the exact address of the addressee. One of the caretakers then picks it up and delivers it to the said address. The smuggling of parcels and money into the ghetto proceeds in an analogous way. An “Aryan client” brings the parcel to the caretaker, who then delivers it to Mrs R. The “Jewish addressee” is then notified, usually via telephone, that the merchandise or money is waiting for him and he comes to Mrs R. to collect his “shipment.” For instance, Mrs R. has a “regular, Aryan client,” who every other day sends her 1,500 or 2,000 zlotys by the agency [148] of the court caretakers. This money is for the purchase of men’s shirts from a certain merchant W. on N. Street. Mrs R.’s elder son completes these orders, and Mrs R. then sends the merchandise to the other side though the agency of the caretakers. The client sometimes comes in person to discuss the details of transactions and new orders (on such occasions he always wears the band). Every day significant sums of money and parcels of all sizes and kinds go through Mrs R.’s hands. These duties, which she combines with the superintendent’s duties, are stressful and highly risky. Mrs R. has to watch out constantly for secret police agents and provocateurs/competitors. The court caretakers come to Mrs R. several times every day. If a business item is urgent they pop in before midday, but most of the time they run their errands when they do not work in the court, that is, in the afternoon or in the evening. They charge a fixed percentage for their services, while Mrs R. regulates her financial remuneration for her agency on individual basis.
Mrs R.’s agency sometimes has an unusual character. On 18 or 20 May 1942 a Polish policeman came to Mrs R. on the court caretaker’s recommendation. He was accompanied by a 9-year-old Jewish boy, whom he had brought into the Warsaw ghetto from Dęblin.422 According to the boy, the Germans had deported the Jews on the day of their departure. Early in the morning German gendarmes came to the Dęblin ghetto,423 which was open, and ordered all Jews to gather on the market square. They then conducted a selection, dividing the people into two categories. Those who had worked for the Germans at the airfield had to form [149] a special column which remained on the market square. The rest of the Jews were deported in sealed wagons in an unknown direction.
