martyrology, the particular horror of that day will be compared only with
the Haidamak massacres.²²⁰
21 April 1941.
ARG I 709 (Ring. I/1006)
Description: duplicate (2 copies), handwritten (BW*), pencil, Yiddish,
148×207 mm, 6 sheets, 6 pages. Signs “-” in the margins (green ink). The document was kept in a binder.
Edition based on the first copy of the duplicate, 3 sheets, 3 pages.
SOSNOWICA
25 January 1942, Sosnowica near Parczew, Hanka Wermus. Letter to an
unknown addressee in the Warsaw ghetto concerning the author’s work
and the living conditions on the village head’s farm.
[1] 25 January 1942
Sosnowica near Parczew
Dear Girls,
I am a bit of a “swine” for not writing to you at all since my departure. But I left
with the intention to better my living conditions and I wished to write once
I put my life in some order. But a new year has already begun and I am still
[“feeding] pigs” and this position [. . .] which nobody knows when it shall
come. Meanwhile [?] I am writing after such a long time [. . .] big changes during
this time. Even though I think [. . .] you know the details already, I shall
write [. . .] about everything in detail. First and foremost, let me explain to
you where Sosnowica is. It is located 20 km off Parczew (this shall not tell you
220 The Haidamaks were Cossack rebels in 18th century Ukraine who ravaged Jewish communities in the course of their revolt. In Jewish collective memory, these events are associated with particular brutality.
