Attorney General I call Mr. Kalman Teigman.

Presiding Judge Do you speak Hebrew?

Witness Teigman Yes.
[The witness is sworn.]

Presiding Judge What is your full name?

Witness Kalman Teigman.

Attorney General Mr. Teigman, you live in Tel Aviv, at 8 Rehov Hasadna?

Witness Teigman No. In the meantime, I have changed my address.

Q. Please tell us what your address is.

A. My address is: Bat Yam, 25 Rehov Herzl.

Q. And your trade is that of mechanical fitter — that you have not changed?

A. Yes.

Q. When the World War broke out, you were in the Warsaw Ghetto, and on 4 September 1942, you were transferred to Treblinka?

A. Yes.

Q. Until when were you there?

A. Until the outbreak of the revolt, on 2 August 1943.

Q. Please describe for us your journey to Treblinka, accompanied by your mother.

A. It was on 3 or 4 September. They removed me, together with my mother, from the premises of the factory where I was working in the Warsaw Ghetto. It was a factory for calculating machines, Astra Werke — adding machines. They removed us from the premises of the factory and took us to the square which we called the Umschlagplatz. We stood there for several hours and towards evening, they loaded us on to freight cars. They squeezed about one hundred people, or even more, into each car. The lack of air made breathing very difficult. A number of people certainly fainted, at least that is what was said. Light hardly entered — there was a small window there, and I had the impression that there was chlorine in these cars.

Q. What cars were they?

A. Freight cars. We were really choking. I think it was eight o'clock in the evening when the train moved. We travelled for a number of hours. I do not remember exactly how long, and then the train came to a halt. The doors were opened, and Ukrainians came into the cars. They could not get inside, for there were so many people, and hence they stood on the edge of the car, near the door. They asked those standing near the door for valuables, money, and jewellery, struck them with their rifles, with clubs, and robbed them of whatever they could. After that, they got off the cars, and then people who were standing close to that window said that a number of people had jumped off the cars and had begun to escape. Indeed, we heard shots, and evidently this story was true.

Q. Did you know where they were taking you to?

A. At first, we did not know.

Q. Did you know it was an extermination camp?

A. I did not know it.

Q. How old were you then?

A. Twenty.

Q. Did you believe that you were in an extermination camp?

A. At the beginning I did not believe it. When I arrived, I saw what was going on there. Later on, the train again moved on, and we continued our journey for almost the whole night. Towards morning, we reached the station at Malkinia. By then, I was standing near the window, and I noticed that Polish men, railway workers, were making signs to us that we were travelling to our deaths. They drew their hands across their throats, as a sign for being slaughtered. At all events, no one wanted to believe it. "How could it be that they could take young, fit people and send them straight to their deaths?" We did not want to believe this.

Once again, the carriages moved, and we came to a certain place. Suddenly we heard shouts in German: "Everybody out, and take all your possessions and parcels with you." Of course, they began immediately hitting people with their rifles and clubs, shooting people who did not manage to get out quickly, most of them elderly people, sick persons, and those who had fainted, and those met their deaths in the freight cars or near the platform. And then we assembled on the platform, and they made us run in the direction of the gate. The gate led into a large yard.

Q. Was this already inside Treblinka?

A. Yes, this was inside the Treblinka camp.

Q. Please look behind you. Are you able to identify the illustration behind you?

A. Yes, only a certain part, not the whole picture.

Q. Do you recognize a certain section?

A. Yes.

Q. Do you recognize the part through which you entered?

A. Yes. I recognize it.

Q. Would you please show the Court where it is?

Presiding Judge Perhaps it would be more convenient in the second illustration. Compare the two illustrations.

Witness Teigman The train came in up to this point [he points it out on the sketch] in this direction, through the gate which was here. Here was the platform. From the platform, we continued walking towards the gate. At this point, there was a fence with a gate, and here was the yard. Thats right: Here there was a well, and two huts also stood here. These are the two huts which were placed inside the yard, and near them there was a well. I am almost certain that this is how it was. Here there was a garage, a motor repair shop, a hut where they repaired vehicles. Here, later, were the buildings in which we lived, the staff and the prisoners. Here were the workshops.

Attorney General What was the name of this section of the camp where you were? By what number was it called? Treblinka 1 or Treblinka 2?

