大象传媒

Sometimes television programmes about the war show Jews being transported to concentration camps in cattle trucks. Of course, the real horror was not the cattle trucks but where they were going!

I travelled in one. At that time they were common for carrying animals or goods on the railways in Europe. Some even had signs indicating the load e.g. "8 horses or 16 men". There were sliding doors on both sides but no windows, just an opening below the roof to let the light in. So we kept the doors partly open during the day. There were no lights or seats.

Once when the train stopped at a station a young woman begged a lift, as passenger trains were few and far between. At night we slept on the floor. As we lay down I noticed that one of the men I believe had cut a girl's throat was making himself comfortable next to the woman. So I told him to make room for me between them, to ensure she would be safe!

In the morning we found the train had stopped. Our wagon had been uncoupled and the locomotive had disappeared together with that part of the train ahead of us. Other trains came and went while we remained in what seemed to be a siding. There was a man who appeared to be a shunter, but I didn't know enought Italian to ask why we had been left behind. Eventually, I noticed other wagons had labels with their destinations on them; ours had none. So I found a piece of chalk-like stone on the track and wrote our destination where the label should have been and soon we were on the move again.

The journey lasted about three days. There were no meals, but I had an empty jam tin with a piece of wire for a handle in which I made tea from the steam released by the engine driver when the train was held up. We did have bread and probably corned beef. There were no toilet facilities.

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