Herman Marczak - May 12, 1982
Being Transferred to Skarżysko-Kamienna
So we made a--we have to--so they, they send out the pre...people cards that they should report to a medical examination. And I got a card too, so I went. When I went to the medical examination I got another card I should report to this and this place right away. So I went there and I came there they didn't let me go anymore, they, they kept me there. They were a Jewish prison, and the ghetto was not real. The prison consisted from rooms and just houses that Polacks used to live, you know, and, and that--they kept us and they accumulated a contingent of about fifteen hundred people, or whatever, and they kept us there. And after giving us something--a pair of new pants, a pair of new wooden shoes and things like this--they put us in those trains again and they took us there.
Now, they took away all you belongings...
No, they--I didn't--they didn't even let me go back home. When I reported they kept me there and that was it.
Oh.
So, then the train brought us in to Skarżysko-Kamienna that was in Poland--in central Poland in an area, like I said, about three hundred kilometers away from us. And there was already a large camp, only Jews. And in those factories were working Polacks. It was managed by Germans--by German foreman and German supervisors. But the work was consisted from Polacks and from people from this area, in, in, in the camp. And, uh...
Do you--was there a name for this factory?
Yes, it was HASAG Corps, HASAG. It was--that was a subsidiary from a German armament manufacturer.
HASAG Corps?
HASAG Corps, yeah. And we came there, and they took us to the factories and everybody was put away by machine and they, and they taught us how to, to handle--the most of us hadn't seen factories like this before in our lives. And they had like, like here in the automobile industry, you know. You, you could, you...
Assembly line?
Not assemble line--you could, you could, you could comprehend in a very short period of time what they want you to do.
Mm-hm.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn