a station building of the train and two long rows of houses near both sides of
the road, which leads to Radzymin. Further into the depth off the road, small
groups of buildings lie scattered, which form separate units. These are factory
buildings with accompanying houses for the workers and employees, because
the whole area between Pustelnik-Marki-Zacisze, Radzymin and Zielonka is
occupied by brick factories and peat quarries. Bricks and peat are the most
important products of the area and the majority of the working population is
employed in both these industries.
Before the war, the Jewish community of Pustelnik consisted of approximately
200 families, which numbered about 850 people. The Jewish population
made a profitable living from working at the aforementioned brick factories,
by producing and selling bricks, and also in providing machines and necessary
equipment for the brick factories, from trade in the town in all kinds of
goods and also from trade with nearby Warsaw. Many Pustelnik residents [. . .]
Warsaw and taken to [. . .] cheaply. [3] [. . .] participated in Jewish social and
political life. In the shtetl, Jewish parties had representation, and the kehillah
consisted of members of political parties with a distinct Zionist majority.
The outbreak of the war befell Pustelnik just as it did in the other towns
of Poland. It became familiar with mobilisation, with buying extra supplies,
with some panic and air raid sirens. Pustelnik did not directly suffer from
bombings c[. . .] was very often bombed because crowds of refugees and Polish
military groups [. . .] on this road. Because of [. . .] [resi]dents carried from
their houses by the road and the [. . .] deeper, near the forest. [. . .]c¹²⁷⁰ Hence,
Pustelnik was destined to become a front-line position of the Germans during
the siege of Warsaw.
On 11–12 September, the retreating Polish military groups appeared in
Pustelnik, after which the advancing Germans moved in. Upon retreating,
the Polish military forces made fortified positions on the Marki-Zielonka line.
Immediately after them, on the morning of Rosh Hashanah, the first German
patrols, motorcyclists, and armed cyclists appeared. One of them fell from
a bullet, which had been fired by one of the last Polish patrols. This caused the
Germans to set out from house to house enquiring after the military. [. . .] were
[. . .] in the Polish [. . .] [4] Comrade Kal.[?] to go with them. Comrade P. [F.?]
remained undisturbed and the [. . .]. Kal.[?] was taken by the Germans to
1270 c–c Annotation no. 2 from p. [24] inserted as indicated by the author.
