had lost an eye. He had wounds in other parts of his body, too. In addition,
Yosl Cwajgenbojm was lightly wounded, and a Christian woman was lightly
wounded in the leg. Only Shmuel Cwajgenbojm escaped injury. On Tuesday
afternoon, we heard the following, and we came to the conclusion that, since
everything that happens is the will of God, blessed be His Name, it should be
told in detail, thus:
[10a] When we were in the village at Mrs Cechalska, one of her sons,
Janek, was there. He had gone away with all the people fleeing to Warsaw but,
after being away one day, he returned the next, saying that he had seen so
many dead people on the road that he had become scared that he too might
be killed on the way. He [decided he] would be safer at home. Indeed, whenever
he heard an aeroplane or cannon fire, he immediately crawled into the
potato cellar to save himself from death. But on Tuesday, 11 [12] September,
when there was heavy cannon fire over the village of Ziewanice, and Janek
was hid in the potato cellar, shrapnel flew right into the cellar and killed
him on the spot, and the barn where we had stayed earlier was burned
down, along with the stalls for the animals. Several gospodarze⁸⁵⁷ from the
same village were also killed. On that same Tuesday, it was quiet in Głowno,
but at night the heavy thunder of cannon fire was heard, and it lasted
until morning.
Wednesday, 12 [13] September 1939. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5700,
we rose very early [11] to say the selichot of Zechor Brit⁸⁵⁸ with a minyan at
Hershl Pietrkowski’s and to recite hatarat nedarim⁸⁵⁹ in accordance with Jewish
custom. We heard that fowl were being slaughtered in honour of the festival,
and it turned out that the chazan was slaughtering and people had bought
geese from the farms for 6 zlotys a piece. Everything seemed fine, but the
important Rosh Hashanah festival was marred by the misfortune which befell
our town: At 1 p.m., as Avrom Yitzhok Rotenbach, a distinguished member
of the community, was going to the mikvah with his son Shmuel Zaynvil
in honour of the festival, they were stopped by a murderous hand, and the
father Avrom Yitzhok was shot on the spot near the mikvah. The humble
burial took place straightaway at 3 p.m., and the mourning in our town was
857 (Polish) farmers.
858 (Hebrew) “Remember the Covenant,” one of the selichot.
859 (Hebrew) prayer for the formal annulment of vows before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
