AMOS OZ
559
take them to freedom. Even there, in the ghetto, they dreamed about it. I
was in the second transport from Czestochowa. I understood right away that
this was no good. They're telling us that they're taking us to work, but what
kind ofwork is that, when they're taking old women and babies with us? But
there was no choice. A man has to dream. Or to hope. Without that, you
can't live. So we believed them anyway."
SS officer Franz Suchomel was not only photographed by a hidden
camera, but also recorded, by means of a car with sophisticated listening
equipment parked near his house. Lanzmann gave Suchomel a promise,
which he did not intend to keep, to protect his anonymity, and he did not
bother-rightly-to delete
his
promise from
his film.
"How are you today, Herr Suchomel? How is your heart?"
"Today the weather's actually excellent for me. The barometric pres–
sure
is
comfortable."
"If you get too emotional, if you don't feel well, give me a sign like this
with your hand and we'll take a break."
There is no need for a break: Herr Suchomel does not get too emo–
tional and he feels fine throughout the interview.
"Thank you very much. Everything is fine. When did we arrive at
Treblinka? On the eighteenth ofAugust? No? Perhaps the twenty-forth? Ja.
Ja. Correct. About the twentieth. They were working full blast to empty out
the Warsaw ghetto. They also brought trains full ofJews from France. No.
No. That's an exaggeration, there were never more than three trains a day,
with three thousand Jews in each one. Approximately. A great many died
during the trip; they were crowded, and the others were half dead also. The
gas chambers were too small and couldn't keep up with thejob. The Jews
had to wait.
It
was hard for them, and also for us. And in the meantime,
some of them had guessed what was going to happen to them. Perhaps they
heard the motor of the tank whose exhaust piped gas into the chamber, and
figured it out. That was before they improved it and switched to Zyklon
gas."
"Herr Suchomel, before you arrived there, did you know what
Treblinka was?"
"Ach, nein! Ach, Nein! I didn't know. I didn't want to go there. They
told me, 'You
will
just guard the tailors and shoemakers to make sure they do
their work properly.' That was the Fuhrer's order, to resettle them. Just as
we arrived, they opened the gas chambers and people spilled out like pota–
toes. Dreadful! Dreadful! Especially the smell was terrible. It smelled for ki–
lometers! Eberele, the camp commandant, telephoned Lublin and said, 'I can't
go on like this. We have to take a break. I can't keep up.' Within a day the
top commandant, [SS Major Christian] Wirth, arrived. Wirth had much more
