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“Eclipse of the Sun – Universal Blackness”
Extracts from the Diary of Abraham Lewin
Warsaw Ghetto – July – September 1942
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Wednesday 22 July 1942 – The Day Before Tishebov
A day of turmoil, chaos and fear, the news about the expulsion of Jews is spreading like lightning through the town – Jewish Warsaw has suddenly died, the shops are closed, Jews run by, in confusion, terrified.
The Jewish streets are an appalling sight- the gloom is indescribable. There are dead bodies at several places – No one is counting them and no names are being given in this terrifying catastrophe.
The expulsion is supposed to begin today from the hostels for the homeless and from the prisons. There is also talk of an evacuation of the hospital. Beggar children are being rounded up into wagons.
I keep thinking about my aged mother – it would be better to put her to sleep than to hand her over to those murderers. Ora brings exaggerated stories from Sweden, that the war is coming to an end.
Thursday 23 July 1942
Disaster after disaster, misfortune after misfortune. The small ghetto has been turned out on to the streets. My nephew Uri arrived at half past seven.
The people were driven out from 42- 44 Muranowska Street during the night. Garbatka, near Radom, 300 women, 55 children – Last Tuesday in the night. Rain has been falling all day.
Weeping, the Jews are weeping, they are hoping for a miracle. The expulsion is continuing. Buildings are blockaded 23 Twarda Street. Terrible scenes. A woman with beautiful hair. A girl 20 years old, pretty. They are weeping and tearing their hair.
On Zamenhof Street the Germans pulled people out of a tram and killed them on the spot. (Muranowska Street).
Friday 24 July 1942
The turmoil is as it was during the days of the bombardment of Warsaw. Jews are running as if insane, with children and bundles of bedding. Buildings on Karmelicka and Nowolipe Streets are being surrounded.
Mothers and children wander around like lost sheep – where is my child? Weeping. Another wet day with heavy skies: rain is falling. The scenes on Nowolipie Street. The huge round up on the streets. Old men and women, boys and girls are being dragged away. The Police are carrying out the round up, and officials of the Jewish Community wearing white armbands are assisting them.
The death of Czerniakow yesterday at half past eight in the Jewish Community building. As for the reasons- during the ceremony at Grzybowska Street he said “ I’ll die anyway, Madam”. The round up was halted at three o’clock.
How Jews saved themselves, fictitious marriages with Policemen. The savagery of the police during the round up, the murderous brutality. They drag girls from the rickshaws, empty out flats, and leave the property strewn everywhere. A pogrom and a killing the like of which has never been seen.
Merenlender’s visit. She and her father were taken the first day. In what kind of train wagons are the prisoners kept? According to her they will not last a night.
Many buildings have received an order to present themselves on their own. The manager of 30 Swietojerska Street, Nadzia gave herself up.
People get attacks of hysteria, 11000 people have been rounded up, 100 policemen held hostage. One of them let himself down on a rope, fell and was badly wounded. The policeman Zakhajm has been shot. Terrifying rumours about the night – Will there be a pogrom?
Schultz is dismissing 100 Jews – his explanation for his actions. -The great hunger in the ghetto. Someone saves his sister and a four year old child, passing her off as his wife. The child does not give the secret away. He cries out “Daddy”. I am trying to save my mother with a paper from the Jewish Self-help Organisation (ZTOS).
Saturday 25 July 1942
Last night I could not sleep. It passed peacefully. Everything reminds one of September 1939. People rushing through the streets. The day is so long. Packages, mainly of pillows and bedclothes.
Noisy movements, the never ending questions – “Can one get through here”. Five killed in Dzielna Street in the night. Terrible scenes in the streets.
The police are carrying out elegant furniture from the homes of those who have been driven out. Umschlagplatz a policeman is crying. He is struck. Why are you crying? “ My mother, my wife. Wife yes, mother no”.
How did Czerniakow die? 10,000! Last night there were a lot of suicides.
Conditions at the Umschlagplatz – people are dying where they are being held. You cant go in or out. By yesterday 25,000 had been taken away, with today 30,000.
With each day the calamity worsens – many people give themselves up voluntarily. It is supposed hunger forces them into it.
The new proclamation: non-productive elements are being sent to the East.
Vast numbers of dead among those being expelled. The German Jews are content to go. For them it is a long journey.
The Jewish Self-help Organisation is flooded with Jews begging for mercy, stretching out their hands for help- who is there to help them? Then every Jew would come and ask for papers from the organisation.
