GRUDZIĄDZ
Date unknown, Warsaw ghetto, [Roter], account of the situation of Jews
in Grudziądz in 1939. Relations with Poles and Germans before the war.
Flight from the town after the outbreak of war.
[1] In Grudziądz 137 families, approximately 550 persons out of a total of 64,000
— Jew[ish] kehillah — 8 members — all rel[igious] institutions. 24 per cent
Germans. Rel[ations] between Jews and Germans very good — Jews and Poles
— very tense. 24 August — from their beds. — A month ago the mil[itary]
evacuated the warehouses. This worried the Jews greatly. Every day from the
24th on, discussions in the People’s Centre about sending possessions away
from Grudziądz. Poles shouted that by sending their possessions away the Jews
would create turmoil — priv[ate] P[olish] residents were sending their possessions
away anyway. Jews did it at night — Jews themselves also left — by
1 September — 40 per cent left — and 60 per cent until 1 September — Jews
stayed because of military service — from 1 September the mayor Włodek¹³⁹⁶
began issuing przepustki. Jews were harassed (they had to queue while the town
hall was under artillery fire — Christians did not have to queue) — all shops
were closed during the bomb[ardment] — German shops open the whole time.
The Germans were in a festive mood. They had all prepared swastikas to greet
the arriving Germans — Dr Szpicer,¹³⁹⁷ the vice-president of the Jew[ish] kehillah
in Grudziądz, born in Germany, received a letter on 5 July 1939 from the
German Youth Organisation in Grudziądz that as a German Jew he must not
leave Grudziądz — later expelled.
I lived at Groblowa Street 20, — opposite me — at No. 19 — lived
a German — the maid washed the windows under a hail of shrapnel. At 5.30
a.m. on 1 September — the first shot in town. At 10 — the first two prisoners.
1396 Józef Włodek (1891–1944), mayor of Grudziądz from 4 March 1922 until 30 August 1939, the longest-serving mayor in the Second Polish Republic. On 30 August 1939 he was ordered to leave town because of the war drawing near.
1397 Dr Juliusz Spitzer. See Gmina Wyznaniowa Żydowska w Grudziądzu, p. 90.
