those with the clause, did not have the right to hold a job. Two months had passed, and I was still working. Whenever inspectors came, my boss covered for me. Eventually, however, he was transferred to a different position andmy situation became apparent.
One day, an NKVD officer turned up unexpectedly and immediately told me to show him my passport. I said that I did not have my passport with methere and that if he wanted to see it he should come to my house. I meant to buy some time so that he would not see the clause. He left and several days later he came back [24] and accidentally found my former boss in the office. He [the NKVD officer] wrote a report and demanded that I sign a document promising to leave Białystok within 24 hours. I refused because in the meantime my husband had submitted an application with appropriate references and I knew that we would be getting a normal passport. Since I did not want to sign the paper, he said that I would have to go to the commissariat and give my word that at a certain time I would report there. I agreed. I went for dinner to meet my husband and tell him everything, and while we were eating my two friends came running with a komandirovka, that is, a referral totravel on business for several days and some money. I did not take it. I was in such despair that I no longer cared. At 8, I went to the commissariat. There I found about 20 officers and the head of the second commissariat, whom I knew. I had to sign a document stating that I would leave within 48 hours. When I signed the declaration of departure, I noticed a piece of paper with my name on it; however, it was not the name that was in my birth certificate [25] but just the one I had been using in the office. I realised that it must have been a denunciation. I asked the clerk from where and whom the report had come. He replied, “And you have good friends”. We went outside together. Along theway, I began to ha rass him again, but he would not let me have the information. Two days later, we were given normal passports. My husband began teaching mathematics at a technical school, with a nice salary. Life was good again. We started to live. We went to the cinema, theatre, and library. The Polish theatre was housed in a magnificent building on Kilińskiego Street. It was very successful. The director was Leon Szyller.47 In the spring of 1941, he