Since Tuesday there has been no newspaper in the ghetto, apart from the very sketchy Jewish paper – Gazeta Zydowska.
Sunday 26 July 1942
The “ Action” continues. The buildings at 10-12 Nowolipie Street are surrounded. Shouts and screams. Outside my window they are checking papers and arresting people. Human life is dependant on some little piece of paper. It is really enough to drive you insane.
A lovely morning, the sky is wonderfully beautiful, the sun is shining , the acacia is blooming and the slaughterer is slaughtering. The blockade of our courtyard. How it was carried out – Winnik’s story.
Good news from Brzesc. The closing of the post office. The terrible hunger, many give themselves up, they are not accepted, so great is the number that are going.
Yet still they set up blockades so as to extort money. The terrible corruption of our police and their assistants. An outrage, an outrage. 6 Solna Street, 99 victims. Today 12,000 martyrs. A kilo of bread – 50 zloty, Potatoes –20. Warszawski son, an official of the Jewish community, was seized and ransomed for 250 zloty. The break up of families – it hurts so much. 37,000 martyrs today – the Jewish community and Self-help Organisation workers are also not safe. Only the workers in the “shops” seem to be still safe.
A new leadership for the community, Lichtenbaum, chairman, the deputies: Wielkikowski, Sztolcman, Orlianski. Lola Kapelusz, the wife of a lawyer from Lodz, she goes twice with her daughter to give herself up because they are starving. “ We haven’t eaten for two days”. They send them away because of huge crowds of people giving themselves up.
Monday 27 July 1942
The “Action” still continuing at full strength. People are being rounded up. Victims on Smocza Street. People were dragged from the trams and shot. One hundred dead, old people and sick,at the Umschlagplatz.
Huge numbers of dead at 29 Ogrodowa Street. The remaining occupants were taken out, no notice was taken of their papers. The cause – a piece of glass fell on to the street when there were Germans passing. Shooting all day. Dead on Pawia and other streets. The terrible hunger. Bread – 60 zloty, potatoes – 20, meat 80.
The commandant from Lublin is in Warsaw. How high will the numbers of deported become? Opinions differ – 100,000, 200,000 – some will go even further, about 50,000 will be left and these will also be removed to Grochow or Pelcowizna.
Today the number of those deported will reach about 44,000 and according to Wielikowski there is no prospect of an end to the action. A break for 48 hours, Auerswald has returned. Perhaps things will get easier?
Suicides in great numbers. The Cytryn family, mother and son embracing. The attitude of the Poles. Kalman weeping over the telephone. He calls for revenge. Neustadt has been murdered.
Tuesday 28 July 1942
The “ action” continues relentlessly. There are many volunteers, two families from 8 Nowolipie left their flats and gave themselves up – the reason – the terrible hunger. Bialer – execution because he did not remove his hat. Up to yesterday 45,000.
Wealthy Jews have left Warsaw. The Rozencwajgs on a wagon – the seizure of Gutgold – Lazar taken off a tram.
Deaths on Smocza Street – how was a strong young man shot between the eyes? He tried to escape, was wounded in the arm. He begged for mercy, and was killed by two bullets in the head. Leib Gruzalc’s mother has been taken away, he works at Toebbens.
Pessimisim of Menahem – Mendel Kon – the Germans want to leave 60,000 Jews in the town. The fate of those who work for the Jewish Self-help Organisation. Some say that their identity papers will only be recognised as valid for another two days. This is what Szerynski is said to have announced.
A blockade on our building for the second time. The two Walfisz boys were taken away. The sight of Nowolipie and Smocza Street at midday – a hunt for wild animals in the forest. The world has never seen such scenes. People are thrown into wagons like dogs, old people and the sick are taken to the Jewish cemetery and murdered there.
I heard that a smuggler who lives on our courtyard wanted to get rid of her old sick mother, she handed her over to the butchers. The huge numbers of people and sewing-machines assembled in the courtyards of 44-46 Nowolipie Street.
Wednesday 29 July 1942
The eighth day of the “action” that is continuing at full strength. At the corner of Karmelicka Street – a “wagon." People are thrown up on to it.
In the courtyard of 29 Nowolipie Street the furniture of the occupants who were thrown out of the buildings is still standing there. A Jew sleeps in the open air.
Menahem – Mendel Kon recounts: a young woman who returning from work at a placowka told of the murder of two 19 year old boys, shot dead. One was left dying for a whole hour. They were shot for no reason.
