Small Riga Ghetto

190
Jews did not regret this death in the least, for we had not forgotten various
things Haar had done to us during those difficult times. The following morning
Sauer showed up to investigate the incident, but the investigation came to nothing.
Haar was wrapped in a paper sack like the other corpses and taken to the
Matīsa Cemetery to be buried.
At the end of January 1944 the director of the Heereskraftfahrpark or HKP
(Army Vehicle Park) was brought to the concentration camp. A new department
of the HKP, called the Park, was established, and I was appointed to be
the foreman of the work crew. I did not want to accept this position under any
circumstances, although the conditions in Kaiserwald were especially bad at
that time. But the misery and suffering there gave me no rest. There was no
help for it, I had to go. In the evening, when all the inmates of our barrack had
gathered together and everyone knew I was about to leave Kaiserwald, the
German Jews started to thank me with long speeches for all the good I had
done them, and they were followed by all the others. Afterwards, as I spoke a
few words of farewell all of the barrack's inmates stood up as one. Tears
choked my voice and I could scarcely speak. What I had done was my duty,
but unfortunately I could not fulfill it as I had wished to do. I saw before me
the sick people lying in the clinic. The next day they would wait in vain for a
bit of hot food.
But I could not stay. I was compelled to leave Kaiserwald, and I thought that
perhaps in my new position I could once again do just as much for my brothers
as before. "Very many" of those who were in my block at that time, and with
whom I shared countless difficult experiences, survived – that is to say, one
single comrade, Niburg, and I.
While I was writing this chapter, I happened to meet Niburg again here in
Germany. I invited him to visit me and I read these lines aloud to him. Because
we were the only surviving witnesses of those events, that time appeared
again clearly before our eyes.
The next morning I was taken away to my new work place. I did not return
to Kaiserwald until about three quarters of a year later, as a hostage.
XX.
The mortality rate in Kaiserwald was especially high until the spring of 1944.
Several small transports of children and older people to Treblinka and Auschwitz
took place. * The summer was somewhat easier in the camp, and the camp
* [Ed.: The transports went to the forest, not to Treblinka or Auschwitz. The Treblinka extermination
camp had been liquidated in early fall of 1943, and Auschwitz in 1944 was bursting