walls. Apparently the instinct of hunger is stronger than the instinct of self-preservation, with the former often in a striking contradiction to the latter. This is perhaps how [15] you can explain the humility of the people dying of hunger. For how can you explain the fact that these beings do not explode with fireworks of defiance when they are so close to death?
A missile hit the queue waiting along the ghetto wall for lunch served by the kitchen of the House Committee at Nalewki Street 23. The explosion killed or wounded seven people and destroyed one of the upper floors. Blood was spilt, rubble fell, shattered panes tinkled, and people began moaning and crying. The kitchen ceiling came down, covering the pot lids with a thick layer of plaster. Nobody leaves their post. The members of the House Committee (Misters M. Haberman, Iz[ydor] Haberman, and Mietek Haberman) personally remove the rubble and wipe up the blood. They also transport the wounded once they have received first-aid in the sanitary centre associated with the House Committee (more about that below). After a quarter-hour everything is running smoothly again.
[16] For the last 2 weeks there was an unofficial communique with a beautiful motto: “We will not limit the food rations, because everybody eats only so much as not to be hungry.” This was the credo of Mr Kahan and Mr Szczerański. On 19 September, however, a decision was made that the kitchen would serve lunch only on the basis of IDs (500 lunches per day). But the aspirations to maintain a certain standard of living even in the besieged city were not reduced (apparently nobody could imagine what would come of issuing meals which now, three years after the outbreak of the war, seem a luxury to us). With the approaching holidays, the House Committee has become concerned about the baking of challah.
[17] Life is the only thing that determines the scope of the authority of the House Committee at Nalewki Street 23.
There is no fuel. The owner of the coal yard located in that tenement was threatened with the use of force if he charged more than normal.
There is a fruit store at the gate. A tax in the amount of ten zlotys per day was imposed on the shop owner as he is making a lot of money now. But he refuses to pay. The House Committee is considering sanctions. It is even ready to remove the owner from his shop with help from the police as per a decision of the Red Cross Commission, which deemed the store unsanitary.
