requisitions, and restrictions. People’s financial situation is becoming worse,
while their nervousness and irritability is increasing. The reason for all this is
hunger, the fact that a brother is no longer a brother but a hangman and that
people jump at each other’s throats, that there is no understanding or compassion,
that nobody helps or rescues another. Human hearts have become so
hard and cold, that the phrase ‘heartfelt mercy’ has vanished from the human
dictionary. [26] And Varsovians may be described with these very words written
by a Polish poet:
“Hey! You ravens!
Tear to pieces
These stony-hearted people
As a warning
and a lesson
Until the Judge wakes them up!”¹⁴⁵⁸
It is very interesting what the Judgement on Warsaw will be after the war
and what verdict shall be pronounced by the judges from all over the world!
Will the capital find appropriate defence counsels who will look from a different
perspective at this shameless exploitation and preying on these unfortunates,
deprived of their property, homeless, and always starving?! And
a woman should be [27] to blame, because after all she is the one who runs
the household, determines her home’s character, and disposes of the kitchen
and this plate of soup, which she begrudges to the unfortunate, hungry and
resettled people, etc. In short, there are no words, ink, or paper to describe all
these atrocious examples of inhospitality, callousness, tactlessness, indelicacy
and treatment of those poor, degraded people as beggars, violating their dignity,
and hurting their aspirations. To comfort them, I keep repeating: “People
condemned to exile must not have any aspirations!”
ARG I 843 (Ring. I/495)
Description: original, handwritten, notebook with covers, ink, Polish,
150×192 mm, 16 sheets, 28 pages. Information inside the back cover (ink): “M.R”
or “K.R.” Attached is a note by Hersh Wasser in Polish: “1939–1941 Lipno —
Warszawa. Original. «Destruction of the temple” [in Lipno]; Precious metals
collection [in Lipno]; Journey from L. to Warsaw; Warsaw.» Given to the Archive
by Dr M. Reinhold.”
1458 Paraphrase of Stanisław Bogusławski’s (1804–1870) poem Ludzie i nędza [People and poverty].
