families were being sent together or men and women separately. We also
listened attentively about other unusual symptoms: The wealthy had immediately
taken care of their poorer neighbours, for whom they brought food
products and fuel. At night, the following news spread with lightning speed:
The rabbi and the religious community chairman suddenly felt so [3] seriously
ill that an ambulance was called for them and they were taken to Warsaw.¹²³²
Panic spread everywhere and everybody focused on how to get out. No money
was spared (I am talking about the rich, of course) and, during a few night
hours, an ambulance was called several times.
On the night of 23–24 January, the gendarmerie commandant was
awaiting news from Warsaw. The next morning (it was Friday) at 9:30 a.m.
he announced, Ich hafte Ihnen persönlich, dass Sie für die nächsten 8 Tage
ruhig bleiben können.¹²³³ We hurried to inform all the Jews. The deputy
Kreishauptmann (as it later turned out) came by car from Warsaw at 11 o’clock
that day and he began to re-inspect the borders of our district in the company
of the gendarmes. That strengthened our conviction that there had been no
order yet. We were all the more shocked when an hour later he sent for the
Councellors and gave us the following order, there, on the street: On Monday
morning a bathhouse had to be ready for the steaming¹²³⁴ of [3a] all the Jews,
as the evacuation to Warsaw would begin that day. He then explained that
everybody was free to take all the money they had, while the craftsmen’s
machinery and appliances had to be gathered in one place, from where it
would be transported to Warsaw in several days and handed to their rightful
owners. As for food products, we should not take any as Kartoffel und Brot
haben wir in Warschau für Euch vorbereitet.¹²³⁵ He then asked us about the
1232 Warned by the Polish police commandant Weclaw, Rabbi Rozencweig and Community chairman Abram Konigstein left earlier for Warsaw by ambulance, taking the Torah scrolls from the synagogue in Jeziorna. Konigstein’s daughter survived the war and left a testimony about those events. See AŻIH, Holocaust testimonies, Feiga Rotstein’s testimony, 301/2980, pp. 1–2.
1233 (German) I personally vouch that for the next 8 days you can stay where you are.
1234 In Polish, the term is parowanie or parówka, literally steam bath. In the Warsaw ghetto it was forced disinfection and delousing, supposed to reduce spread of typhus. It did not stop the epidemic but became one of the methods of destroying the ghetto residents and their belongings. Here it seems to be a local “invention” meant as additional sufferance, and then the resettled had to repeat the experience upon their arrival in Warsaw.
1235 (German) we have prepared potatoes and bread for you in Warsaw.
