“hunch”. A village. The woman leads us to one of the cottages. The hosts, distant relatives, have stayed with her in Białystok. The mood in the village is very apprehensive. However, the welcome is calm, without […] surprise. We come recommended so we are received […] with hospitality. We wash up inthe water trough, we are invited […] to the table. We help ourselves to some bread, butter, cheese, and raw milk. After dinner, we offer tobacco to our hosts […]. The room fills with smoke, the peasants begin […] chatting. Soon we go to sleep in the barn, […] is already there in abundance. In the meantime, gathered […] refugees. The undergarments, unchanged, black from […] dust and sand, pinch and chafe our overheated bodies, […] the sound of tanks and cars. The night falls. We feel the blissful surrender to […] exhaustion. We exchange a few perfunctory words and although […] something should be decided, we cannot […] stave off sleep. So ended the second day of the war […].
ARG I 696 (Ring. I/1070)
Description: original or duplicate, handwritten, ink, Polish, 155x195 mm, damage and losses of text, 2 sheets, 4 pages. Attached is a note by Hersh Wasser: “1941. Białystok. Original. (First days of the German–Soviet war 1941). Fragment. Forwarded by Abram Lewin”.
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31 October 1941, Warsaw, ghetto. Anonymous testimony of a 20-year-old refugee from Warsaw, recorded by Yekhiel Górny,173 concerning the situation of the Jews in Grodno under Soviet occupation and first anti-Jewish persecutions after the outbreak of the German–Soviet War
[1] The life of the Jews in Soviet-occupied territories, according to a twentyyear-old Polish Jewish girl, arrived from Grodno.174