Places of execution: Piaseczno, Pustelnik, Belzec. People standing at the windows are shot at. A Christian woman on Leszno Street, seeing the wagons with those who have been rounded up, curses the Germans. She presents her chest and is shot.
On Nowy Swiat a Christian woman stands defiantly, kneels on the pavement and prays to God to turn his sword against the executioners – she had seen how a Gendarme killed a Jewish boy. A meeting of Oneg Shabbes, its tragic character. They discuss the question of ownership and the transfer of the archive to America to the Yivo, if we all die.
The terrible news about the German’s plans. It is being assumed that they intend to deport 250,000. So far 53,000. The terrible pessimism of Eliyahu Gutkowski and Menahem –Mendel Kon. They talk of death as of something that will certainly come.
Announcements in the streets - all those who present themselves voluntarily before the first of next month will receive 3 kg of bread and 1 kg of jam. Workshop mania – will that save people?
The Germans thank the police for their productive efforts. It is said they are going to put the police to work in other locations. So far eight Jewish policemen have committed suicide.
Conditions in the streets get worse every day – many Jews with identity papers from the Jewish Self-help Organisation have been arrested.
How do Jews hide? In couches, in beds, cellars and attics. The Rozencwajgs were set free for 500 zloty. A memorandum has been handed to the authorities, offering a ransom in return for the halting of the expulsion. No reply has yet been received.
No Germans appear until four in the afternoon. They throw loaves of bread into the wagons. Those at the front grab even two or three of them those at the back get none at all. The savage round ups in the streets will go on until 1 August. Then those who are not workers will receive orders.
The day after Czerniakow’s death the German officer Witossek came and apologised, justifying himself by saying he was not responsible for the death and giving his word of honour as a German officer that those being deported are not being killed.
At the employment office there are lists of community workers and employees of the Jewish Self-help Organisation. For the moment they are being left alone. It is supposed that they are going to check them. For now they are sorting out the workshop employees.
Sometimes I am quite calm about my life and sometimes a little indifferent but suddenly I am gripped by fear of death that drives me insane.
Everything depends on the news coming in from the street. On Nowolipie Street near the Jewish Self-help Organisation they seized a girl aged 15 or 16 who was going with a basket to buy something. Her shouts and screams filled the air
Thursday 30 July 1942
The ninth day of the “action” that is continuing with all its fearfulness and terror. From five in the morning we hear through the window the whistles of Jewish police and the movement and the running of Jews looking for refuge.
Opposite my window in Nowy Zjad Street, a policeman chases a young woman and catches her. Her cries and screams are heartbreaking. The blockade on our building. How was the Rajchner family saved? How did I save Mrs Minc?
Today the post office was opened again. Brandstetter was seized yesterday afternoon by the Germans. He was released at the Umschlagplatz. Dr Fuswerg’s wife was seized as was Klima. They were freed this morning.
From midday yesterday onwards the shooting has not stopped next to our building. A soldier stands at the corner of Zamenhof and Nowolipie Streets and abuses the passers-by.
Terrifying rumours the authorities have closed the Jewish Self-help Organisation. Brandt expresses his condolences to the committee members on Czerniakow’s death. Hofle defends himself by saying he was not responsible for the death.
The terrible appearance of Nalewki Street – a woman shot dead there yesterday when she came out of the courtyard and begun to run. Workers were removed and deported from Toebbens workshop at 6 Gesia Street. Community officials were also seized and deported.
All the workshops were emptied – those who hid themselves or refused to go were shot. All the workers have been removed from the workshop of the second section of the Jewish Self-help Organisation, which was in the process of being set up.
At the corner of Karmelicka and Nowolipie Streets they used axes to break off the locks and open up the shops. By midday 4000 people had been rounded up, among them 800 volunteers. By yesterday evening the total number passed 60,000.
The notice in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung – they are broadcasting continually on London radio, “SOS Save 400,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto whom the German’s are slaughtering. The lie of the English propaganda is clear to anyone who saw the film from the Warsaw ghetto”.
A letter from Bialystok that a Polish policeman brought from a woman to her husband. She and her son are together with several other families and have to work hard in the fields, but they are receiving food.
About 2000 people have been removed from 27-29 Ogrodowa Street. Also a lot of children from Pnimia children’s home. Today many employees of the community were seized including teachers and from the Jewish Self-help Organisation.
Friday 31 July 1942
The tenth day of the slaughter that has no parallel in our history. Yesterday a large number of officials were rounded up. The female director of Toebbens workshop, Neufeld.
