or fiction they had brought with them and they often napped on the chairs or sofas. During conversations the only thing they were dreaming of was to have their own place where they would be safe, where they could have some sleep at night, and where they would not fear searches. For wherever they were, be it in a café or at their friends’ private flat (they were anxious whenever they heard the doorbell), they constantly feared searches, document inspections, and consequently falling into the authorities’ hands.
Searches in locales and document inspection of pedestrians on the street. For it should be added here that as the police were having an increasingly hard time finding the refugees, more and more [13] severe forms of persecution were introduced and “flying” police squads were checking pedestrians’ documents during the day instead of waiting until the evening. And many refugees were accidentally captured in that very way, and not only on the street, as the searches were conducted also in cafés, particularly in the afternoon, and some patrols even entered shops, bathhouses, and swimming pools.
The authorities’ orders and recommendations for superintendents and the local population. Furthermore, tenement superintendents were told that they would be held personally responsible for instances of people keeping or sheltering refugees in their building. They were also told to take their post at the gate as early as at six o’clock and check the documents of all persons entering who did not live there. Moreover, before locking the gate at ten o’clock in the evening they had to check that no unregistered refugees were hiding in any of the flats. And indeed, the superintendents would search the flats [14] for “villains”, that is, refugees. Additionally, Lvovians were urged to report where the refugees were staying. They were told that it was in their own interest, as the moment the city became cleared of the refugees, all speculation would cease, as it was one hundred per cent their doing. All products would become cheaper too and there would be an abundance of everything.
Commissions’ behaviour towards refugees. As for the behaviour of the members of the commissions who came for the refugees it depended on the type of individuals, that is, on the personal composition of the commission, for the member of the Communist Party, whose assistance was mandatory, might have been a Soviet barrister, director of a company, or an engineer, and it should be said that the refugees were very often treated in a very liberal way. For instance, the commission would come, check the identity of a given refugee or [15] group of refugees, ask about their passports, ask why
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