Free Outrage by Robert K. Tanenbaum Page A

as they were stripped and forced into the killing rooms.
Shema Yisrael adonai eloheinu adonai echad!
”
    “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One,” Giancarlo translated softly.
    “Yes, the Lord is our God,” Moishe said with a slight smile. “But for reasons known only to Him, He did not stop the evil done to His people in those years.”
    Moishe was quiet again. His eyes remained closed as his voice wavered. “The women did not shout very long … not long at all. In fact, from the time most of us arrived at the rail station to those final moments in the gas chambers, it was only two or three hours. That’s all it took to process and murder four or five hundred people at a time…. Men, women, children, they spared no one.”
    Moishe let the image linger before he went on. “For the Jews the guards had kept alive to work, there were many jobs around the camp. In general, these workers were treated better—even allowed to keep and use medicine they found on the poor souls chosen to die—and given more food. After all, they had to maintain their strength.”
    The old man cleared his throat. “But the very worst of the jobs was as a
Sonderkommando
, which means ‘special unit’ in German. And their primary responsibility was to dispose of thecorpses from the gas chambers.” The old man paused as he looked at the boys. “For a time, I was a
Sonderkommando
.”
    “How did you become a
Sonderkommando
?” Zak asked.
    “I was with my father when we were forced to strip and then herded toward those gas chambers past the smirking SS guards and Ukrainians who laughed and hit us with sticks to make us keep moving,” Moishe answered. “We had just about reached the building when a German officer, Hans Schultz, reached out and grabbed me by the arm…. I wanted to stay with my father and held on to his hand, but he pulled away and said, ‘Do not forget.’ And then he was gone into the building, and I never saw him again.”
    Moishe paused and dipped his head in sorrow as tears filled his eyes and began to stream down his cheeks. They sat in silence. “I apologize for the emotion,” he said finally, “but it happens sometimes and leaves me unable to speak.”
    “Do you want to continue some other time?” Karp suggested.
    “No, no, for heaven’s sake, I’m okay now,” the old man replied. “As I said, I never saw my father again. But I was spared not through some kindness, but because the Germans and their Ukrainian dogs did not want to do the dirty work. We worked in teams. Some cleaned out the killing rooms, the bodies so tightly packed that even when they were dead, there was no room to fall down. Rail tracks ran up to the back of the building; bodies were hauled out the rear doors and loaded on trolleys to be taken to pits, where other
Sonderkommandos
stacked them like cordwood for efficiency, then burned and buried them.”
    Sobelman sighed and it took a moment before he could continue. “But there were many jobs for the
Sonderkommandos
.Some gathered the hair in the shaving hut and sorted it by color and quality—most going to stuff mattresses, though the best was used for wigs. My job was to remove gold fillings from the teeth of the corpses before they were placed on the trolleys for the burial pits.”
    Zak scowled. “Why did the
Sonderkommandos
go along with this?”
    “Zak!” Giancarlo snapped. “That’s rude.”
    “No, no, it’s a legitimate question,” Moishe responded. He turned to Zak. “The simple answer is that we had no choice. It was do as we were told or be killed, or commit suicide—and there were those who chose either of those last two options as well. However, the urge to survive is very powerful. Some because they fear death. But for others, such as myself, it was with the hope that someday I might exact revenge on my family’s murderers, as well as carry out my father’s wish that I not forget, which is why I think it is important to tell you boys my