[Dear comrade] Szachno,
We must point out that it would be unwelcome for you to send one of
Ephraim Lazar’s comrades, because they oppress us ruthlessly even though
they are few in number. They operate with figures and activities from 1939,
which today are totally irrelevant.
You must ensure that the delegation includes Najsztat,⁶¹⁹ Bornsztajn⁶²⁰ and
Trajstman,⁶²¹ who are Łódź representatives familiar with conditions here.
ARG I 921 (Ring. I/208)
Descripti on: original, handwritten, ink, Yiddish, 212×304 mm. 1 sheet, 1 page.
After 14 May 1941, Warsaw ghetto, Hersh Wasser, notes of a speech by
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski in the Warsaw ghetto on 14 May 1941.⁶²²
[1] Permit me to greet citizens of the former Łódź, now Litzmannstadt.
Should I say things were bad — what for? Say things are good — what
for? These are reproaches. I begged them with tears in my eyes to let me be
excused. My health, intellect, and training are not up to it, but I had to do it.
If you can’t jump over it, you have to cross it anyway. You are suffering the
birth pangs now, but a lot could have been done here. I warned them that
a ghetto — friends are sitting here, a pity they are not there — a melokhe
a brokhe⁶²³ — my five slogans: work, bread, help for the sick, care for the children,
peace in the ghetto — factories overnight. The Beirat can only talk —
619 Probably Leyb (Leon) Neustadt (1890–1943), before WWII helped establish free loan funds in Poland, supported JDC assistance to the Bund and its affiliated organisations. One of four JDC directors during WWII. He was murdered in Pawiak prison.
620 Rabbi David Bornsztajn, see Doc. 18.
621 Rabbi Sholem Trajstman, see Docs. 1, 18, 25, and 37.
622 Rumkowski visited the Warsaw ghetto from 13 to 20 May 1941. His objectives were the exchange of experiences with Adam Czerniaków and bringing specialised medical doctors to the Łódź ghetto. See Docs. 47 and 48, which are versions of this speech.
623 (Yiddish) Work is a blessing.
