Rudolf Salomon
Cortissos reached into his jacket pocket and
pulled out a letter in a yellow envelope.
He unfolded the small piece of paper once, and then again, to reveal the neatly
slanting handwriting of his mother, Emmy.
"We're
with 2,500 people, and we're going to work," it read. "I promise you I'll be tough and I will definitely survive".
It ends with
the words: "Thanks a lot for everything, hope to see you again."
The letter
was dated 17 May 1943. Four days later, according
to Red Cross records, she was dead, aged 31,
gassed by lorry exhaust fumes at Sobibor in Nazi-occupied
eastern Poland.
Today her
son broke down as he tried to describe how Emmy
had thrown the letter out of a train on her way
to Sobibor death camp in the hope that someone
would find it and send it to her family.
Cortissos,
now 70 years old, was one of five relatives of
some of the 250,000 Jews who perished in the
death camp to deliver witness statements in the
trial of John Demjanjuk, who is accused of acting
as an accomplice in the murder of at least 27,900
who died at the camp during the five months he
worked there in 1943.
"People
were told they were going to labour camps," said David van Huiden,78, who lost his stepfather, his mother and his sister
at Sobibor after they were rounded up by the
Gestapo.
"They
were told to pack warm clothes and decent shoes.
But it was the biggest lie ever — You know what
it was? A perfect door to door service. They
picked you up at your home address, took you
by tram to the train station and then to Sobibor.
Once you arrived there, it was all over within
four to five hours."
His family
was murdered on 2 July, 1943. "It also happens to be my birthday," he told the court. Many were in tears.
Just metres
from the witness box Demjanjuk, 89, who was deported
from Cleveland, Ohio, in May to stand trial in
Munich, lay passively on a stretcher, clad in
a leather jacket and with blankets covering his
body. A blue baseball cap concealed his entire
face because of a ceiling light.
He has exercised
his right to remain silent. Once, during the
morning session the judge Ralph Alt, interrupted
a lawyer to say: "Herr Demjanjuk wants to say something," when the retired carworker was heard to mumble.
"No,
he's just praying," said his Ukrainian translator who leant over his bed throughout the day, whispering
a continuous interpretation of proceedings into
his ear. Demjanjuk then appeared to cross himself.
Another of
five co-plaintiffs to deliver harrowing witness
statements to the court said he did not discover
what had happened to his mother, sister and brother
until 10 years ago. "Part of me didn't want to know," said Martin Haas, 73.
Now a professor
of biology and oncology in San Diego, Haas was
sent to live with a foster family in the Dutch
countryside when his family was rounded up. After
the war when nobody came to pick him up he was
sent to families around the country who were
looking to adopt.
"I
hated them all, until my father's second cousin
found me, and he and his wife have been my parents
ever since."
Mary Richheimer-Leyden
van Amstel, 70, was the only survivor of her
family.
She was just
two when strangers agreed to hide her before
her parents were herded to Sobibor. "I have no memories of anyone in my family," she told the court. "After the war nobody came to pick me up, and I just instinctively understood
that my parents would not be coming back."
Demjanjuk's
state of health — which his defence lawyers have
tried hard to argue is not good enough for him
to be able to stand trial — was once again the
focus of much of the proceedings today.
His condition
— he is suffering from a low-risk bone marrow
complaint and other ailments — has enabled the
defence team to present him as a victim, to the
growing anger of the survivors of Sobibor as
well as relatives of victims, many of whom are
also suffering from frailty and poor health.
Kurt Gutmann,
82, who lost his mother and brother in Sobibor,
was angry at the way that Demjanjuk had turned
his illness into a courtroom drama.
"This
is all made up," he said. "I myself have had three bypasses, but am I requesting a stretcher?"
Earlier in
the trial Demjanjuk's lawyer, Ulrich Busch, elicited
shocked gasps from the courtroom when he said
the former Red Army soldier was as much a victim
as the prisoners of Sobibor.
Efraim Zuroff,
director of the Jerusalem office of the Nazi-hunting
Simon Wiesenthal Centre, who was present to see
the start of a case which he had helped bring
to court, said it was in danger of focusing solely
on Demjanjuk's health and not on the victims
of Sobibor.
The trial
continues with more co-plaintiffs due to give
evidence tomorrow.
'I'll definitely
survive'
Emmy Salomon was rounded up by the Gestapo in
Amsterdam on 11 May 1943, when she went outside
to get some fresh air because she feared an asthma
attack was coming on. Her letter was written
on 17 May 1943, just before her train left from
Westerbork for Sobibor. She threw it out of the
train somewhere on Dutch territory. Somebody
posted it to the address on the envelope of the
woman who was to look after her son, Rudolf.
According
to Red Cross records, she was gassed in Sobibor
on 21 May 1943.
Extracts from
the letter read: "It is Monday evening, and we're ready to board the train. I promise you I'll
be strong and I'll definitely survive … Nothing
can be done about this.
"We're
ready to board the train with 2,500 people [and
we're] going to work …
"Take
care of my husband, take care of my son, wherever
he is …
"Thanks
a lot for everything. I hope to see you again.
"Bye
bye, Many kisses, Emmy."
guardian.co.uk
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