Community to furnish and renovate a house for him at its [5] own expense.
That cost the Jews approximately 15,000 RM. The sum was covered with difficulty
by means of a public collection. Even the poorest had to pay.
But that was not the end. Apparently Geniek’s assumption was that nulla
dies sine linea,⁹⁶⁹ as he made new demands every day. For instance, once he
requested a prison be made in his home. When it was ready, he imprisoned
several members of the Council for a couple of hours to show them what it
was like. Another time he sent a 16-year-old Christian girl to the Community
secretariat. He sent her with a letter from him ordering the Jews not only
to dress her from head to toe at their own expense, but also to send her to
a hairdresser. From then on the girl visited the Community almost every day,
each time making a different demand.
During a search at a certain Boas,’ Geniek found [. . .] Przedborska,
who was in her twenties. He locked himself in with her. It seems that [. . .]
undress. He then poured water on her to facilitate the beating, as he politely
explained. He hit her with a police truncheon until she passed out.
He wanted to carry out an identical ‘operation’ on Miss Bagno, the daughter
of the chairman of the Judenrat in Krośniewice (a small town next to
Kutno). Thinking that he wanted to rape her, the girl jumped out the first-floor
window and broke both her legs. Disappointed, Geniek took revenge on Blima
Erdberg, who lived in the same building, by beating her until she passed out.
In early November some of the Germans began to rob Jewish shops on
their own initiative. The ‘finks’ and guides were Polish. But I need to loyally
admit that there were many decent people among them, as they secretly
brought back the merchandise stolen by the Germans.
December brought an ordinance obliging all Jews [6] aged 14–60 to work
on a German work detail twice a week for an entire day. It would not have
been so dangerous had it not been for the fact that the Germans sometimes
treated the labourers in an extremely inhumane way.
That was more or less when the following incident took place. One time,
many horse-drawn vehicles stopped on the market square. After their departure
it turned out that the animals had soiled the entire square with excrement.
The Germans then rushed into the bet hamidrash with revolvers in
their hands and took everybody found within. The Jews were escorted to the
969 (Latin) Not a day without a line. That is, not a day without progress.
