[4] Immediately, we learned new and extremely interesting things. Earlier, we used to believe that all men are equal, and they have the same rights, duties, and privileges. So say our Holy Books, great writers, and intelligent minds. Well, it turned out that we could not have been more mistaken. For humanity is by no means made up of equal individuals. It consists ofknights and heroes under the sign of swastika, henchmen and slaves who could not resist their steel power, and the Jews. A Jew is a term and definition in one word. A Jew is synonymous with impotence and hostility, a creature that will not be defended by any government or army. A capitalist using his money to pressure Roosevelt, a communist and revolutionary in one person.
Such at least are the views of our visitors [5] and such noble ideas permeate the minds of the people here. Moreover, the peasants, who, as it hap-pens, have been subjected to communist propaganda for a long time, and whoare now disappointed with Stalinism, consider the Jews to be complicit alongwith the masters of the Kremlin.
The consequences are not long in coming. Even the most resilient minds are overwhelmed, and the hostile mood spreads further and further. In the end, a woman with her baby wandering alone through a village asked in vainfor shelter for the night, some food, or even a spoonful of milk for the child.
Such is the vengeance of a simple-minded, good-natured peasant meted out on the perverse and perfidious Jew.
Nazi education proves unexpectedly successful.
The same thing happened in the city – [6] and everywhere where the heavy hobnailed boots of the German Landsturm touched the ground. Raids, arrests (more than 1,000 people), day and night, looting, massacres and torture, individual incidents. Without mercy, heartlessly, with a smile on their hostile faces and a whip in their brutal hands.
The terror is slowly becoming more and more severe and less frequently takes the form of occasional excesses. It has become an official fact, sanc-tioned by the law. Jews stigmatised with yellow patches are forced to walk on the street. After all, pavements are for people, while the Jews …
However, despite growing threats and new restrictions, people cease to react. The interesting thing: the more overwhelmed by reality they are, the easier [7] it is for them to move to the illusory realm of dreams. Faith in swift rescue becomes as common as pain and suffering. There is a rumour, completely unsubstantiated, spread in the city and everyone believes it. Everything
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