Sam Itzkowitz

Describes gas chambers in Auschwitz [1991 interview]

Full transcript:
The gas chamber was also a hall just like this one, with two
chutes, two, uh, like chimneys going all the way to the top,
with perforated metal. Had holes about a quarter of an inch all
around, all four corners, and it was two or three sheets of
metal, one into the other with holes. That chute went all the way
up to the roof, which was almost flat to the ground outside.
That's where the SS men were standing as soon as the bunker was
filled in, yeah wait a minute.... When they filled in the bunker
with all the women they put the men in. And sometimes they had
20 or 30 extra people that they couldn't get in, so they
always held back children. And when the bunker was already so
filled they couldn't put no more people, no more...they made the
kids crawl on the top of the heads, all the way in there, just
kept on pushing them in, to fill them all in. When the door was
slammed behind them, was a thick door, was about six inches
thick. I built it myself and I know what it's like: three bolts,
three iron bars were across. The bars were laid over and then
screwed tight. The men, the SS men were standing outside with a
Red Cross wagon and they had the gas can...cans in the truck, in
the...in the ambulance. He put a mask on, had to put a mask on,
tore the lid off of the gas...of the...of the, um, the gas
canister, threw it down the chute, through the chimney into the
gas chamber. The crematorium two and...and three had two gas
chutes. And as soon as he threw the gas in he slammed the lid
shut, so the gas wouldn't escape. And all you could hear is one
loud sound, "Shema..." [the Jewish declaration of faith] and that
was all. And that took about five to ten minutes. In the door
they had a little peephole with four or five layers of glass in
between, and it was with bars so nobody could break the glass
through. And when they turned on the light into the...in the...in
the bunker, you could see whether the people were already dead or
not.

Born Makow, Poland

1925
The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. When Makow was occupied, Sam fled to
Soviet territory. He returned to Makow for provisions, but was forced to remain in
the ghetto. In 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz. As the Soviet army advanced in
1944, Sam and other prisoners were sent to camps in Germany. The inmates were put
on a death march early in 1945. American forces liberated Sam after he escaped
during a bombing raid.

� Jewish Community Federation of Richmond

Copyright � United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.

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