What has changed for us during the war⁵
Before the war I lived with my parents and siblings in the Praga district.
My father was a cobbler. He worked all day to feed us. I was in grade five of
the primary school. I was supposed to go to gymnasium, but I couldn’t do that
because of the war. Every year I would go to summer camp or to the sanatorium
to spend my holidays. Then the war broke out. When the bombardment
started, we escaped to Warsaw⁶ to stay with my aunt because my father, having
lost his job, had no means of subsistence. We stayed there until the raids
ended. Once, during the raids, we took refuge in one of the shelters. Bombs and
shrapnel fell from all sides. Suddenly I heard a terrible bang and everything
went dark. When I came to, I saw people crowding by the window, trying to get
out into the street. I followed suit and jumped out the window into the street.
There were a lot of wounded people there, and broken glass was falling from
the windows. People didn’t know where to run. Finally, when the shooting
calmed down a bit, I went home and went to sleep hungry and tired. The next
day, when I woke up, I was told the joyful news that there was a ceasefire.⁷
After the ceasefire we returned to Praga, to our flat. But we had no place to live.
Then my eldest brother signed up for a job with the Germans, [2] earning 3 zlotys
20 groszy a day.⁸ Unexpectedly, one day a decree was issued telling all Jews
5 See M. Ferenc Piotrowska, “Trajektoria rodzinna jako szczególny sposób doświadczania cierpienia – wnioski z analizy dokumentów osobistych z getta warszawskiego,” Kultura i Społeczeństwo 2017, no. 3, pp. 185–95. See also J. Kowalska-Leder, “Okupacyjna codzienność w pisanych po polsku dziennikach dzieci Holokaustu”, Teksty Drugie 2009, no. 4, pp. 39–61.
6 The inhabitants of Praga, district located on the right bank of the Vistula River, referred to the left bank Warsaw as “the city”.
7 The most intensive air raids and powerful artillery fire fell on besieged Warsaw on
21–26 September 1939, among others on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur on 22 September (see Czerniaków, Dziennik, p. 48). On 27 September 1939, the Polish military command and representatives of civil authorities of the besieged capital signed a ceasefire with Germany. That day at 2.00 p.m., the shooting stopped. On 28 September the capitulation agreement was concluded and on 1 October 1939 the German army entered Warsaw.
8 The forced labour order in the GG applied to Jewish men from 14 to 60 years of age. In some cases, this provision was also applied to women. The duty was two days a week, but many young men volunteered to do someone else’s work as a source of income. Until August 1940, Warsaw Jews were doing their forced labour in the so-called placówki – military,
