When the war broke out, my father stopped working, but my brother started
trading cigarettes and made some money. But when it was forbidden to trade
cigarettes, my brother, [28] not seeing the possibility of making a profit, went
to the country⁴² and it was very good for him, because he sent us a package
of food every week. Seeing that it was so good in the country, my father
sold the flat and all the belongings and decided to leave with us, but we had
no luck because we were caught on the bridge and had all our money taken
from us, and then were sent back to the Jewish district. Then my cousin tried
to put me and my brother in some kind of a facility. We were enrolled in the
day-care at Nowolipki Street 25, where my brother and I have been attending
so far, and we are very happy here. We get meals several times a day
and have a good time.
18 September 1941
Mania Solomończyk
What has changed for me during the war
When the war broke out, my father was still working as an editor and earning
money. When the office burned down, my father got sick and made no money.
Then hunger started. We got into the cucumber trade. It got better again, we
were making very good money. When the cucumbers were gone, we started
trading candy. We made good money, too. We didn’t go without food because
we got a lot of bread for vouchers and soup from the kitchen. This soup, which
we brought from the kitchen, was for dinner, and mum would cook us supper.
Then, my father fell seriously ill and died. That was when things got really bad
for us. The trade wasn’t going too well because we weren’t used to it. For some
time, I made suitcase frames at the carpenter’s shop. [29] My mum did the
42 In the spring of 1941, from April to June, there was a significant outflow of inhabitants from the Warsaw ghetto, especially young people, who fled to the country, mainly to the Lublin region, where they found work with the local peasant population. Such escape attempts usually ended tragically: many of the fugitives were turned back by the German police; others were shot. See Sakowska, Ludzie z dzielnicy zamkniętej, p. 31.
