What are the Jews told at Kaschau?

The Jews of Sighet have been rounded up by the Hungarian police and herded aboard cattle trucks bound for Auschwitz. On the way to the concentration camp, they stop off at Kaschau, a town near the Czech border. It's at this point that the prisoners become subject to the direct authority of the Germans, instead of their Hungarian subordinates. After the doors of the cattle trucks are flung open, the Jews are told by an officer that they're now under the authority of the German Army. They must give up their possessions—gold, silver, jewelry—anything that's remotely of value. If anyone is later found to have kept hold of any items, says the officer, they will be shot immediately. This deeply harrowing scene shows that, as well as being stripped of their dignity, the Jews of Sighet have also been stripped of their last remaining possessions. Gradually, every last vestige of their humanity is being taken from them by their Nazi captors.