and said that we could stay, that everything was in order. He added [6] in Yiddish: Gaye a heym!655 As it turned out, he was a Jew too. For good-bye he wished us a speedy receipt of our passports. The next day (it was Saturday), when my husband went to work, it was apparent that some of his colleagues had been taken. The deportees had to be rescued. They were dragged out of railway stations and out of the locked and sealed wagons. As we were to receive our passports that day, my husband spent the entire day at the NKVD. The moment he was to finally obtain the document, the issuing of passports was suddenly discontinued for unknown reasons. He only received a paper confirming our having been granted passports. That night we were also woken up by the characteristic triple doorbell ring. We showed our certificates and the clerks left our flat. The atmosphere in the city was one of panic. People were hiding and not sleeping at night. The NKVD was removing people from all places. Passports were not issued. That period lasted three weeks. Those who managed to hide in time remained. Then the Kiev NKVD left and it became peaceful.
ARG I 864 (Ring. I/420)
Description: duplicate (a): handwritten, notebook, ink, 150x193 mm, damages
and losses of text); duplicate (b): (3 copies), typewritten, 200x282, 163x80 mm,
substantial damages and losses of text); Polish, 34 sheets, 45 pages. Attached is a note by Hersh Wasser in Polish: “1939–1940. Warsaw–Lwów. Testimony of citizen Helena Kagan, forwarded by Dr Emanuel Ringelblum”.
Edition based on the duplicate (b), supplemented with duplicate (a), 6 sheets,
6 pages.
