Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

Peo ple were beaten with clubs, iron bars, piz zles and other specially em -ployed in stru ments of torture; vic tims were forced to lie on the floor or atable while four ogres beat them with wet rope working in unison likesmiths forg ing iron “with four ham mers”; peo ple were beaten with glass,which broke on their bod ies, and were then forced to lick the blood off thehands of their executioners or off the floor. They were fed with soap and ifthey ob jected, it was pushed down their throats with a pizzle . They werelocked into fu mi gat ing cham bers, and kept there un til they suf fo cated orwere scalded. Peo ple were forced to take lax a tives in enormous quan ti ties(100 grams of sodium-sulphate mixed with vin e gar and petrol). They werekept in side for 70 hours to float in their own ex cre ment. Peo ple were tiedto “shame-poles”, where children threw stones at them, and pulled theirhair, etc.Later a large num ber of Jews were beaten and tortured in de tails en route tola bor ser vice. The beat ings were ordered by the highest ranking of fi cers. 21Jews were also beaten in the Targu-Jiu con cen tra tion camp, in the campsand ghet tos of Bessarabia and Bucovina , in march ing columns, and on thetrains which evacuated or deported them. Jews suf fered acutely duringevac u a tions by train, when 150 peo ple were packed into ev ery car riage.They were trans ported for six days in the heat of July, and were not al loweda drop f water. Oc ca sionally the doors of the freight cars were opened, and21 Ex tract from Di rec tive No.55500, one of the Gen eral Di rec tives ofJune 27, 1942, is sued by the First De part ment of the Gen eralChiefs of Staff, which con trolled the la bor ser vice: “For mi nor mis -de mean ors (ar riv ing late for as sem bly, neg li gence, un dis ci plinedbe hav ior) com mit ted by la bor ser vice troops, the com mandershall use cor po ral pun ish ment.”Ex tract from the Di rec tive of Sep tem ber 12, 1942 from the FirstDe part ment of the Gen eral Chiefs of Staff, which “sup ple mentsand clar i fies” law No.55500:“Mr. Mar shall does not want to see this work half heart edly car riedout but to be taken very se ri ously. Con se quently, se vere forms ofpun ish ment were also or dered: there were reg u lar beat ings andpeo ple were de ported to Transnistria .”30