The last time Mrs Kr. was in her flat was on 24 September 1939. She went there to fetch some underwear for herself, her husband, and her children. She also wanted to take some of the food supplies she had been wise enough to put together at the beginning of the war. [154] They enabled her to remain carefree throughout the tragic period of the siege, when Warsaw inhabitants suffered from shortages of bread and potatoes. An inner voice advised her to take all her possessions, but her sister-in-law objected, claiming that no place was safe. And Mrs Kr. gave in to her persuasion with a fatalistic resignation—“Come what may.” When Mrs Kr. went there after a three-day, fierce, non-stop bombardment she saw only the smoldering ruins of the tenement. Her flat, her whole property, her certainty of tomorrow—all of it had perished in the flames.
She had to rebuild her life from scratch. [A threat of h]omelessness hung over her [. . .] She could not stay at her sister-in-law’s and she had no money to rent a flat. Her family of four then moved into her brother’s tiny kitchen on P. Street. It was shortly after the armistice. They were living under difficult conditions. There was no electricity or running water. Mrs Kr. had to walk as far as to Filtrowa Street426 to fetch water. She went there twice. She recalls that on 29 and 30 September she had to walk up and down heaps of ruins. The streets were strewn with equine and human corpses. The queues to the filtres were very long so she had to wait for several hours. The first time she got the water, while the next time she decided to go back empty-handed as she feared she would not return before the curfew (7 p.m.). Both Jews and Poles waited in the queues. They did not argue and everybody got water, without any comments or favouritism.
Mrs Kr. lived at her brother’s for eight months. During that period the burden of [155] supporting the family was almost entirely on her shoulders. Unable to rebuild his workshop, her husband tried his hand at trade several times but it turned out he lacked talent. So he stayed at home to take care of the children and relieve his wife with the housework. Besides, he feared going out as round-ups were organized to capture Jews to send them to forced labour. “But you cannot avoid your fate”—the Germans removed him from
