to give them. I myself had difficulty negotiating this matter with my landlady,
despite the fact that the issue did not have a direct effect on her. Should
I then call this “class interest”?
During the abovementioned inspection, one of the “quarters” located in
a study house made a very sad impression on us. The room was sufficiently
large, wide and high, that is to say, sufficiently airy, but the cold was terrible.
Nevertheless, in the few moments that we spent there we were compelled
to hold a handkerchief to our noses, because the air was so putrid.
Around the walls and the two big unlit stoves, men and women were lying in
beds upon filthy bundles; for the most part they were older people who constantly
let out another groan, ripping out a piece of our hearts. [28] We learned
that a fair number of corpses had been borne away from these “quarters”.
On one side near the wall, I noticed three long beams. When I asked why the
stove was not lit when there was enough wood, I was told that they had no
axe to chop the wood and that they could not find an axe to borrow. I don’t
believe that the Jews had not wanted to lend an axe to chop up the wood
in order to warm up old people and the sick who lay in the study house.
There was simply no-one who could take this on. The majority of them were
elderly and weak and the others, who were able and who should have done
something, were lazy.
Many of the refugees who lived in private flats also began to sense the
taste of exile. In the beginning, the landlords of those lodgings supported
the refugees, whom they had taken in with a bit of food, heating material,
and other things which a home needs to have. Later, however, the support
stopped entirely or greatly decreased. The refugees had become too much of
a burden. They simply became tiresome. It should not be forgotten that some
of the Biała Jews who had taken in refugee families were poor themselves,
and had initially given away food from their own mouths, and they could not
continue to give. On the other hand, there were many refugees who thought –
or convinced themselves – that they should be fed and lodged for free and
that everything should be provided for them. And those became too aggressive
and did not see themselves in partnership with their landlords, resulting
in many quarrels.
[29] I, too, was not in an enviable position. I earned no money, I lived
on the charity of the kahal, i.e. on the quarter of a kilo of bread and bowl of
soup per person which the aid committee provided the refugees. But this
