Wiśniewski (co-opted to the Council in the character of a deputy), aroused
considerable reservations when it came to contacts with the Germans, as the
two men grew close to the Germans and it could be said that they worked in
their service.
In early November the Jews were resettled from various towns in the
Poznań area, such as Ostrów Wielkopolski, Koźmin,¹¹⁶¹ Pleszew,¹¹⁶² etc.
The resettled arrived in Kalisz in groups by carts, with many children as well
as old and sick people among them. Each group arrived with a Gruppenführer
and a safe-conduct, which permitted the group to stay in Kalisz for a maximum
of 24 hours. After that time the resettled had to leave Kalisz and go further
east. Every day transports arrived in the city from 15–20 localities. A total
of over a thousand resettled Jews passed through Kalisz during that period.
The Kalisz Council took care of those resettled. It provided them with food
and with a place to sleep in the Talmud Torah building or in private flats. It
also looked for means of transport towards Łódź [6], paid for them, and even
gave the deportees bread for the road. In a few cases the Council managed to
obtain permission from the authorities allowing the transportunfähig¹¹⁶³ (the
sick) to stay in Kalisz for several days.
Around 10 November, a systematic campaign began to resettle Jews
from Kalisz. The resettlement was conducted without any consultation with
the Community. Several days earlier the Germans notified the Council that
they would establish a ghetto for the Jews in Kalisz. Without consultation
or discussion regarding that matter, five Council representatives (including
Dr Seid, lawyer Perkal, Hahn, and Engineer Cukier) were invited to a conference.
The conference was held in an elegant environment, in the flat of
Chmielnicki, a rich Jewish industrialist at Jasna Street 3 (today it houses the
office of the Gestapo chief). The talks went so far in such a polite tone that
when the Gestapo chief learned that one of the Jewish representatives (lawyer
Perkal) was a lawyer by profession, he happily exclaimed, Da sind wir doch
Kollegen.¹¹⁶⁴ At the end of the conference the Germans announced that the
next day they would go round the town by car to decide on the ghetto borders.
1161 Koźmin Wielkopolski (Jarocin County).
1162 Pleszew (Jarocin County).
1163 (German) unfit for transport.
1164 (German) So we are colleagues then.
