ghetto in various special locations, and from there, transported to Warsaw – “after all, you have Matzenhauer532 there, he’ll be sure to help” – and even further. He used to say, “If I wanted to return to my homeland, no force whateverwould be able to stop me”. Schmid was not greedy for money. It was only later that the Jewish moneybags spoilt him. He had the greatest confidence in the halutzim’s organisation and held the greatest respect for its work and organ-isational achievements. When people thanked him, he would say, “But afterall, we’re human beings… ”. He was no socialist and held private initiative inhigh esteem; only each separate individual, acting independently, could pro-duce maximum energy and creative force.
Schmid knew that he had been being spied on for a considerable time,especially recently, when his activity had so greatly expanded. One night,around 15 January, he was in the ghetto at Mrs Glazman’s, where people were drinking spirits and eating snacks. That same night, Feldgendarmen533 madea thorough search of his private flat and waited for him till 12 midnight. Thesoldiers were very fond of Schmid, so when the gendarmes arrived unexpect-edly at his flat, they (the soldiers) immediately sent out messengers through-out the city to inform him of the raid and warn him. As soon as the gendarmesstarted banging wildly on the door, the Adler534 rushed off just as they were (in their bedroom slippers). Max, the German refugee, also fled. The follow-ing day, Schmid’s flat was searched for six hours. Among other things, theyremoved large sums of money, including funds belonging to HeHalutz. The
