moved, everybody welcomes us, tears are welling up in everybody’s eyes, we
do not need to say a word or persuade anybody. Everybody has chosen, prepared
something and throws it to the lions, repeating the same words: “Let
this offering buy us out and save us from wandering.”
Some facts were so characteristic that I have to note them. A poor widow,
Mrs B., the mother of two sons, tells me the following: “Mrs M., I trust you
and I shall do what you say. You know my situation. I have nothing except the
gold wedding ring, the only keepsake of my husband. Should I give it to you?”
And I answer without hesitation: “Yes, because this very ring may save us!”
and she did give it to me. I went to the flat of very poor people, a shoemaker’s
family, [8] and a woman tells me: “I only have these two old, silver spoons, but
if I give them to you, I will have nothing to eat with! And I have no money!”
I say: “Please, give them to me and I shall bring you two silver-plated spoons
tomorrow.” And so she did. I inspect them: they were very old, thin, and damaged,
but silver. I take them and the next day I bring her two platinum spoons
from my set! There were many similar examples. I personally firmly believed
that we would save ourselves, that our requests, begging, prayers, tears, and
of course this golden calf, would save us.
How naïve I was! Being a dreamer, I lost common sense and intuition
and could not face the truth because I did not want to see it. Otherwise,
I would have noticed the things that struck me later and still strike me
now. Mrs K. and I collected a lot even though we visited two streets only,
Rapackiego [9] and Przekop Streets. We were given 6 pairs of candlesticks,
a lot of table settings, wedding rings, gold earrings, brooches, necklaces, etc.
Several times, we took those things to our ‘office,’ where they were sorted in
our presence. They very carefully and precisely checked, wrote down, and
registered who brought what, while today, I doubt all those people’s honesty
and disinterestedness. Everyone had a hand in that and took some advantage
of the situation, as it was possible to use it and hide some things —
it was impossible to predict and check everything. For instance, when I was
at the ‘office,’ I saw Mr Kl. holding in his hands a beautiful silver cigarette
case. He says to me: “Do you think that we will give all this away? Oh, well!
Many a thing will surely be returned to its donor!” I looked at him surprised,
“Yes, yes, you will see.” [10] I do believe that Mr Kl. did not turn over the
things where he should have, but I am also sure that he did not return them
to the donors either!
