“Well-heeled” guests were invited and they enjoyed themselves and played cards until evening in an atmosphere of intoxication and sexual arousal.
Mrs G. loved those Saturdays. She no longer cooperated with the House Committee and the Ladies’ Circle on a daily basis because she was too busy with her commercial activities. Nonetheless, she still satisfied her snobbish appetites by supporting certain activities of the House Committee. When a few young refugees were called up to a labour camp, she donated a rather substantial sum of money for food for them. She always sold the largest number of tickets to events. “I did not turn anybody down, and vice versa,” Mrs G. recalls. She willingly made her flat available to “tea parties” aimed at collecting funds and nobody invited more guests to the “cholents” than she. She combined philanthropy and personal pleasure with truly feminine skill. “Everybody needs the right moral atmosphere to have the strength to carry the burden of their existence. I live my life to the fullest only in the atmosphere of the café, game, and love. Leben und leben lassen400 —this has always been my life motto,” Mrs G. says.
October 1941 came. The authorities’ order for all Jews to be removed from certain streets within four day401 fell on the Jewish population like [93] a Damoclean sword. There were rumours about further plans to alter the borders of the ghetto. The order mentioned Mrs G.’s street. She began frantically to look for a room, rushing from place to place and following the advice of middlemen and friends. But wherever she went the rent was too high and it was necessary to pay for several months in advance. Her business came to a standstill due to the uncertainty of the situation. Mrs G.’s husband was making very little money too. She had to sell all their furniture to “secure a roof over their heads.”
On 11 December at 8 p.m. they got an order to leave their tenement within ten days.
The excitement of the move began. Mrs G. was getting up early. She had many errands to run due to the move—some people wanted to sell something, others wanted to buy. The boom was temporary, so she had to take advantage of the situation. And when she returned home tired and anxious she had to pack her own possessions, which she did slowly and methodically. She selected
