The Horse Adjutant stay, I’ll never know. My only guess is the speech we heard, “You will be going to a very hot place.” I can only imagine him thinking if I’m going to die, not by fire. It all seemed hopeless for all of us, no matter what choice we each made. Moshe Katz and I made a pact, “We will figure something out.” So, we agreed to leave as my best friend took his chance, and stayed. The trouble was, too many of the other prisoners had the same idea as Moshe Blaun- er -- to stay. The same night, the camp was evacuated right on schedule. Those of us leaving formed into lines, 5 deep by 20 rows; this created neat blocks of 100 prisoners. We marched out of the camp in a group. I was in the first group. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Moshe Blauner. for the last time. He said goodbye with a gesture. I could not return it without fear of reprisal. Resigned to my fate, my feet moved me forward. Around 11 PM we began our march about 3 kilometers to the rail station at Mod- erowka. Along the way, I heard sporadic shooting and shouting, as I put one foot in front of the other. There were few lights if any at the rail station. It was so dark I could hardly see a thing. During this march, a few of the prisoners escaped. That must have been the reason for the shooting, but most of us kept walking. Cattle cars were waiting to transport us at the station. Before we got on the train, the Ukrainian guards began to shout, “Take your clothing off.” The guards may have heard stories of how the cloth- ing of the condemned contained valuables. They must have wanted whatever meager things we had for themselves. Naked and intimidated by guards with their pain-inflicting bludgeons, vicious dogs, and guns, I was among 3,000 men and 1,200 women who were crammed into a series of empty cattle cars. They stuffed as many of us into each car as they could. I did not count, but there was no room to sit once they had loaded us in - every inch of the car was filled with people. We were treated worse than animals. The door was snapped shut, the outside lock was engaged, and we were trapped. Three hundred prisoners were authorized to clean up the mess after we left, however over five hundred remained. Soon, the Kommandant would have to deal with this. Based on his past, I knew he believed the prisoners were not people to him. They were sub-human, and he needed little reason to thin the herd. Worse he had the authority, given to him by the criminal Nazi regime, as well as all the tools he needed to do it. We already knew what he had done in the past, so we knew he had no compunction, at all, to carry this out. Within a few days of the evacuation, Commander Grzimek gathered the remaining prisoners for a special roll call. I did not see it, but I can imagine him astride, that beautiful horse, Maciek, moving about the men as they assembled while his adjutant announced, “If anybody is here illegally, step out of line.” The announce-
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