Witness Teigman They called it Camp 1.

Q. And the second section?

A. They called the second section Camp 2.

Q. And you were in No. 1?

A. Yes.

Q. You arrived at the platform. What happened to you at the platform?

A. As I have already said, they opened the freight cars and shouted at us to come out and take with us our personal belongings and parcels. A large number of people were killed on this platform or inside those freight cars, such as those who fainted or those who were not quick enough.

On the double, at lightning speed, they made us run towards the courtyard in which those two huts stood. Next to the gate, men were standing, men of the SS and Ukrainians, and here, right away, the sorting began. They shouted to the women to go to the left, and to the men to go to the right. I did not want to part from my mother soon.

Precisely at the gate, I received a blow on my head from something, I think it was from a stick, and I fell down. I got up immediately, for I did not want to receive another blow, and by then my mother was no longer at my side.

Q. After that, did you see your mother again?

A. After that, I did not see her again.

Q. How many young people were there with you?

A. When we entered the camp, out of the entire transport, they took four hundred people — of course, after sorting, after selection. Two hundred remained in Camp 1, and two hundred young people were sent to the camp where there were the gas chambers. This I learned afterwards, for I did not know about it at the beginning.

Q. Do you want to add something about the Lazarette? Did something happen in connection with the Lazarette immediately after you arrived?

A. Yes.

Presiding Judge Where was that?

Witness Teigman I see it here. [He points it out.] And, in fact, it was here, at the end of the camp, next to the second gate. This Lazarette was a pit that had been dug out and fenced with barbed wire, and near it, at the entrance, stood a hut painted white, with markings of the Red Cross, and there was also a sign there, Lazarette.

Q. That we do not see here, so it seems.

A. We do not see it here, there is only a number here, 10 or something.

All these people who were killed on the platform, or those who fainted or who still showed signs of life but were unable to walk, we had to carry them to the Lazarette. They cynically gave it this name, as if they were going to the doctor. There was this pit, and we had to throw all these bodies into the pit. Those who were still alive were shot at the edge of the pit and were thrown inside.

Attorney General You may now return to the witness stand. On the following day, you went out to work?

Witness Teigman Yes.

Q. What kind of work?

A. At first, we had to take logs of wood and to carry them from place to place. Afterwards, they sent us to sort out personal effects.

Q. What personal effects?

A. The personal effects of the people they had brought there, the victims who had gone to the gas chambers. They left all these articles in our camp, Camp 1, before they entered the…

Q. What was the quantity of personal effects that you saw, when you first came there?

A. An enormous quantity. There were actually heaps outside on the ground, several storeys high.

Q. Clothes, personal possessions?

A. Clothes, personal possessions, children's toys, shoes. I think there was nothing that … everything that one could see was there — medicines and instruments, everything.

Q. Meanwhile, did further transports arrive on the day following your arrival?

A. Yes, all the time.

Q. Transports were arriving all the time?

A. At first, there were many transports, almost every day. There were also instances of two transports a day. Later on, after a number of months, the number of transports decreased, there were fewer.

Q. And so, you say, your work was to carry logs of wood?

A. It was only at the beginning that they gave us that work.

Q. Afterwards, what was your work?

A. We worked in sorting personal effects. There were also people whose work was in preserving fur coats; we also worked on renovating aluminum ware.

Q. Where did all these articles go?

A. As far as we knew, as the talk went in the camp, all of it went ot Germany.

Q. Who shot the people at the Lazarette?

A. There were SS men: Scharführer Mentz or Minz — I do not remember his exact name; they called him Frankenstein, since he had a face which really was frightening to look at — I think his name was Scharführer Minz. The second was Scharführer Miete, he was from Berlin. The third was Sharführer Blitz. And they were helped by one of the Ukrainians, but I don't remember his name.

Q. Once a transport of children arrived, do you remember?

A. Yes. A transport of children arrived. There were two freight cars. The children were almost suffocated, actually. We had to remove their clothes and take them — that is to say, we transported them — into the Lazarette, and there the SS men whom I have mentioned shot them. It was said that these were orphans who came from an orphanage. I don't know.

Q. Generally speaking, what was the size of the transports?

A. Generally, sixty freight cars would arrive, and into each freight car they put about one hundred persons. I imagine that there were up to six thousand persons, or even more.

