and secretly maintained relationships with the Jews, but rarely did anyone
have the courage [to do this] openly. There is no point in mentioning relations
with the Polish population [2] because few peasants live in the surroundings
of Żyrardów and they travel for trade mostly to the neighbouring towns of
Wiskitki and Mszczonów.
The relations with the state and communal administration were the same
as with the population. Earlier quite loyal, and later anti-Semitic. cThe “loyalty”
of the administration towards the Jews in the best times was only superficial.
This can be illustrated by the following fact: in Żyrardów Jewish and
non-Jewish children used to learn together, and this disturbed the leading
personalities of the town administration and allowed for the construction
of a special building for the Jewish school and [was thus] arranged. The Jews
were persuaded that the purpose was to their benefit, but the true meaning
of it was segregation.
Several weeks after the outbreak of the war, relations began to normalize.
Merchants gradually started to trade; craftsmen gradually began working.
Rarely could anyone earn his entire living, so one lived off what was still
left. Jews did not acquire new sources of income. There were also no particular
sources of income, which had completely stopped; everyone, to a certain
extent, occupied himself with the same as before the war.c¹²⁰² This was the situation until the beginning of 1939, when it began to deteriorate. The relations
between the Christians and Jews were not particularly hostile at that time,
but also not particularly friendly.
The board of the Jewish community of Żyrardów consisted of 7 people.
The community was a place of never-ending fights. The supporters of the
rabbi conducted a war against the supporters of the moreh hora’ah. As usual,
one denunciation followed another, and there was no shortage of ill blood.
In such an atmosphere, the community board did not think much about aid
work, did not carry out any constructive help, and was satisfied with [merely]
supporting a poor wanderer.
The aid work was carried out on a small scale by the gemilut chesed fund,
which lent small sums to craftsmen and petty merchants, to be paid back in
small instalments, and Linat Hatzedek which distributed medical aid to poor,
sick people.
1202 c-c Fragment moved from p. [4], as marked by the author with letters xx.
