16 December 1942

 #OnThisDay 16 December 1942, the Plonsk ghetto was liquidated and the last of the Jews of Plonsk were sent to Auschwitz. This transport contained young people, professionals, those considered “privileged” by the Judenrat, as well as 340 children from the children’s home in the Plonsk ghetto.

Recounting the ghetto’s liquidation, Shoshana Szydlo-Kahane recalls:“At 4 am, we all stood in the square fully dressed, with our packages in our arms… we were placed in rows, and between 5-6 am we left in a long line towards the train station. The non-Jews watching us bowed their heads and crossed themselves. Immediately, the Germans began screaming, and then there was pushing accompanied by whips. We were barbarically forced into an ordinary passenger train… we used our elbows to get in faster, faster, without thinking of anyone else, so we could avoid the blows.

After we were inside, they closed the doors. In the car in which I sat with my family were Franka Kirsztejn, her sister and her mother, the teacher Fela Sitko and her son, Marsha and Erik Horowitz, and Yaakov Zeitak from Mława. I believe that was all…Of all those I listed, nobody returned from Auschwitz except for Franka Kirstein and me.