- Ada Lichtman: We went to see the mayor. I told him, "They took our parents away to work, but they shot them." He replied, "You're mistaken. That isn't true." I insisted. I had blood on my clothes. When I recognized my father, I threw myself on him to kiss him. He was icy cold and covered with blood. That's why I had blood on me. I insisted so the mayor would see it, repeating that they had been killed. It was only then that he opened a drawer, saying, "What? All these people?" He had taken a sheet of paper out of a file and it had every name marked on it. The sheet of paper was signed. They would be executed at 11 AM, in the woods. The mayor lent us a cart and a horse. The daughters and wives of the men killed were there. And we left together to bring our dead back to town.
- Self - Interviewer: So your father and your husband...
- Ada Lichtman: And my whole family. There were seven of us at home. I'm the only survivor. I lost them all.
- Ada Lichtman: The Christian Poles also provided a great deal of help in making our lives Hell. They exploited us, they seized our belongings. They robbed us, beat us.
- Ada Lichtman: I had dealings with many kind Poles and many bad ones. Many of them. Some, not all of them, snatched things from us and threw them away. One of them threw away my box of photos. They flew everywhere and the wind blew them all off. I saw my whole life fly off like that.
- Ada Lichtman: The train came to a halt. I didn't know where we were. They unhooked the wagons and ordered us to take off all our clothes. They told us that we were going to be deloused. Then they herded us, naked, from one wagon to the next. In one wagon, they daubed us with a mixture that burnt like fire. Then they sprayed us with icy water. After that, some soldiers arrived and formed several couples. For example, an old Jewish man and a young girl. Naked. Or the opposite. The soldiers brought out a gramophone and put some music on. They ordered them to dance.
- Ada Lichtman: I remember that when I was younger, I still had a glimmer of hope. Everything could end, there could be an air raid, something could happen. Perhaps help from America. People said all kinds of things, that the French would help us, the English too, but they never did.
- Ada Lichtman: We saw convoys arrive with children. The children brought pretty dolls with them. The Germans snatched them from the children's hands. Or when the children were already dead on arrival and got rid of the bodies. The SS, the Germans, brought us their dolls.
- Self - Interviewer: Were there many?
- Ada Lichtman: A huge amount. Of every kind. Pretty ones, big ones, broken ones. All kinds.
- Self - Interviewer: New ones too?
- Ada Lichtman: Brand-new ones too, spotless and prettily dressed. Others were dirty, like this one. They were always delighted and said, "Please, do this for us, so we can take them home with us when we go on leave." We took the dolls, cleaned them and washed them. Afterwards, we dressed the doll. We made various clothes for them. They were delighted to take those dolls with them.
- Self - Interviewer: The Germans took the dolls of Jewish children.
- Ada Lichtman: Yes, they took them as a treat for their own children.
- Ada Lichtman: From each convoy, they selected a handful of women. First, from different parts of Poland. At first, three were young girls.
- Self - Interviewer: Pretty?
- Ada Lichtman: Schoolgirls. They weren't necessarily pretty, but they were young. The girls who were really beautiful and elegant came from other places. They arrived with the convoys from Austria and Germany. They looked like movie stars. They were dressed differently. The Germans took them for their - for their personal service. They worked in the adjacent mess. They spent time with them. They danced with them. I saw all that.
- Ada's Husband: I arrived in May.
- Self - Interviewer: At the beginning.
- Ada's Husband: In '42.
- Self - Interviewer: Where from?
- Ada's Husband: From a small village near Lublin. A little town. With my family. Four brothers, my parents, wife and children. They were killed straight away. I knew what was going on. In my convoy, there were 5 or 6,000 people and they all perished. The men were separated from the women and children. My father pointed out to me a German who was looking for cobblers. My father said to me, "Go and see that German. Maybe you'll stay alive."
- Self - Interviewer: It's unbelievable, dressing dolls in a death camp.
- Ada Lichtman: But everything is unbelievable. It's unbelievable being in a death camp and suffering all that.
- Ada Lichtman: At one point, the train stopped and they opened the doors. A plane swooped down towards us, almost level with the wagons, which were fairly high. It approached and it opened fire on us. The dead were left where they were.
- Ada Lichtman: The Judenrat, the Jewish council, was the administrative board of Jews in Mielec. They occasionally designated men for slave labor. They sent some to Pustków, where there were large forests, to cut down trees and construct buildings. My husband was sent there. May 11th, 1940, was the day I married him. Then, almost a year and a half later, not quite, he was sent to a labor camp. That's where he was executed.
- Ada Lichtman: The Germans promised to let us stay in Mielec.
- Self - Interviewer: They promised?
- Ada Lichtman: Yes, they promised. We were very pleased, happy that we wouldn't be forced to leave again. The following morning, we heard shots and shouted orders, "Come out!" Meanwhile, they herded the Jews into the - how do you say "best knesset"?
- Self - Interviewer: Synagogue.
- Ada Lichtman: They herded them into the synagogue, set fire to it and burned them alive. People tried to get out.
- Self - Interviewer: You saw that?
- Ada Lichtman: Yes, I saw it all, yes. They tried to get out through the windows. The Germans opened fire on them. All the time...
- Self - Interviewer: What were you thinking at that moment? Do you remember?
- Ada Lichtman: I was thinking only one thing: How was I going to die?
- Ada Lichtman: We used to dress them. It was very hard for us to think that children would be playing with the dolls of dead Jewish children. We dressed a lot of dolls. We even dressed some as SS officers. We were always sewing. On top of our other chores. We used to recover the shirts that the Jews had removed. We would make them into shirts. For the men, for our SS officers.