cards all night in the room where I was sleeping. So I had to move out quickly. Then I rented a couch in some people’s flat for myself at 25 zlotys per week. Once, when I came home for the night, I found a new bed in my room, with a young man sleeping in it. My hosts began to apologise, saying that he was their former lodger, that he had come [16] for a few days, and that I should move my couch to their room. Soon after, the young man’s pleasant brother came, too and joined him in his bed. Out of necessity, we all lived together, with those two in one bed, and me on the couch. The table was the demarca-tion line. On Sundays, we would lie there, I on the one side and they on the other, smoking and chatting.
Meanwhi le, my husband really wanted to leave the hospital and kept asking me to take him out of there. I succumbed to his pleas, but two days later, on 1 May 1940, I had to take him back. The day was cheerful and festive, and I had to push my way through a joyful crowd, with a blanket on my arm, to get to the hospital. The streets were closed because of parades. Everyone was singing and among this sea of shouts and songs, there I was, sneaking through the crowds and crying. Finally, I reached the hospital, where my hus-band stayed for another month.
[17] Over time, I managed to rent a room on Malinowskiego Street, later known as Miastnikowa – it was a transitional room leading to my hosts’ bedroom – where we lived with my husband after his recovery. I would arise at 5 a.m., buy everything, and the hostess cooked for me. Coming back from work, I would bring dinner for my husband in a basket. Until August 1940, my lif e was spent between the office and the hospital. Initially, the hostess was very good to us. Over time, our relationship deteriorated. This happened after we were issued regular passports, without the clause,46 which she believed to be associated with a particularly important position we allegedly had. Given that her main source of income was profiteering, she was afraid we might report her. She began to harass us in various ways, gong even so far as to turn off the water.
[18] The first registration of byezhentsy took place in November 1939. Itwas a collection of statistical data. Such registrations were repeated. We were registered accordingly for temporary stay on green papers from Polish times.
