are distributed half an hour before the party leaders put forward a demand
about them. The stomach is the best barometer.
At present there are 34 factories in operation, 12 of which are tailoring
workshops. Everyone working in the kehillah receives meals in special kitchens.
The population gets meat twice a week and 400 grams of good bread daily.
Every newborn child is immediately issued with a food card. Children up to
the age of 3 benefit from special nutrition. Bread costs 1 mark per kilogram;
potatoes, 22 pfennigs per kilogram. (I give support with one hand and take
from everyone as much as possible with the other. It is all about the price of
bread and potatoes.)
[4] Cost breakdown is as follows: persons entitled to eat in kitchens
(By the way, all the kitchens cook the same soup, but there is no lack of
thieves. Four kitchens are 100 per cent kosher. Under my rule there are no
political parties whatsoever, and thieves and underworld types have no rights
at all.) Every two weeks they receive:⁶³⁴
ARG I 885 (Ring. I/193)
Description: duplicate (2 copies), handwritten (H.W.*), pencil, Yiddish,
147×208 mm, 8 sheets, 8 pages.
Edition based on first copy of duplicate, 4 sheets, 4 pages.
(b)
[1] When the duty to take over the Community in the Łódź ghetto was imposed
upon me, I thought that neither my health, nor mind, nor education made
me suitable for that position, but I was forced to take up the duties of the
Chairman of the Council of Elders. The Jews of Łódź went through the same
things at the beginning as Warsaw Jewry are now experiencing. When wondering
how to prevent evil, I thought that only through striving for the following:
work, bread, help for the sick, help for children, and peace in the ghetto,
could we maintain a normal situation. I have been following that line ever
since. I launched factories, the Łódź ghetto has become a city of labour, so
that even the authorities appreciate our undertakings. It is true that at the
beginning, workers began to talk politics, rebellions started, but I had to raise
634 The text ends here.
