Caps Off . . .. Zenon Rozanski

was an enormous capital in the camp. I reached into my pocket . . .

      “I have just a few for you here,” I said, and I gave him the gift which I had just received a short while ago.

      Without a word, he put them into his pocket. But when he walked away, he muttered briefly,

      “Okay!”

      I still retained him.

      “However, I have still another favor to ask you.”

      “What’s that?”

      “My friend Ali is working with you. Perhaps you could let him work at my sieve . . .”

      “Who is he?”

      “The tall one from Danzig.”

      “Good.”

      After lunch I worked with Ali. Toward evening, the news spread among us that during the course of the day, a transport of Jews had arrived in the Punishment Company (SK) from the recently conquered city of Lemberg. Therefore, the work ended half an hour earlier. After that the Kommandoführer ordered a lineup of the Kapos, the Vorarbeiter and all prisoners who had a green corner on their outfit, which means the professional criminals. At the end he gave a brief speech:

      “Because of good behavior you have been appointed Vorarbeiter. I do not have to explain to you what your duty is. You had time and opportunity enough to acquaint yourselves with it during your stay in the camp. The Jews are the ones whose supervisors you will be. In my commando, I only want to have Aryans . . . Understood?”

      “Yes! Certainly!” It resounded in one voice.

      After that we went into the camp. The new VIPs were already carrying the badges of their power: Clubs . . . After we arrived in the square of the SK, we were lined up separately near the gate while Gerlach called the Blockältesten. Immediately following came the order:

      “New arrivals to line up for roll call.”

      No one knew what that meant. This was, after all, the first roll call in these people’s lives. Confused, they circled around in the square and did not know where and how they should line up.

      Gerlach smiled with satisfaction and gave a signal to the Blockältesten. He in turn signaled to the Stubendienst and to the Vorarbeiter.

      Like a pack of hounds, they rushed towards the unsuspecting newcomers. The clubs circled through the air and bounced off their heads. An indescribable shrieking and confusion began. Five hundred people began running around in the square, as if mad. They began to bounce into each other; they began to trample on those who had fallen to the ground, only trying to escape from the enraged VIPs. This worked according to the instructions of the “strategist” Gerlach. Within a space of a few meters, they drove everything forward, dealing blows right and left.