Berek Rothenberg - May 20, 1984
Jewish Police in Camp
You said that another major cause of death in this uh, Skarżysko...
Skarżysko
...was because of the uh, Ukrainian and the...
Ukrainian and the Jewish policemans. They, they caused a lot of things because when they--where they kill a man or the other guy came to make a selection--and when he notified the Jewish police that he's arriving--because the Jewish policeman guard--they were guard, they were in charge inside in the camp. Was two kinds of Jewish policemans. Was one policemans where they were guard, where they were in charge in the camp, and one Jewish policeman was charged with each department where they walked out to work. I had a policeman--his name was Yosel, and he was in charge of us--the group. Uh, we were uh, seventy or eighty, a hundred, where we were working in the Granaten in this department.
How were people selected to be Jewish police?
They, they bought the jobs. They paid for these jobs. They went and then they try--like, from his town one became in the head ranks, like Krzepicki--Tupperma--he was from Radom and this boy uh, some rich boy came and he paid him, let's say, two thousand, three thousand zlotys and to become a policeman. So he thought that if we will be liquidated and those policemen will survive, and that...that's what they, they thought that uh, and they were ready to sacrifice even his own brother. When he was a policeman, he didn't know his own brother even. So, so he--they bought those jobs. And, and they thought that something--that, that Hitler or the Germans or the Nazis will liquidate every Jew on, on--of them, they will be the sele...they will survive. So it was only by my, my knowledge Krzepicki and Tepperman they were the worst--worse than the Nazis. So there's--they came selec...for selection, we--was a quota--we had to go out...outside. Everybody had to stay in the line--mostly was on Sunday. And they looked us over--we didn't know what to do--they didn't give us no soap to wash, they didn't give us no towel to, to wipe us off. And we tried a, a piece of rag to put on and make a shawl and to look good. And they which didn't look so good, sick or something, or didn't like the, the, the look, they mark down the number, right away they send him away to the ???. Was three, three--a A, B, C. They sent him to the C and over there they dig the holes and the--every Sunday--every Saturday they, they were shooting and, and killing the people over there.
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