A chain of troubles, sorrows and heartache, all the calamities of the
world, were heaped upon the Jews in the camp. The Kutno Jewish community,
which had been a healthy branch on the tree of the Jewish people, was broken
off and severed by the kingdom of evil. They endured, and are still enduring,
the most horrific torture, pain, humiliation and plagues.
All that remains is to implore the Lord God to take pity on us and bring
us at last to complete redemption…
ARG I 836 (Ring. I/838)
Description: original (handwritten, notebook, ink 140×200 mm), duplicate
(3 copies, handwritten — TT*, pencil, 148×210 mm), Yiddish, 92 sheets, 103 pages.
In the margins (duplicate, first and third copies), the Hebrew
letter “ ה” (ink). On the last page of the original, a note by Aleksander
Pakentreger, member of the JHI staff (ballpoint pen), in Polish: “This is
the same work by Mr Piotrkowski-Łubień [sic], 13.12.1993”
Edition based on the original, 10 sheets, 20 pages.
Date unknown, Warsaw ghetto, I. Ka., testimony recorded by Daniel
Fligelman, “Kutno.” The initial period of the German occupation from
16 September 1939, persecution of the Jews, the establishment of the
Judenrat.
[1] Kutno
First, some information about Kutno. Before the war a county seat,
Kutno had approximately 27,000 residents, of whom 7,000 were Jews.
It owed its development exclusively to its excellent location at the crossing
of major rail routes. But — let it be proof of how relative everything
is — what had been the main cause for the town’s prosperity became its
curse after the outbreak of the war. The railway junction was a magnet
that continued to attract German aircraft to the area.
I would like to stress one more thing. I wrote down in shorthand this
testimony almost exactly as I heard it from the Kutno resident I. Ka. I did
not subtract anything and I added as little as possible. I did not even try
to associate any events, highlight the more important things, or omit
