Testimony of survivor Wilhelm Hollender

A new document in the digital archive dedicated to the history of the Jewish community of Czarny Dunajec is the unfinished account of Holocaust survivor Wilhelm Hollender, submitted in 1947 to the Voivodeship Jewish Historical Commission in Kraków. Wilhelm Hollender, who after the war was the production manager of many famous Polish films, was born 102 years ago (on September 24, 1922) in Czarny Dunajec.

His story is described in a separate entry, and the new document concerns his account of the camp in Szebnie. The document shows that in 1943 Wilhelm was in the working ghetto (known as ghetto A) in Przemyśl. It is not known how he ended up there, probably after escaping to the east after the outbreak of the war he reached the area around Przemyśl. In September 1943 the Germans ordered the liquidation of the ghetto, some prisoners were sent to the camp in Auschwitz, some were shot on the spot and some were sent to labor camps. Wilhelm, with a transport of other prisoners, ended up in the forced-labor camp Szebnie (about 100 km west of Przemyśl, near Jasło). According to his account, everyone worked there in their profession, but it is not known what position Wilhelm himself held. The account ends after describing the mass searches that took place about a week and a half after arriving at the camp. The document ends with the sentence “Unfinished testimony, the person testifying left.”

Below is the entire account written on February 26, 1947 in Kraków.

Protocol of testimony submitted to the Voivodeship Jewish Historical Commission in Kraków, on February 26, 1947.

Person taking the statement: Dr. L. Eichhornowa

Person giving the statement: Wilhelm Holender, born in Czarny Dunajec on 24.IX.1922.

Szebnie

On September 3 (1943) the liquidation of ghettos A and B in Przemyśl began. On September 3 (non-working), and on September 4 (working). Only 150 people remained as the Räumungskommando (ghetto cleansing commando). About 1,000 of us left. They loaded us 80 into wagons at the Przemyśl station, with the understanding that we were going to a camp, where we would work in similar workshops to those in Przemyśl so far, i.e. shoemakers, tailors, etc., the so-called Reparsturwerkstätten (repair workshops), where things stolen in the ghettos were repaired. The wagons were sealed, the windows were wired up, and we left at 3 p.m. We arrived at Moderówka at about 12 midnight. The SS and Ukrainian guards were waiting for us, and there were so many of them that they tightly packed our entire transport, lining up, counting, beating and kicking us. We made the journey on foot, running, and being pushed, so that one woman who could not keep up was shot in a ditch.

After arriving at the camp, we were lined up in the square in front of the Wachblok, women were separated from men, children were left with their mothers. Then they began to let us out one by one for a search. Some of the OD men offered to keep valuables or money for the time of the search, but later they did not give us anything. During the search, they took our luggage and coats. This search lasted several hours, then they led us into the camp. The men were placed in block 9, where there were those who had arrived from Bochnia on the same day. The women were placed in the women's block. Jews were separated from Poles, separated by barbed wire, but they met on the camp paths. On the first day there was a lack of organization due to the strong influx of new arrivals. We got food in the morning, a loaf weighing 1 kg 60 dkg for 12 people and black soup, about 3 soup. Those who had money could buy food from fellow Polish prisoners, who were allowed to send packages. We paid 500 zlotys for a loaf of bread at that time, while the market price was 12 zlotys.

On the second or third day there was a roll call, on the order of Grzymek (Josef Grzimek). He gave a speech in which he assured: "I will be like a father to you, I will set up a boarding house here for you, but you must work and work some more." Then he approached everyone, asked about their profession and chose a lawyer from Przemyśl, Petersil, whom he made his secretary and who went with him and wrote down people. When he didn't like someone, he assigned them to menial work. Then everyone started working in their profession.

A week or a week and a half after our arrival, a roll call was called during work before noon, which lasted until 2 a.m. The square was surrounded by armed Ukrainian guards, after which searches were ordered. There were 3 boxes in the square, and people were given 10 minutes to voluntarily surrender all the valuables they had with them. People were not very eager to give it back. Then the Germans started searching and in the first few minutes they took out a prisoner in one shoe, showing that they had found 500 złoty in the other shoe and to scare the rest of the prisoners they shot him in the middle of the square in front of everyone. Then they were given another 10 minutes time to voluntarily surrender and only then did people surrender everything they had on them, driven by fear. Some buried valuables in the ground or gave them to Ukrainian guards, which were later searched by the Germans and some of these things were taken from them.

Unfinished testimony, the testifier left.

Wilhelm Holender