of money. Robbed and half-naked, we waited for the shots. Suddenly, one of
the Germans seemed to change his mind. He put away the revolver, pointed
at the empty stretch of the field and shouted, Los!
It was a miracle that we reached Lublin without attracting anybody’s
attention. I recalled the address of a certain Polish [5] merchant, with whom
I had maintained business contacts before the war. His flat was nearby.
We went there. He, too, stated that he could not provide shelter to us. But he
gave us a large sum of money, 10,000 zlotys, and necessary items of clothing.
He also gave us the address of a certain railwayman living in the suburbs,
claiming that he would help us. That man received us almost enthusiastically.
He stated that he was in the International¹⁷³ and that he regarded assistance
to Jews as one of his duties. We thought that we had finally found a haven.
[5a] After we had slept through the night the hospitable railwayman stated
that he had changed his mind and that despite his best intentions he feared
to shelter Jews at his place. That new attitude of his was a result of his wife’s
attitude and her grumbling. We could not stay in that flat either.
The railwayman sent us to a hotel porter he knew, a Volksdeutscher, who
agreed to transport us to Warsaw for 6,000 zlotys. The next day, we went
to Warsaw by car along with some Lublin municipality clerks.
We alighted on Nowy Świat Street.¹⁷⁴ The Volksdeutscher escorted us to
the guard post on Leszno Street. [6] We waited for the Jewish labourers’ return
from a work detail. This is how we entered the Warsaw ghetto.
ARG II 353 (Ring. II/307)
Description: original, handwritten (Tr*), ink, Polish, 150×192 mm, 6 sheets,
11 pages. Note on p. 1 (pencil): “Majdan.”
173 The Communist International (Comintern), international organisation associating communist parties from European countries and the United States, established on Vladimir Lenin’s initiative in 1919; dissolved in 1943.
174 That is, far from the ghetto area.
