[6] Throughout the week after the first Aktion, Jews were selling
everything they had. The Polish traders took advantage of the situation, buying
Jewish possessions at next to nothing. Everybody wanted to have some
cash, as it was generally believed that one needed money at all times. Nobody
doubted that it was not over yet and that more suffering was in the future.
Everybody is trying to get productive, of course, in order to save their lives.
Various operators are making a fortune on their neighbours’ suffering.
Vox populi:³⁰⁷ We will not go to the square again. We would rather die
than relive the nightmare of the first Aktion. There was a swelling wave
of piety.
On Saturday, 6 June, Jukiel Brand announced that all Jews had to come
to the square for residence cards. That day the German commission, which
included the Landrat, registered members of the Judenrat, Order Service, hospital
personnel, and 6 paramedics. That day many members of the Order
Service married local girls. (The aim was to save those Jewish women; the
marriages were fictitious.)³⁰⁸
That day it became apparent that something was up. In the evening,
after 7 [o’clock] we hid in our hideout in the attic with my husband’s sister-
in-law and two neighbours (we had left our baby in the hospital). We put
two pillows and eiderdowns in the hideout. There was barely enough space
to lie on our backs. Spiders, centipedes and other bugs were crawling on us.
We had to endure the constant lack of space, air, and light. Bread and water
were our only food. Around 10 [o’clock] in the evening, we heard the Order
Service calling on the people to come to the square on Sunday, announcing
that, “yThe Judenrat shall not take responsibility for any victimsy” [among
the Jews who are hiding]. At 5 [o’clock] in the morning we heard, Raus.
At 6 [o’clock] the pyziaks conducted the first search. They concluded that Hier
sind keine Juden.³⁰⁹ We observed what was happening in the street, looking
through the cracks in the walls (wooden buildings). Polish and Ukrainian
youths walked from one Jewish house to another, helping to find hidden Jews.
They were looting too. (“Franek, look at this cool bag. Stasiek, what a great hat.”)
307 (Latin) voice of the people
308 At the beginning, families, wives and children, of members of the Judenrat and the Order Service were exempted from the resettlement.
309 (German) There are no Jews here.