Q. Was it always Jews only?

A. No. There was also a transport of Gypsies.

Q. One?

A. In fact, there were two, but I remember one well.

Q. Apart from the Gypsies, were all the others Jews?

A. They were Jews.

Q. Do you remember a transport of Jews from Grodno?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. The transport of Jews from Grodno arrived, that is to say, it was already the second transport. It arrived towards evening.

Q. Before that, was it preceded by another transport?

A. The transport that preceded it was much larger, apparently from the environs of Warsaw — I don't know.

Q. Did they go to the gas chambers?

A. They went to the gas chambers. After that came the transport from Grodno. This was already towards the evening, and the people who entered the courtyard between those two huts refused to undress. They were told to remove their clothes, to tie their shoes well together; they were given rope, wire, and they were strict about that.

Q. That they should tie their shoes together?

A. That they should tie their shoes together.

Q. Were the people there told why they were being asked to do this?

A. Yes.

Q. What did they tell them?

A. There was also a large notice in the yard which said that all the people were going to take a bath, that they would be disinfected, and all their papers, valuables and money should be handed in to the camp safe which was there on this path that led to the gas chambers. They called it Himmelstrasse (Road to Heaven), or Schlauch (hosepipe), orHimmelallee (Avenue to Heaven). This building was a small hut. These people who had to receive all the papers, all the money, and all the documents stood there.

Q. Can you point out where this Schlauch or this Himmelallee was situated?

A. Yes. I can see it [points to the sketch]. Here we see a certain line, these two buildings. And here is the Schlauch, this Himmelallee.

Q. And here [pointing] the people walked after they had already undressed?

A. Yes. Here the people entered this path, it was called Schlauch or Himmelstrasse.

Q. Can you identify it in the second picture also?

A. In the second picture, one sees it differently from here [points to it]. The people inside the small building who received all the documents and money used to be called Goldjuden (gold Jews). The person in charge was someone named Scharführer Suchomit. I believe he was from Sudetenland, for he spoke with a Viennese or Austrian accent.

Q. Was it there that they told the people that they would be taken to work, and that they had to take a bath?

A. First of all, they were going to take a bath, and afterwards they should come to retrieve their belongings, and then they would go out to work.

Q. Did the people who reached that point still believe that this was the truth?

A. There were some who, I think, still believed, for at first there was no reaction.

Q. Even after the blows at the railway station, after the whipping?

A. People were confused, for it was done at tremendous speed. I think the people did not even have time to think. Each one fled and ran fast, so as not to receive blows. But perhaps we can pass on to the transport from Grodno.

Q. Let us go back now to the transport from Grodno.

A. Amongst them there were men who called out to the others not to get undressed. Apparently, they realized what was going on and they knew. And so they refused. Then the Germans and the Ukrainians began beating them. They also shot them. I also remember SS men and Ukrainians who were sitting on the roofs of the two huts I mentioned, with automatic weapons, and they also fired into the crowd. Despite all this, the people were not ready to undress. We stood some distance away and saw it all. We were near the yard. Later we heard an explosion. Apparently, someone had thrown a grenade or I don't know what. At any rate, they removed a seriously wounded Ukrainian from this yard. Afterwards, the Germans somehow overpowered them and put them onto this path by force. But most of them walked in their clothes.

Q. When was this?

A. This was several months after I reached Treblinka. I don't remember exactly when.

Q. In 1942?

A. Still in 1942.

Q. What did they do to the women, to the women's hair?

A. The women who came to the camp, as I have said, had to go to the left and to enter one of the buildings in the yard. There they had to undress and to continue walking. There was also a room there. In a section of the room, there were men who were called "barbers." They had to cut off the hair of these women before they entered this path.

Q. Please tell me, did the people who were brought in the transports undergo some kind of selection in the camp, either for work or dispatch?

Q. There was no selection, apart from those who were taken out for work. Each time they took a number of people for work.