At the corner of 11 Mylna Street they stop me and lead me up to an officer. The Jewish Self-help Organisation identity cards have no value anymore. I was terrified.
They are driving out the old people from the old people’s home at 52 Nowolipki Street. Those rounded up are divided up into: those fit for work, those able to survive and those not fit to be transported. The last group is killed on the spot.
About 2000 people have been removed from the buildings at 27, 29 and 31 Ogrodowa Street. Also from the boarding-school at 27 Ogrodowa Street. The official from the centre – Rozen and his father taken away.
A certain young man Frydland who has been working for several months at one of the placowki has been seized and deported. Rabbi Nisenbaum’s wife was put into the wagon.
Mrs. Mlawer was shot and wounded. They removed the caretaker and his family from Centos. Yesterday 1500 reported voluntarily – today by midday 750. Among them members of the intelligentsia.
There is talk that part of the “squad” has already left for Radom. The remainder are leaving tomorrow. I have heard that they will be taking 500 Jewish policemen with them from here. At four o’clock they suddenly took those who had been rounded up out of the wagons and announced the action was being suspended. The joy and hope that this brought forth.
At six to half past six the blockades started again. A woman called Mydlarska jumped up into the wagon after her husband had been taken.
In our courtyard a woman threw herself from the third floor – she was starving. Today about 3000 people were taken away from Walicow and Gryzbowska Streets. No attention was paid to identity papers – Goodbye, Goodbye, a young Jew shouts from the wagon.
The calamity of the “dead souls” 120,000 fictitious food-coupons
Saturday 1 August 1942
Outside there is destruction by the sword and inside there is terror, the eleventh day of the “action” that gets progressively more terrible and brutal.
The Germans are in the process of emptying whole buildings and sides of streets. They took about 5,000 people out of 20 –2 and other buildings on Nowolipie Street. The turmoil and terror is appalling.
There is a general expulsion of all the occupants of Nowolipie Street between Karmelicka and Smocza Streets. The awful sight people carrying packages of pillows and bedclothes. No one thinks of moving furniture.
Fajnkind says to his sister –in-law “Hide yourself and your beautiful child. Into the cellar”. The nightmare of this day surpasses that of all previous days. There is no escape and no refuge. The round ups never cease Sagan, Chilinowicz, Sztajn, Zolotow, Karcewicz, and Opoczynski have all been seized.
Mothers lose their children. A weak old woman is carried onto the bus. The tragedies cannot be captured in words. The Rabbi from 17 Dzielna Street has been seized and apparently shot. Children walking in the street are seized. The property of those who have been expelled is grabbed by neighbours who are left, or by the new tenants, the shop workers.
Fifty of the customers, 10 staff were removed from the “officials” kitchen at 30 Nowolipie Street. People who had hidden were shot. I spent the whole day at 25 Nowolipki Street and didn’t go out to eat, so was saved.
Sunday 2 August 1942
I spent the night at my sister’s at 17 Dzielna Street. The 12th day of the “action”, which becomes more and more intense. From yesterday the parents of police have been excluded from the category of those protected. Last night a lot of people were killed or wounded
A new proclamation in the streets of the ghetto from the head of the Jewish police: the action will continue. All those who are not employed in organisations or by the German authorities have to report voluntarily on 2, 3 and 4 August and they will receive 3kg of bread and 1kg of jam. Families will not be split up.
Yesterday evening a large group of hundreds of Jews were taken into Pawiak. Early today some of them were brought out of Pawiak, among them old people, young women with small babies on pillows. They were led by Jewish policemen. Jehoszua Zegal has been seized.
Among the tragedies: Karcewicz has been taken away, she left behind two children aged four and seven. People murdered on Nowolipki Street.
A large number of people estimated at 15,000 have been taken from the small ghetto. Grandmother was killed by a single shot – she was standing at the window that looks over Sienna Street. Mother has gone to Gucia’s
Monday 3 August 1942
The 13th day of slaughter. A night of horrors. Shooting went on all night. I couldn’t sleep. In the morning I went to Landau’s sawmill.
A mass of people, men, women and children, were gathered in the courtyard and in the garden. They were trying to save themselves. Will they be saved?
It is said that from those who were taken to the Umschlagplatz yesterday about 2000 were freed who had various papers. People are consoling themselves with the thought that the savage round up will stop tomorrow and it will be carried out in an orderly way.
Everyone was taken from TOZ – Society for the Protection of Health, who was found there. At the cemetery 56 Jewish prisoners were killed. Today the Germans have surrounded the following streets: Gesia, Smocza, Pawia, Lubiecka and took away all the occupants. Yesterday the following were taken away: Kahanowicz, Rusak, Jehoszua Zegal’s whole family.
