in February 1940) every couple of weeks. That last sum was not collected
at once, though. Only 3,300 RM was collected and that was the maximum
amount the Jews could pay. As a result, one night the Germans sent a few
czarni who walked from flat to flat armed with revolvers and extorted the
remaining sum of money through terror and beating.
The very same day when [. . .] was set ablaze [. . .] they began taking apart
the bet hamidrash, where the famous tzaddik Chil Majer⁷³⁸ lived. The tzaddik’s
grandson — [. . .]sztajn — was beaten then.
In early December, one of the priests was hanged in the synagogue
square for ‘maintaining commercial relations with the Jews.’
One time Rabbi Borensztajn⁷³⁹ (a sickly old man in his sixties) was apprehended
and escorted to the Market Square, where he was beaten almost until
he bled. Thereafter his beard was cut amongst laughter and ridicule on the
part of the onlookers. In the end he was ordered to run back home. A few shots
were fired after the running man to scare him.
When the requisition period began in Gostynin, approximately 10 of
the richest Jewish families left the town. Many of them [4] returned though.
It could be generally said that, with the exception of the tradesmen, the
shops were requisitioned. All that time the Jews of Gostynin even had the possibility to make a living. The ghetto was established in April 1941 but it
remained open and it did not worsen the situation of the Jews at all.
ARG I 744 (Ring. I/952)
Description: original, handwritten (FLIG*), ink, Polish, 196×351 mm, minor damages and missing fragments, 2 sheets, 4 pages.
738 Jekhiel Meir Lipszyc (1816–1888), leader of the local Hasidic community.
739 Rabbi Borensztajn was a Zionist from Bielsk.
