Szlama Ber Winer, location unknown, before 18 March 1942

Szlama Ber Winer - The methods of murder

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Audio Text

“The vehicle had a special construction.
It was as big as a normal truck, grey coloured.
The interior was lined with sheet metal, it had no seats.
Between the body and the cab were two small panes which one looked through using electric lamps to check whether the victims are dead yet.”

This is how Szlama Ber Winer describes the trucks in which the Germans asphyxiate Jewish women and men using exhaust fumes. 
Szlama Ber Winer is made to bury the corpses at Chelmno extermination camp.

“The people who had been gassed were thrown from the truck into a pile like rubbish. They were dragged by their legs or by their hair. Two men stood at the top of the pit and threw the corpses down, and two other men in the pit piled them up.
This work was overseen by a specific SS man, who gave the orders.”

Szlama Ber Winer learns that his family is among those murdered.
He is in Chelmno for two weeks.
On 19 January 1942 he manages to escape and makes his way to the Warsaw ghetto.

There he tells a Jewish resistance group about the extermination camp.
He is brought to Zamość for protection.
The Germans deport him from there a few weeks later.
Szlama Ber Winer is murdered at the age of 30 in Belzec extermination camp.