Samuel Rajzman was one of the very few survivors of the Treblinka death camp - he was lucky enough to escape. The testimony he gave, more than 60 years ago, is still important to understand the enormity of the crimes committed in that death camp and in the Final Solution. Before the war he was employed in the Miedzyrzecki Overseas Import & Export Company in Warsaw.
His account, given before the American House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1945, follows.
DEPORTATION
In June 1942 placards bearing the following notice were posted on the walls of Warsaw: "Persons not employed in a German firm or the Jewish Community Administration are subject to immediate deportation from the ghetto; the able-bodied will be given employment." About the place of deportation, nothing was known except that it was in the east. Next to the new posters there immediately appeared "Help wanted" advertisements of German firms. The factories, stores, and workshops owned by the Jews had been turned over to German administrators; thus a great number of new German firms had been created. People paid fantastic sums (from five to twenty thousand zlotys, $1,000 to $4,000 per person) to find employment in a German firm and thus escape deportation. Those who still had anything to sell converted it into cash. But those who had no funds were doomed.
