She:- But not alive
These were not incidents, but a practice that - almost on a massive scale - lasted for years. In the graves of hundreds of thousands of victims in the former extermination camps in Sobibór and Bełżec, the inhabitants of nearby villages - men, women and children - conducted excavations in search of "Jewish gold". Ashes mixed with soil were washed in a river or specially dug pits, the so-called washers. Paweł Piotr Reszka, laureate of the Ryszard Kapuściński, collects voices that form a terrifying story about indifference. How is it possible that the "gold rush" could come after the Holocaust? What drove the miners and what do their descendants think today?
“I don't care. It was not me who did, ”says the son of one of those who violated the earth in search of Jewish gold. The reporter is looking for someone whoever would say today, "That was wrong." And maybe also:"We shouldn't." The further you read, the clearer it becomes that the reporter and his plea for respect for the dead are a bright ray of this dark tale. And it is our duty to accompany him on this lonely journey.
Magdalena Kicińska
How can you hold a piece of metal from a human jaw in your hand over a grave and not connect it to a human? How is it possible that so many years after the war people have not been able to tell good from bad? - asks Paweł Piotr Reszka. It excuses no one and nothing. But he tries to understand. Does he succeed? Is it all comprehensible? "Washers" is a shocking testimony. A solid, mature reportage.
Wojciech Tochman
We invite you to read an excerpt from the book:
Envelope
Jan G., Łukawica (ten kilometers from Bełżec)
And she was like that for the rest of her life. Sly and tough. Autumn, frost, already gray, and she barefoot in the field in the morning. Only the footprints in the yard remained. This was my mother-in-law. She wasn't afraid of anything. If necessary, she caught leeches in the stream.
My father-in-law was sick for a long time. Tuberculosis. He died, she stayed with four children.
They told me she might have gold, but I didn't ask her anything. We were dead for too long, because she died of varicose veins, so I didn't learn much. But it is not true that we then ripped the floors in the cottage to find the gold. People make up. Only when I was to marry Cecylia, my mother-in-law took out the bundle. A gold case, like a pocket watch. "I'll give you this for wedding rings," she said. - But what is left for you, you will give it to me, because I still have two sons. People say I hide more, but I've already sold it all out.
I took that envelope, a man in the town made me rings. And we lived.
Did I know where this envelope was coming from? From there, where from?
Only once
Bronisława P., Chlewiska (five kilometers from Bełżec)
Daughter:- Mom is 93 years old, now she is forgetting herself, but once she remembered old times all the time. Please come in, maybe he'll say something. He's lying in bed, but he's talking.
Mom:- Well, I don't know so much.
Daughter:- You need to get to your mother loud, hard of hearing.
Me:- I would like to ask my mother about Kozielsko .
Daughter:- I will help you.
Shouts:- Did you go to Kozielsko?
Mom:- I went.
Daughter:- How did it look like? How was it ?!
Mother:- People buried there with sticks, rakes, they looked for gold.
Daughter:- And Dad went?
Mom:- Dad went.
Daughter to me:- Well! You are talking, I will go,
because my dinner is on fire in the kitchen.
Mom:- I once found a little gold, but so small. Only once.
Me:- And how many times have you been there?
Mother:- And do I remember? Maybe ten times. Lots of people were walking, not only me. After the war, there was poverty. I just do it sometimes, just for a minute. I had to be at home, I had children.
My daughter comes back, helps me ask.
Me:- But people knew what happened there during the war?
Daughter:- They surely knew that Jews were killed there.
Me:- Can you ask your mother if she thinks it was wrong to look for gold there?
Daughter:- Mom! Was that something bad or good?
Mother:- Where's good ?! It stunk!
Paweł Piotr Reszka
Scrubbers. Jewish Gold Seekers
Agora Publishing House
Premiere November 13, 2019