had to survive—she and her family. In order to survive she had to take a risk. A waitress during the day, she smuggled at night. She lived like that until December 1941, when the authorities announced a new ordinance reducing the ghetto area. Forced to move out, she was separated from her provider—the wall. Mrs G. and her parents moved into a room in a tenement located far away from the meta. Consequently, she had to stop smuggling [. . .]. Anyway, she changed her job at that time. She was promoted at a new club from being an ordinary waitress to the club’s top “girl.” Her popularity increased, and so did her earnings. Now Mrs G. makes erotic proposals to clients over a glass of vodka and she never fails to mention money. At the price of selling her body she is able to materially survive [. . .] with her family.
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Mrs F. is a refugee [from Łódź]. She has a Ph.D. in philology and is an outstanding individualist. Before the war she was [. . .] the secretary of the board of a factory manufacturing silk synthesized from milk359 . She corresponded in four languages (German, French, English, and Italian). She quit the job after thirteen years because she was demoted and lost some of her autonomy as a result of a change in the factory management. She started working in another Belgian factory as a French correspondent and a secretary of the board, and worked there until 1 January 1940. Mrs F. lived in the German district, where she could not buy anything because she was Jewish. Her Polish colleagues brought her all the necessary [22] products and food. Those women showed her kindness and sympathy and actively helped her in everything. They always accompanied her on the street, hoping that their presence would protect her, already branded with the yellow patch,360 from being captured for forced labour. In January 1940 Łódź buzzed with rumours about the upcoming establishment of the ghetto. The rumours were corroborated by concrete information from Mrs F.’s friend, a Volksdeutsch, who had