Q. For work in connection with the extermination?

A. Exactly.

Q. Was there no other work in this camp?

A. There was no other work. It was all connected with the extermination.

Q. Do you remember the late Dr. Chorazycki?

A. I remember him very well.

Q. Who was he?

A. He was a doctor. I think he came from Warsaw. I'm not sure. He attended to the Ukrainians and also to the Germans.

Q. Was he together with you in Treblinka 1?

A. Yes. I remember that, on one occasion, one of the commanders, named Kurt Franz — he was an Untersturmführer, at first an Oberscharführer and afterwards he was promoted — searched him. I don't know why he did this. Perhaps someone had informed against him, or perhaps this was just a routine search which they made on most of the inmates of the camp; money was found on his person. Chorazycki knew right away what was in store for him: Where money was found, people were instantly shot, killed or hanged.

Q. Do you know for what purpose he was keeping this money?

A. He was one of those who wanted to carry out an armed revolt.

Q. And for this reason he kept the money?

A. Yes, he kept the money for this object. Chorazycki knew what his fate would be. He fell upon Kurt Franz, even though he was a man of advanced age, and Kurt Franz was powerful and tall. Chorazycki jumped away from him, fled from this hut, but he did not run far before he fell. Apparently, he had taken some poison pills, or something else. They summoned all the detainees and personnel to assemble for a roll-call. We were obliged to watch how they flushed Chorazycki's stomach, in order to revive him, to wake him up, and to torture him anew. The faithful assistant of Kurt Franz, a Ukrainian Zugwachmann Rogozo, pulled out Chorazycki's tongue with some sharp instrument or hook, I don't remember exactly. Kurt Franz poured water into his mouth from a bucket, after which he jumped on him with his boots, in order to flush out his stomach. In the end, two members of the group had to raise Chorazycki by the legs in order to remove the water from his body. They repeated this operation several times. But they did not manage to resuscitate him. After all their efforts failed, they undressed him and continued beating him with clubs, after which they sent him off to the Lazarette.

Q. Did Kurt Franz have a nickname? do you recall how you used to call Franz?

A. In Polish, he was called Lolka — he was a handsome man, tall, powerful.

Q. [Holds up a photograph] Who is this?

A. That is Kurt Franz, definitely.

Presiding Judge This photograph will be marked exhibit T/1303.

Attorney General This Franz amused himself with the prisoners. Can you describe this.

Witness Teigman Yes. He had a large dog named Barry. Upon a shout of Jude orMensch, schnapp den Hund! (Man, catch the dog!), the dog would attack people and actually tear off pieces of their flesh.

Q. Were there many cases of escape from the camp?

A. Yes ,there were.

Q. How did they end?

A. Most of those who succeeded in escaping were working in loading personal effects on to the freight cars. And it was in this way that they tried to escape. But they did not always succeed. Few succeeded, others were caught. I remember when they caught two men and hung them up by their legs. They remained hanging in this way for several hours — I don't remember exactly how long. SS men and Ukrainians would come from time to time, flog them and beat them. Eventually, one of the SS men, Scharführer Joseph Zehetreter — he was called Zet from Frankfurt am Main (he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany) — came there and shot them.

Q. At the railway station of Treblinka, were there means of camouflage?

A. Yes.

Q. Please describe them.

A. I think that half a year after I reached Treblinka, they altered the platform completely and planted flowers there. There was also a hut there. They put doors on it. They also added a large clock and a railway timetable. They also put up signs with arrows indicating where the trains were going to: "Zu den Zügen nach Bialystok und Wolkowysk" (To the trains to Bialystok and Wolkowysk). In this way, they arranged matters so that those arriving would actually not know where they had come to.

Q. As if it were a transit station to other places?

A. Yes, as if it were a transit station to other places.

Q. When did they begin burning bodies at Treblinka?

A. I know that they began burning bodies several months after we arrived there. They spoke about it in the camp.

Q. Did they also disinter the bodies of the people who had been killed before?

A. Yes. I know about that.

Q. But you did not see it?

A. I did not see it. That was in Camp 2.

Q. We shall ask someone who as in Camp 2. Please tell us about the plan for resistance and the uprising.

A. We began talking, in fact, about the plan for resistance immediately after we reached the camp. For, in my opinion, any man who is imprisoned in a camp or any other place at once thinks of escaping. But, at the beginning, this was not possible, since we did not know one another, and people were simply afraid to talk to each other, because there were many informers. And, in addition to that, we — this group, this team — worked up there and slept in one of the huts, which I described previously, in the yard. Hence, at the beginning, it was very difficult.

