requested to appear in front of the municipality building. All will be transported
to the places from where they came. It was permitted to go out all night,
and the police delivered the announcement to everyone. Any intervention was
out of the question because Führer’s birthday fell on this day.⁹⁸⁸ 2,600 refugees
were assembled by force; at the same time 3 hostages were taken, and led
away to Stryków. Units especially brought from Warsaw guarded the crowd.
A mass of people spent the night in the schoolyard. In the morning, the guard
changed and guards from Łódź replaced the guards from Warsaw. The whole
mass of people was driven out, back to Głowno (Stryków was already within
the territory of the Reich). In Głowno, they were all locked in a factory and
within several days the way back became terrible. The entire luggage that people
took with them was burnt. They were fiercely beaten. One was shot and
many were viciously beaten up. Some later died from the blows.
On 8 May, an order was issued that a ghetto for the Jews will be established
and that on 12 May all Jews must be inside the ghetto. On the evening
of 12 May, searches were carried out in the ghetto and a lot was taken from
the Jews. The authorities appointed Lenski, a Volksdeutscher, called a “hygienist,”
as the commissioner of the ghetto. Several days later, Jews, men, women
and children, were taken for delousing. The inspection at the delousing was
supervised by the “hygienist,” who at that time displayed his sadistic feelings.
Lenski’s power over the ghetto was unlimited. He carried out house searches,
took away various things, stole constantly, punished the Jews for not leaving
the ghetto legally, etc. He and his two deputies ruled for five months.
On 16 May 1940, the composition of the Judenrat changed. From then on,
it consisted of 8 persons. The Jewish police was formed and the chairman of
the Judenrat became its chief. The police behaved brutally towards the population.
Bribery was a common phenomenon. The Judenrat consisted entirely
of merchants, joined by a German Jew, Leyb Borensztajn, a well-known activist
in the workers’ movement in 1905, who went by the name of Yankl Kaiser.
The Judenrat was exceptionally hated by the Jewish population.
Two days before Rosh Hashanah a fire broke out in the town of Głowno,
which (by that time) was Judenrein. The following day, the Jews from the
ghetto were accused of being the arsonists, and [5] the ghetto was sealed as
a punishment. Guards consisting of Volksdeutsche (the so-called “blacks”)
988 20 April was a national holiday in the Third Reich.
