The procession went past for a few hours. Many people from Radomsko
joined it, because they already sensed the danger in Radomsko as well. But
not everybody could flee, not everyone had the strength for it nor the means:
no horse, no cart, and no way of getting one. And in that desperate state we
spent the night and the next morning until 12 o’clock.
A few minutes after 12 [o’clock], as we lay tired on the floor, we suddenly
heard great turmoil outside. We soon learned that a messenger from
the town hall had come and announced that danger was near and that whoever
could, should leave the town immediately. We did not even think about
what would [. . .] that we had to leave [5] the town (we simply knew the enemy
was drawing near), where we might run to, whether we had the strength
to run, and so on.
Without even thinking, we grabbed a suitcase with valuables and ran.
As we came out of the courtyard, we saw the same scene as the night
before, except that the people were not from Wieluń, but from Radomsko.
The whole town – old people, young people, men, women, Jews and Christians –
was fleeing. A terrible panic. By chance, we managed to load ourselves onto
a cart which was going in the direction of Przedbórz . As we drew away from
the town, we had the impression that we were fleeing from Sodom. As we
glanced back towards the town, we saw that it was burning.
There were many instances of non-Jews hurling stones after us and calling
out hateful slogans such as Precz z Żydami, Żydzi do Palestyny, and Polska
bez Żydów.⁷¹² We didn’t hold it against them at that point; we felt no anger, we
just felt sorry for them... We saw bombs falling in the distance and we cried
out, tamot nafshi im Pelishtim.⁷¹³ Even if Jewish property is destroyed, even
if it costs the lives of Jewish victims, a country that could produce such offspring
should perish, even if we perish with it.
6 o’clock in the evening. We drew near to Przedbórz and had the impression
that we had reached safety, because we had travelled a good 40 km away
from the front. The opposite proved to be the case: when we arrived in the
town, three armoured vehicles [with] heavy machine guns [6] came from a side
road through the fields and woods. As they drew close, they fired a few shots,
killing a Jew and wounding a Jewish girl. The vehicles then drove to the bridge
712 (Polish) “Out with the Jews”, “Jews to Palestine”, “Poland without Jews”.
713 (Hebrew) Let me die with the Philistines; Judges 16:30.
