of a smuggler.” But this amusement is mostly just a way to forget the reality, a hysterical attempt on the part of those enjoying themselves to escape the surrounding ghetto. The restaurants, dance halls, and brothels are a manifestation of what Herman Kruk called in his Vilna ghetto diary a “dance on the cemetery.”13
In Różycki’s world, the objective of the Nazi policy has been achieved — ghetto residents have become completely objectified. Różycki’s heroes have no faces. They are but a crowd on the street — a uniform mass of indigence. As I have said, Ringelblum and his collaborators had a different objective. They wished to let all victims of the Nazi policy speak, regardless of their place on the social ladder of the ghetto misery. Consequently, most authors of the texts try to describe the surrounding reality as objectively as possible, often manifesting empathy striking under those circumstances. One of such texts in this volume is the anonymous study on the Jewish woman.14 Using materials obtained during interviews conducted in the ghetto, the author tells stories of 16 women from the outbreak of the war to the last months preceding the deportation. The women have diverse social backgrounds, educations, and personalities, but they all strive to survive and keep their families alive. To achieve this they are ready to smuggle, trade on the street, or even work as prostitutes. Unlike Różycki, the author of the study does not judge her heroines’ choices. What was a moral downfall in Różycki’s texts here is shown to be civilian resistance and a manifestation of the women’s will to survive. Similar observations can be found in the collective portrait of female social activists from completely different social backgrounds, education, personality, skills, intellect, and even motivation, nonetheless all engaged in helping others.15 The two texts show a transgression of the traditional patriarchate, with their heroines becoming equal to the male members of the community. Women in the ghetto are not only wives and mothers, but also heads of families, who replaced the men, who are either absent or unable to cope with the reality. Contrary to Różycki’s texts, those descriptions of family life focus on
Introduction XXVI
