not fond of working [28] surrounded by both Aryans and Semites. Because she was the only woman from the intelligentsia in that workplace, she had to put up with frequent harassment and mean comments. The moral atmosphere in the factory was all the more unbearable as it was saturated with the Aryan workers’ anti-Semitism. In November she had to take a long leave as she developed a bone felon362 in a finger of her right hand. She was unwilling to return to the factory even though her work was rather light. Mrs F. began looking for a job in another factory by the agency of the Labour Office. She waited every day for hours in a queue outside the director’s office. Initially, the director made some offhand promises. Finally the day came when, irritated by her importunity, he turned her away. She did not give up, though. “Help me survive,” she pleaded. These simple human words moved the director. He changed his tone and told her to return in three days. Indeed, her wait was not in vain as she was sent to an Aryan ink factory in the ghetto (15 January 1942). Simultaneously, somebody was trying to find her a job in a workshop, but Mrs F. categorically refused it, even though the financial prospects were much better there. “I can’t. I won’t sew army uniforms.” The factory that hired her also produced goods for the authorities, but Mrs F. learned about this only after she had begun to work there. The work conditions in this factory were much worse than in the previous one. Mrs F. was classified as a worker of the lowest category, with a daily wage of 3.20 zlotys.363 Jews constituted but a fraction of the factory workforce. All Jewish workwomen had higher education. They had been forced to work there by a financial necessity. Even though her colleagues were polite and kind, the moral atmosphere of the factory turned Mrs F.’s finest feelings sour. She often swings from rebellious [29] to desperately indifferent. The ghetto regulations within the factory irritate and bother her. Jews come to work at a different hour and separately enter a special room just for Jews. They have their own locker room. They eat separately and their soup rations are much smaller than those issued to their Aryan colleagues, who get fatty soup with meat and even a thick slice of bread. The plates for Jews are also marked with yellow dots. At Easter, Aryan work
