THE OPERATIONS OF THE SS UNITS
Here I describe when the German army reached us.
My parents decide to return to Lodz. In the three days of the escape, we managed to go about 30 km. We are not alone. Apart from my family, who were unable to reach Warsaw, there were others, thousands of Jews who decided to return.
The look was unrealistic. I saw the main road running from Lodz to Warsaw. The German army, which stood on the outskirts of Warsaw, was stationed on this main road until the end of the horizon, covered it with the mechanized army of powerful tanks, artillery guns and truckloads. In Poland in those days, it was not known that the German army was preparing for war in the full sense of the word.
The rows of tanks, lined up on one side of the road and next to them the tank crews, were visible up to the horizon. In the middle of the road stood squads of the SS (animals), engaged in various and strange methods. Tortured Jews, who were among those returning to Lodz.
Here I come to the passage when the German army overtook us. My parents decide to return to Lodz. In the three days of the escape, we managed to go about 30 km. We are not alone. Apart from my family, who were unable to reach Warsaw, there were others, thousands of Jews who decided to return.
The look was unrealistic. I saw the main road running from Lodz to Warsaw. The German army, which stood on the outskirts of Warsaw, was stationed on this main road until the end of the horizon, covered it with the mechanized army of powerful tanks, artillery guns and truckloads. In Poland in those days, it was not known that the German army was preparing for war in the full sense of the word.
The rows of tanks, lined up on one side of the road and next to them the tank crews, were visible up to the horizon. In the middle of the road stood squads, squads of the SS (animals), engaged in various and strange methods. Tortured Jews, who were among those returning to Lodz.
Here I first saw, what a person can do without a shameless teacher. I saw with my own eyes the terrible atrocities that the SS soldiers did in broad daylight. Mirrors in public, for the sadistic pleasure of many German army soldiers. The SS units "treated" especially the Hasidic Jews who returned to the city. They spread out vertebrae - vertebrae. Each squad has a special, different role of torture. First, first groups forced the devotees to take off all their clothing and remain dressed only in their underwear and tassel vest. This act was to shame them in their own eyes.
I saw older Jews being forced to take off their clothes. Some are already standing naked with only tassels. There were squads of SS men who forced them to dance for fun. There were also other squads of the SS, who whipped at the bare buttocks of the old Jews who were forced to crawl on four.
There were squads that "shaved" with the help of tweezers, the beards or heads of the followers. Tear hair after hair, and in an "artistic" way create the swastika, on the victim's head or face.
There was a SS unit that forced Jews to crawl into a pipe for a water passage under the road. The title of the pipe is about 60-80 cm. Squeeze them into the tube, with a whip or stick. On one side they were crammed in and on the other side of the road, another SS group, did not allow them to get out of it. Most of them suffocated inside the pipe.
My mother, who was born in Vienna, Austria, managed to disguise our identity in her excellent German. She occasionally spoke to an officer or soldier standing next to their destroyer tool. I think the Germans did not suspect we came as Jews. Even the fact that my father had no beard and no followers' clothes it helped. Thus we passed unscathed, on the way back to Lodz