HOLOCAUST TESTIMONIES


Name of deponent: Rosa Felczer
Birth date: October 30, 1924
Birth place: Sosnowiec
Parents: Maks and Sara (maiden name Weiss) Felczer
Present Residence: ul. Katowicka 21, Chorzow
Occupation: Nurse, in Orphanage, ul. Katowicka 21, Chorzow


At the beginning of 1942, the Department of Health, located in the Centrale Judenrat in Sosnowiec, assigned me to Czarne Morze Czarne Morze is a village located two kilometers from the railway station in Kazimierz.

In Czarne Morze, there lived in approximately a dozen stone houses about 600 Jews displaced from Kazimierz, Germany and some poor persons from Strzemieszyce. Previously, Polish people had lived in the village, but who were moved into Jewish houses.

After the exchange of populations, there remained in the village a single Polish family, living in a separate house. In Czarne Morze there was a department of the Strzemieszyce Judenrat. The head of the Judenrate in Czarne Morze was Dawid Schmidt, representing the Centrale Judenrat in Sosnowiec. He lived in Sosnowiec and from there subordinated to himself Jewish population of the villages of Czarne Morze, Dandowka and Modrzejow.

Before Schmidt, this position had been held by Romek Merin - nephew of Moniek Merin - who was at the same time head of the Judenrat Zabkowice. We received rations of food from Strzemieszyce. There were also 2 "Ordner" (policemen) who were subordinated to Strzemieszyce. The Judenrat had a kitchen for poor people which served several dozen (50-60) dinners daily. Dinners were free of charge. The Judenrat also provided a kindergarten for children, which was located in the Judenrat building, occuping two rooms. The kindergarten served about 40 children from 3 to 12 years old.

The kindergarten was organized on order of the Sosnowiec Centrale. In the kindergarten, the children were given free breakfast (bread with jam and coffee) and lunch. The children were in the kindergarten from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.
When I came to Czarne Morze, I organized an out-patients' clinic in the Judenrat. At first, there was no doctor, but later a doctor served two times weekly. The doctor was a Jewish lady from Sosnowiec sent by the Department of Health of the Centrale.

Men and young women went daily to work in Strzemieszyce. They worked in the local mine, in the zinc-works and in the carpenter's shop. In Czarne Morze, there was a Jewish bakery and grocery store where people received goods for coupons from a division of the Grossverteilungstelle.

One night in April 1942, several "Ordners" came to our town from Sosnowiec and in the morning made a roundup for Arbeitseinsatz. However, no one was taken because the men had hidden in a nearby forest. The Ordners caught only one 10-year old boy whom they took to Sosnowiec.

In May 1942, at the same time as took place in Sosnowiec, there was a deportation. At 7 o'clock in the morning, five Jewish policemen came by vehicle from Olkusz together with a representative of the Olkusz Judenrat, a Mr. Czarnecki. The Ordners gave each Jewish family a list with specification of items which the families could take with them. The came by vehicle Ordners informed the populace that all Jews would be resettled to Strzemieszyce.

I was ordered to remain so as to guard the property of the Judenrat. Each person was allowed to take three changes of underwear, certain items of clothing as well as food. The total taken could not exceed 10 kg. Everyone had to appear by 10 in the morning near the Judenrat office for registration. Everyone reported for the registration. The person who registered us was a representative from Olkusz. After registration, the Ordners set all the people into columns and led the march by foot on the road to Strzemieszyce.

By 11 o'clock, the entire Jewish population had been removed. Only I remained there. When the column began to march, Jews began to escape across the fields. Men, women and children escaped. The Ordners couldn’t bring the situation under control. Mr. Czarnecki sent an Ordner to Kazimierz to take from there "Schupos" (German armed police).

Immediately, there arrived over a dozen "Schupos" with 4 dogs. The "Schupos" set their dogs upon the Jews and beat Jews. They shot as a deterrent and in this manner completed the column’s march.

The Ordners helped the "Schupos" in the hunting of Jews. The "Schupos" beat Jews bloodily and, with assistance of the Ordners, drove everyone to Strzemieszyce. About 50 persons escaped and weren’t caught. Among the escapees were my sister, her husband and children. Just after the column left, I packed my valise and went to railway station to go to Sosnowiec. After I had I arrived in Sosnowiec, just an hour later, an Ordner came to me and demanded I return immediately under threat of sending me together with others to Auschwitz..
The Centrale had been informed by Mr. Czarnecki of my escape. The following day I went to Strzemieszyce. In Strzemieszyce, a member of the Judenrat told me that, after assembling the Jewish people from Czarne Morze, they had all been held in a school building near the Judenrat. There, the Germans carried out a selection and left in Strzemieszyce only the young people who were working.
The remainder, together with a group of older persons and invalids from Strzemieszyce, were taken by the Schupos and assisted by Jewish Ordners, on the following Sunday morning at 10 o'clock to Dabrowa Gornicza. Handicapped people were taken on wagons. Some old people were afraid to sit on the wagons because they thought that they would be the first to go for extermination.

The Judenrat board ordered me to go to Dabrowa Gornicza because there a nurse was needed there. The transport of Jews from Strzemieszyce was put into the synagogue where a part of the Jewish population of Dabrowa Gornicza destined for deportation had already been gathered. Everyone assigned to deportation was held in the synagogue and an adjacent building of the Judenrat. The gathered persons were guarded by German police and Jewish Ordners . I acted there as a nurse. This transport waited three days for departure. During the entire time Jews couldn’t leave the closed two buildings (synagogue and the Judenrat building). Physiological needs were performed on the spot since it wasn’t permitted to leave the building. Jews brought buckets (of waste) out of the buildings under guard of Ordners.

The night before the transport left, several Gestapo persons, with assistance of Ordners, performed a roundup among the Jewish population so as to complete the transport’s assigned quota of victims. During the entire period the Judenrat supplied food for the guarded Jews (dinners, bread, coffee).

On Tuesday noon, the Gestapo and Ordners formed the assembled Jews into a column and marched them to the railway station. Sick persons numbering about 50 were brought in vehicles by order of the Gestapo. All the people were loaded by Germans onto railcars and taken to Oswiecim (Auschwitz). During the deportation in Dabrowa Gornicza, there were present representatives of the Centrale including Moniek Merin, Frania Czarna, Dr. Lieberman and others. I don't remember all the names.

There were also present representatives of the Strzemieszyce Judenrat such as president Flaschenberg, Laskier and others. A month after this deportation, I was given a job in the Jewish Hospital in Sosnowiec.