A very characteristic secondary phenomenon accompanied the entry of
the Germans. Suddenly, unexpectedly, from one day to another, the number
of people of German origin increased a few dozen times. Not only genuine
Germans and those people who had barely tolerated being called Germans
confessed to being members of the Herrenvolk. So did one hundred per cent
Poles. A certain Schafrick⁷¹¹ was a very characteristic example in that respect.
When he had still spelled his surname as “Szafryk,” he had been the fiercest
patriot possible and the most ardent promoter of the anti-Semitic boycott
campaign. The pickets who had arrived from Toruń as guest performers had
made his shop their staging base. They had stored their propaganda materials,
clubs, leaflets, etc. there. Moreover, they had also ad hoc instructed
the local elements. The fact that the Germans appointed Szafryk the mayor
proves who he really was. The fate of hundreds of Jews was laid into the hand
of that Judeophag.⁷¹² Another crypto-German bearing a beautiful surname of
Ritterski (!)⁷¹³ also became the mayor.
Those Volksdeutsche were a real plague in the town. They usually used
two methods in their ‘activities,’ the first one being outright blackmail. They
simply visited a selected Jew and said that they had heard him speak offensively
about Hitler. But the whole thing could be forgotten in return for a certain
sum of money. The Jew paid, and dearly. He was happy to have saved his
life at such a small price.
The other method was more legalistic. They visited a Jew accompanied by
a uniformed German, and normally bought something and normally paid for
it. The whole point of that transaction was that they paid just a few per cent
of the value of the merchandise. This was how not only minor real estate, but
also whole shops and land estates were bought. A handful of facts:
1. A soda water factory was ‘bought’ from Hersz Ciuk⁷¹⁴ for 500 zlotys.
2. Bedroom furniture was ‘bought’ from Gudak for 60 zlotys.
3. A large pharmacy was ‘bought’ from Szulim Datyner⁷¹⁵ for a few hundred
zlotys.
711 Spelled also: Szafryk.
712 (from Greek) literally, devourer of Jews; word probably invented by the author.
713 In German, Ritter is a knight.
714 Hersz Ber Ciuk. See: Gminy żydowskie pogranicza Wielkopolski, Mazowsza i Pomorza, p. 297.
715 Szulim Datyner, drugstore owner. See ibidem.
