We went to the home of an acquaintance and soon heard a frightening
uproar – three rifles had been found in a Jew’s cellar. The Jew was brought
before a court-martial and two Poles testified that he had nothing to do with
it, because he had returned only today, and that the affair was most assuredly
a provocation. As a result, the Jew was freed from a death sentence but
sentenced to 10 lashes. While the court-martial was taking place, all the Jews
were subjected to three thorough body searches in case they had any weapons
on them. The searchers seized the opportunity to take whatever they fancied
from the Jews, mainly merchandise.
They also went into the Jews’ flats, threw everything they found there out
of the windows and told the Poles to take it. During the searches, they stood
us up against the wall a few times to be shot, but they didn’t shoot.
All in all, the soldiers were different types.
There was a woman from Będzin among us and when a soldier brought
all the children chocolate, she told him that one of the children was not well
and he went to the military pharmacy and brought back various medicines.
Another soldier told us that in four weeks’ time there would not be a single
Jew left in Poland – just like back home in Germany.
Yet a third soldier told us not to worry, we would be treated well by
them and want [12] for nothing. The same socialist order would be maintained
in Poland as they had in Germany. “Everybody equal”. They talked
politics with us and said they had not imagined that Poland was so weak
and that because of that England and France had retracted their declaration
of war.⁷¹⁹
There was massive troop movement on the street: thousands, tens of
thousands of vehicles carrying soldiers, tanks, machine guns, all going in the
direction of Warsaw. We wanted to go to the town hall to obtain a pass for
Radomsko, but it was impossible to cross the road.
In the morning, we went back to the bridge, but the guard would not let
us across, saying, “Jews have to cross in the water, the bridge is for human
beings only.” We went away and came to a place where soldiers were bathing.
We asked their leader to intervene to enable us to cross the bridge. He replied
politely that he was not in a position to do so, but he sent a shaygetz who
719 Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, but took no part in military operations until the spring of 1940.
