The Horse Adjutant
were fast approaching zero. By the time we were finished, we had filled up two mass graves about 20 x 20 meters square and 10-15 meters deep; it must have held many thousand people. The giant ditches were dug out by machine. As the day wore on, Moshe Blauner and I were commanded to go into the pit to search the bodies for valuables. We entered the mass grave as instructed, by descending down a ladder, certain this was the end. I reached the bottom and found myself standing in a pool of blood and surrounded by a stack of thousands of bodies. No one was alive. It was silent, except for the insects and noises from the guards above. I was forced to step on the bodies, slipping on them to check their threadbare clothing. This resulted in finding little if anything. I wasn’t sure if we were actually doing something or just entertaining the sadistic guards above. I wasn’t alone. There were about 20 other prisoners with me doing the same thing. We were the only moving things in this ghastly pit. All of us were dealing with the dead bodies; some were stacking them as best they could, and others like me were searching them. The whole experience was a nightmare. Lying haphazardly, I saw men, women, and children all mangled together in a strange kind of mass with flies everywhere. Moshe and I looked at each other, both of us knowing the likelihood of our surviving was poor. After rummaging in the pit for three or four hours, I happened to look up and saw Hauptsturmfuhrer Blache in the sun. My eyes burned. He had come by to inspect the work being done. Recognizing Moshe and me, he shouted, “Who put you two down there?” I gestured to the guard standing over us holding a submachine gun. Without hesita- tion he waved for us to immediately come out, shouting, “Schnell.” The guard shouted at the Kommandant, “This is forbidden.” Kommandant Blache pointed his finger at the guard as he walked over to him. I heard a strong exchange of words. I don’t know what he said. Except that he came back and commanded us again, “Come out of there right now, schnell.” Without question, we climbed the ladder and stood together facing him with our lives hanging tenuously in the balance. He asked, “Where is your horse?” I told him he had broken away and was probably eating grass. He told me to find the horse and meet him at the deportation place. I started to look for my horse and found a child, still alive. I put him at the side in the grass and kept looking for my horse. The boy started crying, and Kastura’s ears perked up. He heard the crying. Casually he walked over to the child, took out his gun, and ended his life. Leaving him there, he walked away, as if nothing had happened. I was soaked with blood. Underfed for
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