Tuesday 4 August 1942
The 14th day of the “aktion” that is being continued at full speed. Today the blockades were set up at ten in the morning. The Germans work together with the Jewish police.
The small ghetto was surrounded and also Gesia and Zamenhof Streets. There are stories of terrible lootings and violence during the expulsions. They deport the people and loot and pillage their possessions. Shops are also broken open and the goods carried off. In this participate Jewish police, ordinary Jewish neighbours and Germans.
It was announced that 14 Jews were killed who had sought refuge at the cemetery, those who work in the cemetery organisations, in addition to the 56 sentenced to death, who were killed.
I have heard the following: they found a woman who had recently given birth and her three day old child on Szczesliwa Street. They shot dead both the mother and the child – this is a true story.
They are expelling the occupants from the buildings once again – from 45 Nowolipie Street and other buildings. Even if someone is not seized and sent away to die there is no certainty that when they return home they will find a roof over their head.
Again there is talk that the savage round up will stop today – but we have heard this before and nothing came of it. The workers from the kitchen at Prosta Street have been removed. A “Junak “ was crying – it’s a shame about these Jews. At 9 Nalewki Street a sick woman was murdered.
The “action” will continue until 17 August. Tozsa Apfel has been taken and sent away. Our feelings have been numbed. We hear of great calamities happening to those closest to us and we do not react.
A letter from Baranowicze – the writer is working as a farm-labourer. She asks for underwear. Life is cheap , 7 zloty for white bread, 1.80 for potatoes. It would be good if she could be sent underwear. The letter came by post.
Wednesday 5 August 1942
The “action” continues unabated. We have no more strength to suffer. There are many murders. They kill the sick who don’t go down to the courtyards.
Yesterday,about 3000 volunteers reported. Not all of them were taken – these they sent away. In the town they are rounding up people regardless of the papers they have. Whoever falls into the hands of the Germans or the Jewish police is seized. The Jewish policemen took away Hillel Cajtlin. He was released. Balaban has been taken. At 13 Dzielna Street they killed Mrs Grun who was ill and a girl. Yesterday the “action” in Radom began.
Thursday 6 August 1942
The 16th day of the “action” which is continuing. Yesterday they took away everyone from the offices of the Jewish Self-help Organisation, who were there at the time, about 60 or 70 people. Some of them Dr Bornsztajn, Sztolcman, a girl were freed. They are predicting a hot day today.
Once again there are theories that the action will be suspended tomorrow because the annihilation squads are about to leave for Radom.
Conditions in Landau’s sawmill. The expulsion of the occupants of 10-11, 23 and 25 Nowolipki Street. Redoubled savagery and the maltreatment of Jews – while flats are being emptied out and people come to save their belongings, the SS arrive and seize the occupants. Kohn and Heller have been killed.
During a blockade by the Germans the Jewish police storm into Zylberberg’s buildings. They are terrified that they have found them and say: Hide and lock yourself in well. It was then that the whole family of the Radomsko rebbe was killed.
Popower saw orders with regard to trains and their numbers that were sent to Treblinka- the place of execution? Starvation haunts the survivors, more and more, a kilo of bread – 45 zloty, a kilo of potatoes, 15 zloty. Today they have already taken about 5000 Jews from the small ghetto.
Friday 7 August 1942
The 17th day of the massacre. Yesterday was a horrendous day with a great number of victims. People were brought out from the small ghetto in large numbers. The number of victims is estimated at 15,000. They emptied Dr Korczak’s orphanage with the Doctor at the head. Two hundred orphans.
In the evening they drove out the people from the flats in the square bounded by Dzielna, Zamenhof, Nowolipki and Karmelicka Streets. There are no words to describe the tragedies and disasters. Rozenwajg’s two sisters were sent away. One with a child of six months, the other with a four year old.
Mrs Schweiger is not there. How terrible. Today Germans and Ukrainians came to the sawmill of the Landau brothers and they rounded up a large number of women with their children from among the factory workers, and women who just happened to be there. Wasser, Smolar with her child, Tintpulwer, and others, many others.
The workers turn on the intellectuals. A shocking experience. Many rabbis have been sent away. Mendel Alter from Kalisz and more, more. During the pogrom on Nowolipie Street about 360 people were killed. At number 30 more than 30 people were killed. Gorny’s mother had been killed by the Germans, and he came to sell meal-coupons as if nothing had happened. So dulled have our feelings become.
