She looked for her friends for days on end, thinking that they would aid her financially. After several weeks of unsuccessfully looking for a job, she finally managed to get one in December 1939. On G. Street, a day nursery had been set up a year before the war under the aegis of the Jewish Working Women.375 As the locale and its furnishings had survived the bombardment, the place was now transformed into a kitchen for orphans. Mrs B. was offered a managerial position in the kitchen. Her work was hard and all the more exhausting as she often dealt not only with technical obstacles, but also with food shortages. She often went to Centos, where she waited for hours to talk to the director, often without success. But she did not give up, and did not lose heart. If Centos [45] turned her down she looked for food elsewhere. She worked as a volunteer, lunch rations for her and her husband being her only remuneration.
Centos took over that locale in March or April 1940 and converted it into a boarding home for orphans, and Mrs B. became its director and hygienist. She was given a room for herself, while her husband moved in with her sister. Even though she was busy from early morning (she got up at six) until late in the evening, her duties were less exhausting than the previous ones, for they opened a broad field of initiative and spiritual development before her. She supervised all aspects of the children’s lives. She gave instructions in the kitchen about their diet and made sure that their heads, bedding, underwear, and clothes were clean. She also performed all necessary medical procedures as per the instructions of the orphanage nurse. Most new arrivals had lice and ulcerations. Mrs B. treated them patiently and was deeply happy when she managed to restore a child’s head or body back to a more normal state of cleanliness. Mrs B.’s duties often forced her to intervene in the main office of Centos about issues involving beds, bedding, or [food] products. She struggled for every improvement in the children’s situation with the persistence of somebody who is aware of the gravity of his or her duties. She endured in the yoke of her duties, often unable to find time to visit her friends or family, for several weeks.
Then November 1940 came and the ordinance about the [establishment of the] ghetto deprived the orphanage of its venue. The burden of the move
