solve the Jewish question. He wanted [3] to convince us that [Hit]ler was going
to be our benefactor, more so than England [. . .]
The Germans took [. . .] furniture and to carry them, they caught the
Jews [. . .] one Jew to beat or kick [the other]. They captured more and more for
labour, men and women; girls going to school were sometimes released, but
sometimes not. In general, the Germans were not particularly polite towards
women. Although often there were exceptions to this rule, for example,
a friend was caught and ordered to do some cleaning, and the officer brought
her breakfast and helped her work. When my cousins worked, a soldier helped
them and asked them to call him by his given name, just as he addressed them.
I once saw an officer chase and beat a blind crippled Jew. In December, roundups
for labour took on such proportions that it was difficult to go out and
not be caught. Every day at 5 o’clock, soldiers came banging on our door.
Sometimes we had to open it. Once, three soldiers came and demanded goods.
Father said that they must have a certificate from headquarters. They said
that they would give him the certificate once my father gave them the good s.
There was no other way, we had to give it to them. Then they dictated information
for the invoice, supposedly for headquarters [4] and signed it, obviously
using a false name. This was the only case when we fell for it. In the
meantime, other soldiers came and wanted [. . .] certificate, but that time [. . .]
step down.
On the thirteenth,¹⁹⁷ we learned that a large percentage of teachers had
been resettled [. . .] at night. The Germans [came in the] evening, they only
gave them a few minutes, and teachers with their families and young children
had to leave their homes and go out in the freezing weather. They were
kept in camps for a while, and after several days, they were transported to
Kraków.¹⁹⁸ That day, school was suspended until further notice.
On the fourteenth,¹⁹⁹ a regulation on replacing armbands with patches
[to be worn] on the front and the back was issued. It made a lesser impression
than wearing armbands. People had already become accustomed, moreover,
there was so much talk about resettlement that it did not make much
of an impression.
197 13 December 1939. The arrests took place on 12 December, see Doc. 1.
198 See Docs. 1, 5, 22, 23, and 25.
199 This ordinance was announced on 11 December 1939. See Doc. 1, footnote 50.
