On 11 February gendarmes burst into the cell, put revolvers to our heads,
and carried out an interrogation: Du wirst so wie so [. . .] führen.⁸⁹⁸ On the
13th we were ordered to pack our things. We were not allowed to help each
other — we were told we would be shot. At 6 p.m. we were put on a train and,
after being searched and allowed to keep 20 zlotys per person, began a journey
into the unknown. We reached [. . .], where thanks to the [. . .] of the
Landrat, we [. . .] February we arrived in Warsaw to seek our luck as miserable,
homeless refugees.
ARG I 806 (Ring. 1/500)
Description: original, handwritten (H.W.*), ink, Yiddish, 143×223 mm, 2 sheets,
3 pages. In the margins, the sign “V” (with a dot in the middle) (ink). Attached is
a note by Hersh Wasser, in Polish: “Kopojno manor farm, 21 km of Konin, owner
Eng. Jan N., 1939–40, testimony.” The document was kept in a binder.
RYCHWAŁ
Date unknown, Warsaw ghetto, author unknown, ”ריכוואַהל (קאָנינער
פאָוויאַט)“ [Rychwał (Konin County)]. Account of thirty local Germans
murdered by the Polish mob in September 1939, German persecution of
the Jewish population in the first months of the occupation, expulsion
of Jews from the town in winter 1939, fate of the expelled.
[1] Rychwał (Konin County)⁸⁹⁹
As soon as military operations began, the Jews in the Kalisz area fled deeper
into the interior of the country. The shtetl of Rychwał (Konin County, near
Kalisz) was soon full of refugees.
898 (German) You will [. . .] anyway.
899 Before the war broke out, the Jewish Community in Rychwał had approximately 350 members. In November 1939 they were resettled to nearby localities of Grodziec and Królików.
