My father arrived several times during that period, once decorated with
a yellow armband. He told us that there was a curfew in Łódź after 5 p.m. and
that people had to wear yellow armbands. Several days later the same ordinances
were introduced in our town. My father had also witnessed the burning
of the synagogue on Kościuszki Avenue in Łódź.¹²¹⁶ He saw a group of
officers standing by the burning temple, laughing and pointing at that beautiful
sight. “Jehovah’s abode is burning. This is how mighty the Defender of the
chosen people is!” they said. My father ran away when he heard those words.
Of course he arrived by cart. But the route was unsafe, as on the road leading
to Pabianice people were seized from trams for labour. But my father was
lucky every time. Once he was sitting in a tram, but a ‘catcher,’ a student of
a German middle school in Łódź, somehow failed to notice him. All the other
men were taken. The next time there was a real chase: my father ran from
one carriage to another, jumping in and out and in the end he slipped away.
One evening we received a letter from my father, who asked me to come
to Łódź immediately. I departed the next day. I left the cart in Łask and I continued
from Pabianice by tram. The route had been chosen in advance. In Łódź
I heard sensational news. My father’s friend had arrived from Germany.
A year before the war he left Poland, where people were seriously attacked.
Now he had returned as a pure Reichsdeutsche, a keen national socialist, and
a very important person. But it did not stop him from finding my father
right after his arrival. He stopped several times by the café which he had frequented with my father, until he finally spotted him there. He greeted him
cordially [. . .] he spoke with him in Yiddish as he used to [. . .] he wanted to
give my father some money, but [22] my father did not accept it. The friend
said that he would help us as much as he could as long as it did not conflict
with his position and views. Whenever somebody mentioned Germany, the
German army, or basically anything that regarded Germany, he was full of
admiration and enthusiasm, which peaked at any mention of the Führer. But
he would not bring up the Jewish issue with us. He only said that personally he
could not understand what they wanted from the Jews. He told us to stop asking
him about that. He then stopped talking with us about politics, claiming
1216 The Great Synagogue was erected during 1881–1887 on the square at the intersection of Zielona Street and Kościuszki Avenue. Set ablaze on the night of 10–11 November 1939, it burned for a few days. It was dismantled in 1940.
