Small Riga Ghetto

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Later we found out the reason: the whole work crew had been taken back to
the camp that night. Understandably, the women were thrown into a huge
panic. All the women in the barracks also had to come out. All of them were
ordered to line up around a square, in the middle of which stood a gallows.
Not long afterward, a closed car drove up. Out of it stepped the executioner,
wearing a top hat, patent-leather shoes and white gloves. The SS girls brought
out a Ukrainian girl who was already half-dead. The main overseer held a
short lecture. She declared that this girl had been condemned to die because of
sabotage. The same thing would happen to any of them if they took even the
slightest liberty. Then the poor woman was killed very quickly. Afterwards,
all of them without exception had to march past the corpse. Anyone who didn't
was beaten. People said the "sabotage" had taken place as follows: one of the
factory foremen had tried to molest her and she had slapped his face in public.
People also said that after the liberation this foreman had immediately been
arrested by the Jews. His subsequent fate is unknown.
VI.
At the beginning of 1945 the factory was no longer operating at full capacity.
The scarcity of raw materials was having its effect. There were days on which
we only had to work for a few hours. But of course both the management and
the foremen had the greatest interest in keeping the factory in operation. They
knew very well that if the factory closed they would be drafted into the army.
They found a solution by lending some of us Jewish workers to the NSDAP
(National Socialist German Workers' Party). Our new occupation consisted of
hauling material out of the bombed houses that could be used to build fortifications
against the enemy. The factory management had to negotiate with the
NSDAP for a fairly long time about our deployment, as the party officials
were unwilling to send us to work in the town.
We men marched out of the gates of Polte for the first time. Not long after
we had left the camp we could already see the first ruins. Under heavy guard
we marched through the once-beautiful town of Magdeburg. We went through
the center of town, past the main railroad station, and saw not a single house
that was whole, only rubble. Huge apartment buildings had collapsed like
houses of cards. Only a few people were out on the streets. The guards drove
us toward the Hindenburg Bridge, which we had to fortify against the enemy.
There was one thing we could not understand at all: Magdeburg, which lay in
the heart of Germany, had to be protected from the enemy already? "Comrades,"
I called out, "it makes sense, it's all clear to me now!" We have a say-