jewish police. Like the police from Zwoleń, policeman they brought in. Some of 'em they took it. Or whatever they need. They had Jewish police. They had police in the camp. [pause] And they had that ??? Polizei. I mean, factory police, which they used to go with them to the factor. And he was in charge of the, they gave the soup during lunchtime there, they gave the soup. He was in charge of it. He was giving out that. And uh, he was uh, well anything. If somebody did anything like wrong or something, he was beaten up by them.
Do you remember circumstances under which you were beaten?
Yes. I was beaten in the, in the, one time uh, I was uh, in Skarzysko. I was beaten by a Polack, by a Pole. He was the foreman there, a foreman. He was on a big rank and his name was ???, tall guy. And he, and uh, he beat a lot of people up. They did something wrong at work or something that--he beat me a few times. Almost for nothing. He didn't like it what we're doing, he had a little uh, whip like going around.
Were people beaten so badly that they died from it?
That's true. That was also true. Yes.
Was there a hospital there? An infirmary?
In Skarzysko?
Yeah.
There was a hospital there, but there was nobody there. Last--the last before I didn't remember there was a hospital altogether. There was a doctor, but he--we never saw a doctor. There was one doctor from the uh, from the prisoners, a Jewish doctor. Probably for the police and for these hierarchies in the camp. But uh, l...in Skarzysko at the last, when they built the barracks--before they built the barracks, they made one barrack a hospital. Why? People were start to get sick from typhoid. Typhoid fever. This wasn't uh, there were two kind typhoid. There were uh, they called it in Polish, was a typhus, typhoid ???. And typhus ???. A typhoid inside. And there was typha...typhoid from the outside, from the lice. From the lice and from that stuff. And they were carrying it, one after the other. And when somebody was sick for three days, they took 'em out and they shot 'em. Then he was shot. Because a guy--if he had a hundred, a hundred and who knows how many fever, he couldn't uh, he couldn't even walk. We had to walk a mile and a half to the factory. So, then people were afraid to stay in the barracks. Everybody wanted to live. So they went to the factory with the typhoid, while they were sick. So that was happened. A guy by the name ??? and, and guy by the name ???. They were two brother-in-laws. And one guy was in charge of the factory, in our factory ??? and he was the Meister. And he wasn't a bad guy. A German.
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