for human suffering. And such faith is born and grows only in certain conducive circumstances—[(the duration [. . .] of provision of help, private supplies, and commonness of poverty)].331 They met with opposition on the part of misters Kahan and Szczerański, who think that the House Committee should not conduct such controls, because everybody eats as much as they have to so as not to be hungry. Instead, [they argued,] efforts should be made to obtain more food. The members of the House Committee do not just talk. At midnight they go for bread (the kitchen serves dinner too: bread with marmalade and coffee). And when there is no bread, they cook breakfast.
In mid-September contact was established with [. . .] the delegation of Messrs Kahan, I. Haberman, [13] and Rosenberg. Under a hail of bullets and shells, heedless to the danger and risk to their lives, they carried the heavy products to the kitchen, with or without the help of a porter.
The House Committee constantly makes efforts to obtain new products (it has the money). Mr Haberman took under his wing a refugee from Łódź, Chil Moszkowicz, aged 28, who was living [in the tenement] and providing for himself. Moszkowicz learnt of the possibility of buying pasta at Hoherman’s factory on Wolska Street. He was given the money to do so, and after many adventures and dangers the wagons with the cargo were finally rolling along Wolska Street back towards Nalewki Street. Suddenly they were attacked by starving inhabitants of the working-class neighbourhood who had taken up robbery. But Moszkowicz does not lose his cool. He offers to [14] sell the pasta for face value (purchase price). The attackers readily pay him that couple of groszes because the market price is ten times higher—during those days of hunger food was priceless in the besieged city. Moszkowicz returns without the pasta, but he has managed to save the money (sevenhundred zlotys).
Working in the kitchen and remaining at one’s post often meant risking your life, and that took great courage and devotion on the part of the House Committee members.
The people waiting in the queue to the kitchen do not move despite the whistle of missiles exploding in the air and the shower of shrapnel always accompanied by the tinkle of breaking panes and the rumble of collapsing
