Once they crossed the border, [. . .] their mood greatly improved. One
didn’t see so many Germans, everything was more Polish, as before. After several
hours of driving, they arrived in Warsaw. There, first of all they were met
by thieves. The city was swarming with them. They stole my father’s sweater
and shirt. He felt much more comfortable there than in Łódź. One was allowed
outside until 8 in the evening. Compared to Łódź, one saw few Germans there.
In the street, father saw an announcement sentencing a Jew to death once
caught after escaping from forced labour. Moreover, everything was expensive
in Warsaw. One kilogram of bread costs 1.75 zloty. Coal — 40 zlotys per
100 kg. My father rented a flat, left our cousin there with our belongings, and
came back. A lot of Łódź residents come to Warsaw these days. The return did
not go so smoothly. He was returning by train with my aunt. The journey was
quiet until they reached Koluszki. In Koluszki, [8] the Jews were not allowed
on board, the Jews were not to return to Łódź. However, thanks to [. . .] they
got on the train. Poles welcomed them rather without [. . .] Jewish patches and
loudly expressed their satisfaction [. . .] in Łódź there would not be a single
Jew. Finally, they arrived [. . .]. At the platform exit, there was a gendarme,
who told each Jew he noticed to stand aside. There was an already sizeable
group of Jews there. Father slipped by unnoticed, but my aunt was stopped.
Finding himself in a brightly lit station hall, father was afraid that they would
catch him, and risked crossing the street to relatives living nearby despite the
time — it was 10 in the evening. Luckily for him, he did not meet any patrol.
Two days later, my aunt came back. It turned out that they had been
transported to Koluszki in a sealed car. There, they were released and smuggled
themselves to the Reich. My cousin was also arrested on her way back from
Łódź to Warsaw. She was imprisoned for four weeks, along with many other
Jews also arrested for returning to Łódź. They were detained without investigation;
only on release were they asked about the reason for the detention.
To make things even worse, catching men and women for forced labour
reached [9] such proportions that it became impossible [to] go outside. In the
street, there were a lot of people with an arm in a sling or carrying a backpack.
It was supposed to protect them against capture [. . .] a Jew with
a backpack and having heard from him [. . .] expressed their satisfaction and
[. . .] just did not come back. Wir brauchen keine Juden,²⁰¹ people said.
201 (German) We do not need any Jews.
