Those aforementioned, seized for forced labour on Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur, were shortly released, after being detained for a few days. As it
transpired, they were released for the following reasons: The cukrownia⁵²⁹ in
Wrocław required a larger number of Christian workers. In town, there was
some disturbance in the meantime and the sugar refinery refused to take
Jews for work.
In the kehillah, a larger number of Jewish workers are also employed,
who work at different outposts. The wage is 3.60 [zlotys] daily for 7 hours
of work and a certain allocation of foodstuffs, in kind. The poor go to work
very eagerly.
A characteristic event occurred [5] at one of the outposts: A group was
working far from town. The work itself took little time because they had been
driven to the swamps for several hours. So at the location they did almost
nothing and had to get overnight accommodation. The Germans, however,
made a “hotel” out of a specially prepared house for the workers and asked
the workers to pay from 3 to 8 zlotys for a night. It goes without saying that
most workers slept in the field.
In the town, there is also a certain number of refugees from Płock and
Bodzanów.⁵³⁰ They live in shelters, accommodated by the kehillah. They live
in difficult conditions. The largest number of instances of typhus and other
diseases occur among the refugees.
Following the issue of the latest decree, leaving the Jewish ghetto incurs the
death penalty.⁵³¹ Large-scale arrests have been carried out. A group of porters,
detained on the Aryan side, were arrested. Apart from them, a group of barbers
was arrested. The hairdressers were allegedly arrested because the barber
shops were considered [6] places that spread terror and other news. Both
groups were sent to Oświęcim.
A group of Poles was arrested for showing compassion and distributing
help (like food and cigarettes) among Russian POWs, who are found outside
529 (Polish) sugar refinery. Formerly Zuckerfabrik Schottwitz, founded in 1890. It is striking that the Polish name of the town was used here, rather than the German name Breslau.
530 In March 1941, approximately 1,000 Jews deported from the Ciechanów Governorate were sent to Częstochowa. See M. Grynberg, Żydzi w rejencji ciechanowskiej, pp. 102–103.
531 See footnote 27 (Introduction).
