After February 1941, Warsaw ghetto, [Nacia]. Memoir of a woman
deported from Łódz on 10 February 1940, regarding her stay in Głowno
during 1940−1941; expulsion of 2,000 resettled Jew, establishment of the
ghetto, round-ups for forced labour, fire in the town, contacts with Poles,
sanitary campaigns and deportation to Warsaw on 28 February 1941.
[Notebook No.] I
[1] I arrived in the town of Głowno on 10 February 1940. It was after all the
resettlements⁹²⁵ from small, nearby towns. Of the total of 5,000 Jews living
in Głowno, 2,000 were resettled.⁹²⁶ They had been resettled by stages from
Stryków, Zgierz, Konstantynów, Aleksandrów, and Łódź. The resettled lacked
bedding, clothes and other essential belongings. The resettlement was unexpected. The people had to assemble on the market square, usually at dawn.
They were then put on carts and sent away. The further, the better! So that they
would not be useless ballast in the Reich. Expelled, driven out of their homes
into the unknown, they crossed the border between the territories recently
incorporated into the Reich and the then-Protectorate⁹²⁷ and they stopped in
the first town on the other side of the border. Głowno was that town, so they
usually settled there. Besides, where were they supposed to go? In the morning,
they had been in their homes. Now, in the evening, tired and cold, they
were reaching their longed-for destination. Where were mothers, babies,
and half-conscious children, who were begging for food, supposed to go?
My father was in Głowno on 13 December 1939 and he saw the arriving transports.
All those who saw those scenes were weeping. Lines of carts loaded with
belongings, children, and women. The men were walking behind the carts.
925 Deportations to the General Government from the territories annexed to the Reich. 87,883 Jews and Poles were expelled from Wartheland by the end of 1939.
926 Information about 2,000 resettled Jews in Głowno appears in the correspondence between the Committee to Help Refugees in Głowno with the AJDC headquarters in Warsaw in April 1940. The undated list of names of beneficiaries of this Committee contains 540 families, a total of 2,334 people. AŻIH, AJDC, 210/338, pp. 3−19, 20. The convergence of the official data and those included in the testimony is striking.
927 The Protectorate became the future General Government.
