make purchases in shops or in the market square. I also saw a peculiar thing:
Many of the shops were run by Poles, particularly the intelligentsia, such as
judges, former clerks, and public prosecutors, who used to hold positions in
other towns. Due to the war, they had returned to their hometowns or to their
families. The Dębica municipal board, headed by the middle school teacher S.,
not only did not help the Jewish population, but even made the lives of the
Jews more difficult whenever possible. For instance, a bomb dropped on our
house in Dębica during a German air raid, cutting it in half as if with a knife.
In the surviving part, we had an engine that kept the water supply system
running. The municipal board took it away, along with all the bricks and
wood, under the pretext of [17] covering the clearing costs. Moreover, the part
of the plot where our damaged house stood was allocated for a street without
any consultation.
As for prices, in Dębica they were several times lower than even the
prices in Aryan Warsaw.
After a few days in Dębica, I made another stop in Tarnów on my way.
A certain change had taken place there: The Jews were now forbidden to walk
along certain streets. They could walk only along side streets (February 1942).⁵²
ARG I 721 (Ring. I/610)
Description: duplicate (3 copies), handwritten (CA*), pencil, Polish, 3,
150×210 mm, 51 sheets, 51 pages. Attached is Hersh Wasser’s note in Polish:
“1942. 3 duplicates. No. 610. »On leave from the ghetto« (temporary leaving
of the Warsaw ghetto on the basis of a pass) (Warsaw Polish side – Tarnów –
Dębica – Warsaw). Comments – Polish-Jewish relations. Submitted by Salomea
Ostrowska, written by Attorney Milet.”
Edition based on the first copy of the duplicate, 17 sheets, 17 pages.
52 The ordinance of 7 February 1942 forbade the Jews to walk along Krakowska, Małe Schody, Wielkie Schody, and Wałowa Streets, as well as from Basztowa Street to Wałowa Street, from Rybna Street to Żołnierska Street, and from Kupiecka Street to Wałowa Street. These ordinances limited the possibility to walk from the eastern part of the city to one place in the western part of the city, Pilzneńska Gate.
