109 - Bearing Witness - Deportation

NARRATOR The 1942 railcar in this exhibit is the type used to carry millions of Jews to their death. You may step through it or walk around it to the other side. Jews were commonly told they were going to “resettlement” when they were forced aboard the railcars and sent to the East. But the truth was different. Siegi Izakson: “Our destination was extermination.” NARRATOR Lea Krell Weems: "...Jews were rounded up, and my mother woke us up and said that we had to get dressed very quickly and that we could take a little bag...and that they didn't know where we were going...we marched to the train station, and it was a huge long train and thousands of people, it seemed to me, were already lined up..." NARRATOR Irving Berk: "It was a cattle car...that they carry butcher cows in. Nothing. No bathroom facilities. No nothing. They just stopped us at 90 people...we were scared to death. We were all squashed together. You can't move your feet..." NARRATOR Walter Kase: "...A lot of people died because we had very little air..." NARRATOR Mady Deutsch: "At night it was very cold...so we were huddling together to get a little bit warm, you know, warmth from other people." NARRATOR Joe Mincberg: “I did not know where I was going…I did not know where I was going. When I decided if I have to die, let me die my way. Either I get killed jumping from the train or some Pole will catch me and kill me or some German will kill me. At least I’ll know the place I died, so to say…” NARRATOR He jumped from a moving train destined for Treblinka. He was the only member of his family to survive. Eventually the trains came to a halt. Helen Colin: "When...they opened the two big doors from the freight train, we were awoken to a crazy house with barbed wires, with so many Germans with machine guns and an orchestra playing, a symphony orchestra playing of the inmates to distract us completely from everything...." NARRATOR In all likelihood the gates bore the German phrase: “Arbeit macht frei” — “Work sets you free.” Mady Deutsch: "...Then we were lined up, the women on one side and the men on the other side. We were separated right away...I started to walk in the direction that we were told to go...when we reached a certain point, there was this very elegant, handsome officer standing with a little stick like the baton of a conductor in his hand, and he would direct people to go to the left or to the right..." NARRATOR The promised “resettlement” was actually a killing center.

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Holocaust Museum Houston

Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors’ legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, we teach the dangers of hatred, prejudice, and apathy.

 

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