It was a few minutes short of 6 p.m. and we wanted to go home, because we
believed that we could still find shelter there and that the local people were
the same friends as before the war. However, on seeing us, a goy came out to
meet us. He was an American citizen who, in his private life before the war,
had been unable to understand the attitude of the local Poles to the Jews,
because in the course of his life in America he had been used to a different way
of living together. He called us to him and said, “Don’t risk it. These are early
days, you can’t understand what a change has taken place in the minds of the
locals over these few days. Yesterday’s best friend is now your enemy. Come in
to my place, all of you. I’ll give you all supper, even better than at home, and
a place to sleep.” Some of us younger ones wanted to hurry on home — what’s
3 km? — but the older ones declared that the goy had come to us as a messenger
from God, to protect us from whatever evil there might be, and that we
should heed his advice. We did so, in compliance with acharei rabim lehatot,⁶⁸⁷
and at 5 o’clock the next morning, as soon as it was permitted to walk outside,
we hurried home. At home, all the Jewish flats were in disorder and all
the faces were embittered. I have already more or less related how the couple
of days up to my arrival went. Standing in the market square on the second
day after my arrival, [2] I suddenly saw an old Christian being led with
his hands up, followed by taksówki carrying leaders of the town authorities.
They stopped by the town covered market and in the presence of many people,
especially Jews, because it is mostly Jews who live in the market square, the
mayor read out the death sentence passed on the Christian by the court-martial.
In accordance with the sentence, he was shot next to the covered market.
Straight away, two young Hasidim with peyes, curious onlookers, were singled
out and ordered to move the body to the Christian cemetery and bury it there,
while another two were made to wash the blood off the wall.
News reached the shtetl that all the leaders arrested and deported by the
Polish authorities were coming back home. The Jews were delighted, because
we believed that our good old friends, with whom we had lived and worked
together for so many years, were returning. They would help us in all kinds
of tzarot ufuranuyot⁶⁸⁸ and would exert their influence on those enraged,
and explain to them that they should not vent their anger on us because
687 (Hebrew) follow the majority (Exodus 23:2).
688 (Hebrew) troubles and afflictions (a phrase from rabbinic literature).
