At 10 minutes past noon I saw a transport train run into the station. On the roof and running boards sat guards with rifles. One could see from a distance that the cars were jammed full of people. I turned and walked along the whole train: It consisted of 38 cattle cars and one passenger car. In each of the cars there were at least 60 Jews (in the case of enlisted men's or prisoners transports these wagons would hold 40 men; however, the benches had been removed and one could see that those who were locked in here had to stand pressed together). Some of the doors were opened a crack, the windows criss-crossed with barbed wire. Among the locked-in people there were a few men and most of those were old; everything else was women, girls, and children. Many children crowded at the windows and the narrow door openings. The youngest were surely not more than two years old. As soon as the train halted, the Jews attempted to pass out bottles in order to get water. The train, however, was surrounded by SS guards, so that no one could come near. At that moment a train arrived from the direction of Jaroslav; the travelers streamed toward the exit without bothering about the transport. A few Jews who were busy loading a car for the Armed Forces waved their caps to the locked-in people. I talked to a policeman on duty at the railway station. Upon my question as to where the Jews actually came from, he answered: "Those are probably the last ones from Lvov. That has been going on now for 5 weeks uninterruptedly. In Jaroslav they let remain only 8, no one knows why." I asked: "How far are they going?" Then he said: "To Belzec." "And then?" "Poison." I asked: "Gas?" He shrugged his shoulders. Then he said only: "At the beginning they always shot them, I believe."
When we boarded at 4:40 P.M. an empty transport had just arrived. I walked along the train twice and counted 56 cars. on the doors had been written in chalk: 60, 70, once 90, occasionally 40 -- obviously the number of Jews that were carried inside. In my compartment I spoke with a railway policeman's wife who is currently visiting her husband here. She says these transports are now passing through daily, sometimes also with German Jews. Yesterday 6 children's bodies were found along the track. The woman thinks that the Jews themselves had killed these children -- but they must have succumbed during the trip. The railway policeman who comes along as train escort joined us in our compartment. He confirmed the woman's statements about the children's bodies which were found along the track yesterday. I asked: "Do the Jews know then what is happening with them?" The woman answered: "Those who come from far won't know anything, but here in the vicinity they know already. They attempt to run away then, if they notice that someone is coming for them. So, for example, most recently in Cholm where 3 were shot on the way through the city." "In the railway documents these trains run under the name of resettlement transports," remarked the railway policeman. Then he said that after Heydrich was murdered, several transports with Czechs passed through. Camp Belzec is supposed to be located right on the railway line and the woman promised to show it to me when we pass it.
Short stop. Opposite us another transport. I talk to the policemen who ride on the passenger car in from. I ask: "Going back home to the Reich?" Grinning one of them says: "You know where we come from, don't you" Well, for us the work does not cease." Then the transport train continued -- the cars were empty and swept clean; there were 35. In all probability that was the train I saw at 1 P.M. on the station in Rawa Ruska.
We passed camp Belzec. Before then, we traveled for some time through a tall pine forest. When the woman called, "Now it comes," one could see high hedge of fir trees. A strong stinking already," says the woman. "Oh nonsense, that is only the gas," the railway policeman said laughing. Meanwhile -- we had gone on about 200 yards -- the sweetish odor was transformed into a strong smell of something burning. "That is from the crematory," says the policeman. A short distance farther the fence stopped. In front of it, one could see a guard house with an SS post. A double track led into the camp. One track branched off from the main line, the other ran over a turntable from the camp to a row of sheds about 250 yards away. A freight car happened to stand on the table. Several Jews were busy turning the disk. SS guards, rifle under the arm, stood by. One of the sheds was open; one could distinctly see that it was filled with bundles of clothes to the ceiling. As we went on, I looked back one more time. The fence was too high to see anything at all. The woman says that sometimes, while going by, one can see smoke rising from the camp, but I could notice nothing of the sort. My estimate is that the camp measures about 800 by 400 yards.
Additional Eyewitness Reports:
In answer to the question why this whole action is being undertaken in the first place, the policeman said: "Up to now the Jews have been employed as auxiliaries everywhere by the SS, the Armed Forces, and so on. Naturally they snapped up quite a bit of information and they pass on everything to the Russians. That's why they must go. And then they are also responsible here for the entire black market and driving up prices. When the Jews are gone, one will be able to put into effect reasonable prices again."