Jewish flat on Marszałkowska Street. A fat butcher’s wife decked out in formerly Jewish furs, etc. Infinite examples could be cited. They got richer due to the separation of Jews and, with their conscience somewhat guilty for this reason, they worry when they think about the times after the war, when it is over. You often hear people say: “But just think what it will be like when all those Jews flood out from behind the walls. What will become of us? I shudder to think!” They repeat it all mindlessly, as if something actually did threaten them. This psychosis results in the fact that news of deportations is generally received with relief. Also, the mob demoralized by the war often dreams, with a typically Polish lack of logic, of connecting the defeat of the Germans with the disposing of the Jews. Self-defence against the Germans will certainly be a beautiful gesture, but I do not know if it can serve any purpose. However, when the Germans leave, get ready to defend yourselves against the Polish [4] mob. [. . .] will save many lives and clean the atmosphere in general. Overall, Polish society reacted to the ghetto with indifference. At first, it was a sensation, and so like all [. . .] and attracted. Today, bourgeoisie Polish at the most [. . .] is in their liberal tradition: they do not like the sight of a turnpike in the middle of the city. They resent that they have to go around all over Warsaw to get from Kercelak to Długa Street. Yet, they have no idea about the true tragedy unfolding in the ghetto. I do not know why so many Poles seem to think that Jews have a good life in the ghetto. You often hear people say that the ghetto is stocked up with supplies for at least 15 years. With a strange mixture of anger and admiration for Jewish cunning, people say that everything is cheaper in the ghetto than over here. “These Jews will thrive everywhere and always. They’d manage to bribe not just a German, but the devil himself. If someone is to survive this war, it will be the Jews”—such statements are repeated often and in good faith. Nor can you argue with them, because there will immediately be a plethora of evidence given: “You know, my cousin’s brother-in-law went to the ghetto and saw this and that, things we haven’t seen in years here . . . that Antoniowa’s husband from Czerniakowska Street, he is an official at the power plant, and he says . . . and this smuggler said, that man told . . . etc.” It is impossible to persuade someone when faced with such [4] a deluge of arguments. The mortality numbers in the ghetto, stories of beggars, and other evidence of the ghetto’s poverty do not generally have any impact. It is a well-established notion that Jews are doing all that for show. And anyway, it’s just that no one is simply paying any attention to it, because,