The hunger presses in on us in a terrible way. Today I had no bread for breakfast. I ate pickled cucumber. Today a kilo of bread costs 55 zloty.
A new order has been issued that if people report voluntarily for deportation from 7 to 14 August they will receive a kilo of bread and half a kilo of jam. From this it can be deduced that the “action” will continue for at least a week.
Saul Stupnicki has been sent away. Three thousand were brought from Otwock directly to the Umschlagplatz. The number who have fallen victim is enormous. The crematorium near Malkinia and Sokolow I have heard that Erlich – nicknamed Kapote has disappeared. The shooting and the killing flourishes. During the blockade on Leszno Street four people were killed.
Shmuel Hirszhorn has committed suicide. Many kill themselves. It is a miracle that there are people still alive.
Saturday 8 August 1942
The “action” continues. The 18th day. There are still reports of our cherished and loved ones who fell victim yesterday. The children of our boarding schools led away to be killed. 12 – 14 Wolnosc Street, about 1200, 18 Mylna Street, Koninski with his wife and the children from the boarding-school.
They intend to eradicate the whole of Warsaw Jewry. I hear reports today that the Germans are blockading Zelazna and Leszno Streets. They are driving people out of all the buildings on Mila Street. We have lived through a shattering and terrifying day.- 30 Gesia Street.
The numbness of everyone is staggering: Gorny loses his mother and sells meal tickets, Smolar has lost his wife and daughter, Tintpulwer widowed – goes around in despair, a broken man, and tries to find work so as to be involved in something, not to be superfluous.
Terrifying reports from the town. At 64 Lubiecka Street victims, many victims on Mila Street. All the cows were taken away – about 120 – from the farm. A loss of millions: there will no longer be the small amount of milk that was distributed to the children.
In the evening a pogrom in the streets. A great many killed at various locations – Smocza, Pawia, Mila, Zamenhof and others. I was on my way home at half past eight. Hela comes towards me. Luba and Ora are not there. I am sure they have been seized. They come home at nine o’clock. During the blockade they had stayed in the boarding school at 67 Dzielna Street.
What Luba recounted of the children 150 and the women teachers during the blockade. Their packages in their hands, ready to set off to their deaths. Menahem – Mendel Kon said yesterday, I am writing a testament about the events.
Chmielewski’s parents were taken away yesterday and he comes to the factory and is still on his feet.
Sunday 9 August 1942
The 19th day of the “action” of which human history has not seen the like. From yesterday the expulsion took on the character of a pogrom, or a simple massacre.
They roam through the streets and murder people in their dozens, in their hundreds. Today they are pulling endless wagons full of corpses – uncovered – through the streets.
Everything that I have read about the events in 1918-19 pales in comparison with what we are living through now. It is clear to us that 99 per cent of those transported are being taken to their deaths. In addition to the atrocities, hunger haunts us.
People who during the war were well fed come to ask for a little soup at a factory kitchen. The “elite” still get some, but the rabble don’t even get that. Twenty Ukrainians, Jewish policemen, a few dozen, and a small number of Germans lead a crowd of 3000 Jews to the slaughter.
One hears only of isolated cases of resistance. One Jew took on a German who was shot on the spot. A second Jew fought with a Ukrainian and escaped after being wounded. And other cases of this kind. The Jews are going like lambs to the slaughter. Yesterday 23 Jews were killed in one flat.
I have heard that the “action” in Radom is already over after a week and three days – 7000 victims. That is the target they set in advance, and here we have no idea when they will say – enough.
I have heard about letters that arrive from France telling of expulsions of Jews there. They also say that they will be brought to the Warsaw ghetto.
It is a wonder that people can endure so much suffering, living the whole day on a knife-edge between life and death and clinging with all their might to life in the hope that they may be among the ten survivors.
Monday 10 August 1942
Yesterday was horrific in the full sense of the word. The slaughter went on from early morning until nine and half past nine at night. This was a pogrom with all the traits familiar from the Tsarist pogroms of the years 1905-6.
A mixed crowd of soldiers of various nationalities, Ukrainians, Lithuanians and over them the Germans, stormed into flats and shops, looting and killing, without mercy. I have heard that people are being slaughtered with bayonets. Yesterday there were a vast number of deaths.
In the town, proclamations have been published ordering the occupants of the small ghetto to leave their homes today by six o’clock. This is a further terrible calamity. Firstly for all those who have remained there.
