regulations: tea, cocoa, coffee, fat, chocolate, fruit, and soap. He also saved her furniture, as he told the Germans who one day came to stamp it to show that it was his property. But in April 1940 Mr J. moved out after Mrs B’s husband had returned from captivity due to their disagreements over certain sub-tenant limitations. He moved one floor down, into the flat of Mrs G.’s parents.
Mrs G. had a special purpose in renting the room to Mr J. His presence was to be a “shield” to protect her against German aggression and looting. She placed the piano and her best furniture in his [124] room and hid letters, a fur coat, and her and Mrs G.’s underwear in his wardrobe.
Soon, the young sub-tenant and attractive Mrs G, aged 20, developed a bond of intimate contacts. On her side the relationship sprang not from affection but from her excessively erotic temperament and her cool calculation of financial profit. Nine months of war crushed the strong foundations of her family’s existence. They also kindled the embers of existential Machiavellianism in Mrs G., her femininity being the main element of her struggle to achieve her aims.
She was 19 years old when she got married. Her wedding took place on 4 September 1939. But in just two days, the first wave of refugees separated her from her husband. Mrs G. stayed with her parents, siblings (brother and sister), and brother-in-law. Once after the armistice she tried illegally to cross onto the territories under Russian occupation to reunite with her husband, but an accident foiled her plans and she had to stay at home.
Earlier, during the bombardment Mrs G. witnessed the first losses suffered by her parents’ business. For on 9 or 10 September, a group of Polish soldiers came to the tenement where their flat and restaurant were located. They put an anti-aircraft gun on the second floor on the balcony overlooking the government buildings on Bankowy Square. They soon left as they ran out of ammunition. In between air-raids, during the day, but mostly at night, the soldiers treated themselves to sausage, [125] vodka, and other “delicacies” they found in the restaurant. They made a dent in their supplies, which were difficult to restock when the restaurant was reopened after the armistice. The crack then deepened as a result of German searches and requisitions. They first was conducted in the winter of 1940. Somebody informed the Germans that the restaurant was a cover-up for a black market. The Germans searched the restaurant cellar and took the supply of tea, coffee, and alcohol that was hidden there. Those products were already forbidden to Jews as
