occurred shortly after the entry of the German troops. To be precise, they
found a Christian with a cut-throat razor on him, and with that same razor
they cut his throat. By chance, they also shot a certain Pese Ite Szwarc, who
was lying sick. Bentzion, the deaf shoemaker, was walking out of town and
didn’t hear the shout from a German soldier, who then shot him. Eliezer
Rozenbojm’s house was set on fire, but, thank God, the night passed in peace,
and only a few rifle shots were heard.
Saturday, 9 September 1939. I rose very early and met Reuven Leyb
Rotenbach, who had already eaten. I asked him how things were, and he
replied that there was nothing new. We had a small bottle of alcohol,
so we offered Reuven Leyb Rotenbach a small glass. To thank us, he put
tea from a tin in a teapot for us, and we drank, and afterwards offered
Yitzhok Hermelin some fresh hot tea for the Sabbath. [8a] At 7 o’clock precisely,
we finished praying and set to work, that is, we made kiddush over
95-proof spirit and ate a bit of the roast duck. Then we waited until 9 o’clock.
At exactly 9, we made proper Sabbath onions with chopped liver, eggs and
chicken fat, and washed our hands before eating the bread which we had
had since Friday.
In the middle of our meal, my wife Reyzl and my two sons Chaim and
Shimon arrived from the village to find out what was happening in town.
After discussing the situation, we decided that my wife Reyzl should return
to the village to fetch food for everyone and hire a cart in the village. So Reyzl
went to the village and began to try to hire a cart, but none of the peasants in
the village were willing to travel because they were afraid their horses would
be taken from them. By good fortune, a householder, Chabera, brought our
possessions into town. It happened like this: One of his daughters had died
and since he needed an outfit for her, my wife Reyzl promised to give him
everything he needed from my shop. Thus, Reyzl got what she wanted from
him and he set out. But one cart wasn’t enough, so my father ran around the
village and after great effort [9] managed to hire another cart, and thus they
all arrived home safely from the village at around 4 p.m. on the Sabbath.
Everyone else began returning to town from the surrounding villages. People
who had fled Łódź also started going back. Nobody bothered them.
The whole night between Saturday and Sunday was quiet. The German
authorities had already announced that it was not permitted to be on the
street between nightfall and daybreak.
