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1941/1942, Warsaw, ghetto. “ןשינעבעלרעביא ענײַמ” [“My experiences”] Anonymous testimony concerning the escape to the areas under Soviet occupation and the conditions in Brześć
[1] My Experiences
I. The flight psychosis and the fixers
The psychosis of flight to the Soviet Union which overcame the Jewish population, and above all Jewish youth, in the months of October/November 1939,infected me too with compelling force. It was an entirely natural phenomenon, which had its root in panicked fear of the blows of the occupying power. Horror stories reached the ears of the Warsaw Jewish population. The persecution of Jews in various towns, the seizures for work, made free movement in the streets impossible and paralysed trade. There were no jobs whatsoever for workers and artisans. Tens of thousands lost everything in fires, and the lucky ones who escaped the bombs had no high prospects in light of the general destruction. No wonder then that, in that hopeless situation, people readily decided to leave their homes and smuggle themselves to the areas occupiedby the Reds, where you could breathe freely and where there were such splendid prospects, especially for workers.
But how did you smuggle yourself across the border? The questionwas on everyone’s lips and was the subject of almost everyone’s conver-sation in the streets and in the kitchens. People relayed dreadful tales of thorough body searches, even on women, carried out by the German border guards; of being robbed not only of valuables and jewellery, but even of coats and shoes, which were said to be torn off the “emigrants”. They told of cases in which young people had been tortured, beaten murderously, and so on. There were also cases of people drowning in the Bug. These were not simply unfortunate accidents, because crossing the Bug by boat in normal conditions is not mortally dangerous. The fatalities were caused by shots from the border guards, which frightened the smugglers who, fearing fortheir own hide, simply threw their victims out of the boats into the watersof the Bug.
BIA ŁY STO K AN D THE WESTERN BE L ARUS [ 17] 161