There is no possibility for them to take out with them a few of their possessions, clothes and bedding, because there is a danger of being seized while moving. And secondly, where can they move to.
A great many streets and blocks of buildings have been emptied by German factory owners. The number of buildings still in Jewish hands is very low. The number of those deported out – read murdered – is estimated at 150,000.
Yesterday the Guzik family was seized. He was freed, his family not. It is reported that the community organisation is to be dismantled, and a commissar appointed. I have heard that Gancwajch, whom they wanted to kill a few weeks ago, has climbed back to prominence.
I was unable to go home. We all spent the night at 30 Gesia Street. It was a very difficult night. Until two we sat on chairs, from two to five – we lay on plywood boards. We were told that 2,500 officials of the Jewish community and two members of the Judenrat have to present themselves at the Umschlagplatz. Later this was denied.
The embitterment of the workers against the unwelcome intelligentsia is growing continually. They feel they have been wronged by them. The wife of the editor Wolkowicz has killed herself. The terrible hunger: bread 88 zloty, potatoes 30.
The appalling appearance of the Jewish streets, the shops and flats stand open, the Jewish cowds have remained – looting. In a building on Leszno Street, where 150 people used to live, there are now 30 left. Of these 8 were killed yesterday.
I have heard that in the course of the massacres yesterday, the famous Warsaw singer Marisia Ajzensztat, the only daughter of her parents and a former pupil at the Yehudia School, was attacked and killed.
I have heard that yesterday Kohn’s sister and her husband were killed. And she who had celebrated her recent marriage so exuberantly. A worker sat weeping, Jewish policemen had come to his home and taken away his 16-year old son. What brutality!
Tuesday 11 August 1942
Things are deteriorating fast. Appalling, horrendous. The brutal expulsion from the small ghetto. Whole buildings have been emptied of their occupants and all their possessions left behind.
Christians are already beginning to loot 24 Sienna Street, 28 Sliska Street. Except for Jakub’s family, there is not even a single tenant remaining in the building.- the house porter is also gone. Aunt Chawa and Dora Feiga have been seized and deported.
The destruction of families. Early this morning the Germans and the rioters spread through the ghetto – by the evening they were distributed throughout the ghetto and were seizing people. In the course of five minutes they drove out all the occupants on Gesia Street between Zamenhof and Lubiecka Streets.
They pay no attention to papers. The Jewish community offices have moved to 19 Zamenhof Street, the post office building. They have reduced their personnel by half. The number of victims has already risen above 150,000.
Today they will complete three weeks since the beginning of the terrible massacre. In the night a large number of women who worked at Toebbens were removed. It looks like there is a policy to liquidate women and children. Yesterday at Toebbens three Jews died at their work. Blockades and murders in the streets that still belong to the ghetto.
The heavy blockade on the entrance to the buildings of the Warschauer Union, with two killed and a vast number seized, nearly 100 women, children and men. The mortal terror that gripped us as we sat in the office. Smolar rang Sokolow. He was told that those that are deported, or if they are to be deported to Treblinka, are going to their “death”.
The news that K. brought in: In Warsaw there is a Jew by the name of Slawa who has brought reports of Treblinka. Fifteen kilometres before the station at Treblinka the Germans take over the train. When people get out of the trains they are beaten viciously. Then they are driven into huge barracks. For five minutes heart-rending screams are heard, then silence.
The bodies that are taken out are swollen horribly. One person cannot get their arms round one of the bodies, so distended are they. Young men from among the prisoners are the gravediggers, the next day they too are killed. What horror.
Wednesday 12 August 1942
Eclipse of the sun, universal blackness. My Luba was taken away during a blockade on 30 Gesia Street. There is still a glimmer of hope in front of me.
Perhaps she will be saved, and if God forbid, she is not? My journey to the Umschlagplatz – the appearance of the streets – fills me with dread.
To my anguish there is no prospect of rescuing her. It looks like she was taken directly into the train. Her fate is to be a victim of the Nazi bestiality, along with hundreds of thousands of Jews. I have no words to describe my desolation. I ought to go after her, to die. But I have no strength to to take such a step, Ora – her calamity. A child who was so tied to her mother, and how she loved her.
The “action” goes on in the town at full throttle. All the streets are being emptied of their occupants. Total chaos. Each German factory will be closed off in its block and the people will be locked in their building.
Terror and blackness. And over all this disaster hangs my own private anguish.
Thursday 13 August 1942
The 23rd day of the slaughter of the Jews of Warsaw. Today about 3,600 people were removed from Toebbens buildings, mainly women and children. Today is Ora’s fifteenth birthday.
