the Point, Mrs Żychlińska, who has not yet managed to check the condition
of individual children and resolve the matter in such a way that the poor and
weak courtyard children could also benefit from the care of the care worker.
In autumn, the issue of the common room deteriorated further. My premises were taken away; I did not even have a place to distribute my meals. Sometimes I hand them out in the synagogue,²⁷² sometimes in the guardhouse-administration building, too small for even a few children.
I keep in touch with children by visiting them frequently at the Point. There I find out about their terrible problems, the illnesses that afflict them, the lack of clothing and underwear, and their hunger, increasingly pressing its mark on bodies already exhausted and emaciated.
Recently (after I recovered from typhus) the guardhouse was also taken away from me. Breakfast and supper are distributed at the Point at Franciszkańska Street 21, in conditions not compliant with any standards of hygiene. In the room where the refugees are already the cleanest, there lies a sick man – a human bundle, who only moans while a meal is served, begging that way for mercy. Besides, the stench coming from the adjacent toilet often gives me a terrible headache. Only a handful of children attend. They usually lie in their bunks, sick, swollen, or without clothes. The lack of clothing and underwear is terrifying. Boots or shoes are an impossible dream. They either do not wear shirts at all, or they do not have a change of clothes. The ragged dresses are falling apart, too.
Under these conditions, we cannot get together. There is nowhere to go. The work is hard, all the harder since it fails to bring any satisfaction – maybe just the little bit, when a smile sometimes blooms on pale faces at the sight of a “big” portion of bread – the end part, a few teaspoons of yellow sugar or scrambled eggs with onions, not seen for many, many months.
[21] What we must fight for now:
1. We must provide at least basic clothing for the children.
2. We must fight for clothes and shoes. Small children cannot forget the art
of walking by lying down all the time. Clothes are also important, just like
meals.
272 I.e. at the Point; on this street were more than two dozen houses of prayer, six of them turned into Points.