Q. Were you permitted to establish contact with Treblinka Camp 2?

A. No. But, at a later stage, someone, who was also one of the camp commanders, came to us. His name was Oberleutnant Stangl. He was from Austria. He made a speech and promised us that there were new buildings for the team inside our camp, and there we would have running water, and we would also be given bunks and would be able to sleep, and whoever worked would be able to live and go on living.

Within this camp, which contained the new buildings, there was a group who were calledHofjuden (Court Jews). This was a group of experts. They had erected this camp. Afterwards, when the deportations began, they remained inside this camp. But they enjoyed longer rest periods, greater liberty — they were not guarded so strictly, and they had ample food. They had a special hut for living quarters. These men did not want to come into contact with us. They did not want to come near us at all.

But, after this speech by Stangl, a change came about. He made a promise to us, and it actually happened. They brought us down from this hut up there into other huts, together with the Hofjuden, and there we really received blankets and bunks. And there was running water. There was a toilet, even though it was in the yard — but after we had been locked into the buildings, it was impossible to go out.

Q. Let us return to the story of planning the revolt.

A. When we arrived at this building and met the Hofjuden, they worked in the courtyard, they worked in the German quarters, they had access to all places. We knew that only with their assistance would we be able to accomplish anything, to get to a particular place, to escape or to carry out an armed revolt.

Q. Was there a young man named Moniek?

A. Yes, there was a young man there by the name of Moniek.

Q. What was his job?

A. He was the Kapo of the Hofjuden. But while it is usually thought that a Kapo was always an evil person, caused trouble, and beat up people, Moniek was not like that.

Q. Was he one of the organizers of the revolt?

A. Yes, later on he was one of the organizers of the revolt. There were a few others — there was also an engineer there by the name of Galewski — he was the camp elder. There was also a young man named Rudek — I don't know his surname — but I know that he came from Plock, and he told me then that he had a mother in Palestine.

Q. What was the plan you drew up for the revolt and the escape?

A. At first, there were two plans. Two children of the Hofjuden were employed in polishing the shoes of the Germans, and they worked in a hut where there was an arms store. This store was built by the experts amongst the Hofjuden, the fitters and the construction workers. An extra key to the store had to be made. And, in fact, they made a key, and the children were to go into the store, to remove arms in sacks, and to place them on refuse carts — guns, bullets, hand grenades and revolvers. They were to place the smaller items in buckets, items which could be carried by hand. The arms were to be distributed in various places in the camp, such as in the motor workshop or in the heaps of potatoes, and similar places. Thereafter, we were to ask the SS men to come to all the workshops and these places, under various pretexts, and to kill them inside the workshops, and in this way to rid ourselves of most of the SS men. And this is how it turned out, in fact.

Q. And in this way you carried out your plan?

A. Not altogether; we wanted to, but it did not succeed entirely.

Q. Who was the commander of the revolt?

A. I said there were a number of people.

Q. Who were they?

A. There was the engineer Galewski.

Q. Did he survive?

A. He did not survive.

Q. What happened to him?

A. Apparently he was killed during the revolt.

Q. Who else?

A. And there was Rudek, whom I mentioned — he was a mechanic.

Q. Did he remain alive?

A. He also fell. There was a young man named Djielo, a Jew from Czechoslovakia. It was said that he was a Czech officer.

Q. What happened to him?

A. He was also killed.

Q. Was the entire command killed?

A. I believe so, for I never came across any one of them.

There was another one, whom it may be of interest to mention. Rudolf Masaryk — it was said that he was a relative of the President of Czechoslovakia. We did not know whether there was any truth in this. He was not a Jew, but his wife was Jewish. He used to take care of Kurt Franz' dog.

Q. What happened to him?

A. Apparently he, too, was killed.

Q. Was he also together with you?

A. He was — all the time.

Q. But did he also plan the revolt?

A. So I was told. I did not know everything, for not everybody was in the know.

Q. What was your role in the revolt?

A. I was to reach a particular spot and to receive arms.

Q. How did you carry out the revolt?

A. The revolt was to start at four o'clock in the afternoon, and between two and two-thirty, those children whom I mentioned were to enter the store. And, indeed, they went in and brought out some arms from the store, mainly hand grenades, and some revolvers, and also some ammunition. At the same time, two men went into the building, that is to say the hut where we lived, and that was forbidden. These two men were caught and made to undress. Money was found on them; evidently, they wanted to prepare money for themselves, in case they succeeded in escaping. They were caught, and one of the camp commanders stripped them and began beating them. This was about half an hour before the commencement of the revolt.