What a black day in her life and in my life. I have never experienced such a day as this.
Since yesterday I have not shed a single tear. In my pain I lay in the attic and could not sleep. Ora was talking in her sleep – “Mother, Mama, don’t leave me”.
Today I cried a lot, when Gucia came to visit me. I am being thrown out of the flat at 2 Mylna Street: they have already taken most of my things. Those who have survived are thieving and looting insatiably. Our lives have been turned upside down, a total and utter destruction in every sense of the word.
I will never be consoled as long as I live. If she had died a natural death, I would not have been so stricken, so broken. But to fall into the hands of such butchers. Have they already murdered her? She went out in a light dress, without stockings, with my leather briefcase. How tragic it is!
A life together of over 21 years – I became close to her beginning in 1920 – has met with such a tragic end.
Friday 14 August 1942
The last night I will spend in my wartime flat at 2 Mylna Street. The sight of the streets – the pavements are fenced off, you walk in the middle of the road. Certain streets, such as Nowolipie – on both sides of Karmelicka, Mylna and others are completely closed off with fences and gates and you cant get in there. The impression is of cages.
The whole of Jewish Warsaw has been thrown out of its buildings. There is a full scale relocation of all Jews who have not yet been rounded up and are still in the town. Whole streets that have been given over to the German firms: Muller, Toebbens, Schultz, Zimmerman, Brauer and others.
We have been sold as slaves to a load of German manufacturers. The living conditions of those in the work –shops hunger and hard labour. Their ration – a quarter kilo of bread a day and a bowl of soup. The “action” continues – today is the 24th day.
Yesterday they took away from Toebbens workshops about 3000 – 4000 men and women, mostly women and children. This morning the Jewish community council posted a new announcement – all Jews who live in Biala, Elektoralna, Zielna, Orla, Solna, Leszno, odd numbers in Ogrodowa, Chlodna Streets have to leave their flats by tomorrow., 15 August.
Yesterday and today, a huge number of people killed – victims of the blockades. I am moving my things over to Nacia’s at 14 Pawia Street. Setting up blockades on Nowolipie and Karmelicka Streets. Further victims – there are more deaths today, and very many driven out. There is talk of 15,000 . I have heard that measures decreed in the expulsion orders are directed mainly against women and children.
The police commandant of the second district is trying to save his wife and children. A new raid on the Jewish Self-help Organisation at 25 Nowolipie Street. Dr Bornsztajn and his wife taken away. Elhonen Cajtlin with his son and others. This was carried out by Jewish policemen without the Germans, that is, on their own initiative.
Renja Sztajnwajs. I have had that Yitzhak Katznelson’s wife and one of his children have been seized. The second day that I am without Luba. I am now also without a place to live. I have nowhere to lay my head.
The number rounded up has reached 190,000 just counting those expelled, excluding those who have been killed and those who have been sent to the Dulag at 109 Leszno Street.
Saturday 15 August 1942
Today is the 25th day of the bloody “action” carried out by the butchers. I spent the night at 17 Dzielna Street. The rain of shooting started at half past nine in the evening. Deaths in the street.
The whole night incessant movement in and out of the Pawiak. Gutkowski sends his only son, three and a half years old, to the cemetery to have him taken to Czerniakow. The pain because of the loss of Luba is becoming more intense. My soul can find no peace, for not having gone after her, when she was in danger, even though I could have also disappeared and Ora would have been left an orphan.
The most terrible thing is that Landau and Sonszajn misled me by saying that Luba wasn’t in the queue. Be that as it may, the anguish is terrible and it will never be dimmed. Rumours about reports arriving from women who were deported from Biala – Podlaska and Bialystok.
Today by eight o’clock there was a blockade on Mila, Gesia, Zamenhof and other streets. Our spirit is weary of the killing. How much longer? Yesterday a huge number of bodies were brought to the cemetery, victims of the blockade of Toebbens workshops.
The Jewish police have been looting, breaking open flats, emptying cupboards, smashing crockery and destroying property, just for the fun of it. More people were killed today in the course of the blockades. People killed during the blockade, Mirka Priwes, her mother and brother have been deported.
The desolation and chaos is greatest on the streets from Chlodna to Leszno Streets, all the Jewish possessions have been abandoned and Polish thugs with the Germans will loot everything. The whole of Jewish Warsaw has been laid to waste. That which remains is a shadow of what was, a shadow that tells of death and ruin.
Sunday 16 August 1942 |
