tenements. People began frantically to pack their things. No later than the next day, however, [2] it turned out that the whole affair with the tenement on Żelazna Brama Square No. 8 had resulted from some wrong-doing on the part of a Volksdeutsch, who later was purportedly arrested. So, those people then moved back to Żelazna Brama Square No. 8. A few days later a similar accident happened at Graniczna Street No. 13. Some Germans stormed the building early in the morning, started beating everybody, and ordered them to move out. But as that incident also turned out not to be a real threat, people began to calm down.
The Jewish New Year passed peacefully. The establishment of the Polish, German, and Jewish districts was not announced through megaphones until the Day of Atonement38 at about 2 o’clock. The borders of the Jewish and the German districts were announced. The border of the Jewish district was to run from the east along Graniczna Street, Żabia Street, Bankowy Square, Rymarska Street, etc. We were convinced that we would stay put (at Żelazna Brama Square No. 8), and that calmed us down to some extent. However, rumours began to spread, causing greater and greater [3] panic. It was said that the Jews who were to move to the Jewish district would not be allowed to take anything with them. Despite this, the Jews stayed calm during the holiday. As far as I could tell, the announcement about the ghetto did not interrupt the prayers in the homes where they were organised. During the next days the announcements about the establishment of the Jewish district were repeated and the ordinance on having to leave all possessions behind turned out to be no rumour at all. The borders were uncertain, fluid—no one was in fact sure if they would have to leave their flat; besides, people were still saying that the ghetto plan would be cancelled and that the real point was to extort a ransom from the Jewish population. In any case, threatened with losing their property, the people began to pack their things and hand them over to their Christian friends. In some buildings the building staff did not let Jews leave with suitcases or with their things. A few days later Kurier Warszawski [4] printed a map of the Jewish district.39 It significantly differed from the
