Moshe Maltz - Personal Testimony

The Gestapo had notified the Judenrat that all Jews engaged in work essential to the German war effort must have special Gestapo seals placed on their identification papers. These official seals exempt them from deportation if there is an Aktion. What actually happens is that the first to receive seals are the board members and workers of the Judenrat. Jews working at the brick factory, at the railroad station and at the Judenrat's Jewish post office come next in the order of priority. After them come those ordinary Jews who have paid the Judenrat to see that they get these seals which they hope will save their lives.

A brisk business in Gestapo seals is developing. My supposed employment on Zulchinsky's farm does not entitle me to classification as an "essential" worker. But the word comes that two additional workers are needed at the railroad station. Joshua Markel, who is working at the station, tells my neighbor Haskel Pollak that he could get one man placed on the railroad workers' list in return for a payment of 350 zlotys. However, Joshua says he is willing to make an exception in our case and put both Pollak and me on the workers' list without asking either one of us for money.

Early the next morning Pollak and I report for work on the railroad. The stationmaster takes one look at us and says, "I need strong men, not weaklings like you." So we go home in disgrace and I don't get my Gestapo seal that day.

[I later learn that being rejected by the stationmaster saved my life. Had I been working at the job for which I reported, I would have been put on one of the trains bound for Belzec.]

from: "Years of Horror - Glimpse of Hope," p. 33, by Moshe Maltz, Shengold Publishers, Inc., New York, 1993

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