entail and how lamentable its consequences would be. They understood that
the confiscation of goods was tantamount to the spectre of hunger, that it
would mean a gloomy mood, despair, and aggravation of all household members,
who would blame the children, cursing them and beating. Therefore,
children tried to avoid any contact with the police, and if they did fall into
one’s hands, they tried to beg him with cries, tears, and appeals, asking him
to take pity and return the seized goods. It is obvious that such constant
fear has had a negative impact on the children’s souls, making them distrustful
and suspicious, and teaching them prematurely about the hard side
of everyday life.
[8] Peddling goods has not been the only way Jewish children have sought
to make a living. After the ghetto was created in Warsaw, Jewish children
got involved in smuggling. Since they were more inconspicuous than adults,
and because they did not wear armbands, it was more difficult to recognise
them as Jews, so their parents sent them out to the Aryan side to buy various
products there and bring them back to the Jewish district. Around all
the ghetto’s outlets, groups of children constantly hung around, waiting
for the German gendarme on guard to turn away or get busy with something,
and then they would sneak to the Polish side. There, they would buy
a few loaves of bread, a few kilograms of potatoes or something else, and then
would return to the ghetto the same way and sell the goods there. Sometimes
they would also cling to Polish trams passing through the ghetto, getting to
the other side that way. Adults also used children to smuggle at the border
walls. It was easier for a child to get through the wall unnoticed, and children
also did not face as much danger as an adult Jew. So they would take advantage
of every convenient moment when there was no German or policeman
nearby, and would climb the bare walls, crossing over to the other side, or
slipping through the holes by the gutters. In time, children from the Jewish
district perfected their skills, climbing the walls with a truly acrobatic dexterity
and setting off to villages near Warsaw.⁴⁶⁶ Often, for example from
one refugee Point on Dzika Street, a group of boys aged 11–14 set off together
and, clinging to trams or crossing the wall, would get to the Polish side, and
from there, in carts or trains, those little ones would go to the countryside
or to small towns. They stayed overnight with peasants; begging, they would
466 See doc. 2, Zanwel Krigsman’s account.
