ZAMOŚĆ COUNTY
ZAMOŚĆ
After 6 June 1942, Warsaw Ghetto, Fiszelzon. Testimony “ ”זאַמאָשטש
[Zamość], recorded by Hersh Wasser. Situation of the Zamość Jews and
two Aktionen on 11 April and 27 May 1942.
[1] Zamość
– I cannot be happy anymore and [I] doubt, whether I will be able to recover
again after the horrors I lived through – begins my informant Fiszelzon,
Nalewki 41, flat 49, who has just arrived from Zamość. A man of over 40 [and]
a father of 5 children, religiously inclined.
– And [if not for] the feeling of responsibility for my very sick wife
and the 5 poor innocent swallows, I would put an end to my empty and
hopeless life, despite my religious attitude and my deep belief and faith.
I have come to the Warsaw coffin and I still cannot come to terms with the
thought that the Jews work, produce, laugh, joke, and can see the near end.³⁹⁰
On the one hand, I am glad that life goes on here, that it goes its own way,
but on the other hand it is appallingly wrong that people do not sprinkle
ashes on their heads: We are all mourners (tears come to his eyes and his
voice breaks).
– You ask me why I went to Zamość.
His wife helps him out:
– Because the Jew is an eternal wanderer [2] who cannot stay peacefully
in one place.
– No! – the husband interrupts her. The appallingly high prices, which
reached over 20 zlotys for a kilo of bread [compelled] me to leave Warsaw.
In May 1941 I sent away my wife with the children, and on 15 June 1941 I was
also already in Zamość. I had [. . .] chosen Zamość because that is where I come
from, and where all my relatives lived. Before the war, Zamość numbered
390 Meaning unclear; it could be the end of the exile.