A great commotion broke out. All the time people kept coming back and reported that they were beating them, and they would certainly reveal information — perhaps they had already done so — and if that was the case, there was nothing to lose, we should start right away. But most of the people had been advised that the revolt was to begin at four. However, as I ascertained — we were told this afterwards — Rudek fired at the SS man who was beating these two young men, and subsequently a grenade was thrown.

Q. Was that how it began?

A. This was the signal for the revolt to commence. And after that, the explosions began. There was a young man who used to disinfect the huts of the Germans and the Ukrainians. He had a receptacle on his back, with a hosepipe, with which he sprayed [disinfectant]. On that day, this young man was to mix the chemicals with fuel, petrol, and in fact he did so. In addition to that, there was a large tank of petrol near the garage. I think it must have contained several thousand litres of petrol. This tank was also set on fire. It exploded and spread flames along the fence which was covered with dried foliage, and it began burning.

I was at the workshop refurbishing aluminium utensils. I knew that I was to receive arms at the garage. I ran, in fact, towards the garage, but I could not reach it, for the fire from the tank prevented me from getting near. Then I turned around and ran in the direction of the Lazarette towards the second gate.

Q. And you escaped from there?

A. And I escaped from there.

Q. How did you break through the fence?

A. I simply climbed over the fence. There had already been people who had escaped that way, and on the fence there were already blankets and boards, and we climbed over on these.

Q. Did the Germans pursue you?

A. The Germans chased us on horses and also in cars. Some of those who escaped had arms. I also ran with a group that possessed a rifle and revolvers. These people returned the Germans' fire, and the Germans withdrew. In this way, we managed to reach the forest which was near this camp.

Q. How many people were saved from Treblinka at the time?

A. I think about a hundred and fifty men fled in the direction I took.

Q. Was there someone who was a liaison between Treblinka 1 and Treblinka 2, who was able to pass between the two camps?

A. There were a number of people who used to come inside the camp.

Q. Who, for example?

A. For example, there was one young man — his name was Shlomo Rosenblum — whom I had known back in Warsaw.

Q. Anyone else? Perhaps someone who now lives in Israel?

A. I did not know then, but today I know.

Q. But you did not see him then?

A. I did not see him.

Dr. Servatius I have no questions to the witness.

Judge Raveh I did not quite understand what you said about informers. Were you afraid of tale-bearing, or were there actual cases of informing?

Witness Teigman We were afraid, and there were also cases of informers.

Q. What did they inform about?

A. For example, the food they gave us in the camp was like that in every camp — that was a known fact — but those of us who worked in sorting out the personal belongings always found food, and so on…

Judge Raveh I understand.

Judge Halevi You said that, when you arrived, about four hundred young people were chosen for work, two hundred at the second camp. Were those also chosen as a work team?

A. I think so. I don't know exactly.

Q. That means they did not go together with those who were sent to the gas chambers?

A. No, they did not go together with them; those who went to the gas chambers undressed, and the two hundred went in their clothes.

Q. You said they undressed. Where did the men undress?

A. The women undressed in the hut on the left-hand side, and the men undressed in the yard, that was next to the second hut.

Q. And, after that, they would take them along this corridor?

A. Yes. There were instances when there was much work or there was a large transport, and they used the men who had already undressed to remove the clothes as well from the women's hut, and after that they sent them to this corridor.

Q. Did they cut the women's hair after they were naked, or beforehand?

A. It was before they went into the corridor.

Q. When they were still clothed?

A. No — they were already undressed.

Presiding Judge Did this team remain there permanently, or was it replaced?

Witness Teigman Actually, they were replaced. But, at the end, when they took us into the building, after Stangl's speech, they retained the team permanently, in fact. But, day after day, they would execute some and add others to the team.

Q. For a special reason, or just at random?

A. Usually, there were special reasons. And there were also times when they did so for their amusement. It is impossible to define this accurately.

Presiding Judge Thank you, Mr. Teigman, you have concluded your testimony.

JerusalemTrial of Adolf Eichmann