me to go home with her, but the doctor had told me to stay in bed for three
days and on the third day to come and see him again. I wrote a few words to
my parents and gave the note to my sister, who promised to return the next
day and take me home with her. However, to my great misfortune, that was
not what happened.
Instead of going home, I and all the inhabitants of P[ułtusk?] were
expelled from the town and sent off on the road again. The expulsion took
place on Tuesday, the day before the eve of Sukkot. Just after twelve o’clock,
when I was [33] getting ready to go to the doctor’s, I saw everyone in the house
in tears. I asked what had happened and they told me that all the Jews of
the town were being assembled in one place. Then I saw several well-armed
yevonim appear in the courtyard where I was staying. They ordered all the
inhabitants to leave their homes and take nothing with them. I went with
all the other Jews to the place where the yevonim had ordered us to assemble.
On the way I saw Jews in groups, old, sick, young and old together, walking
along crying. When I reached the designated place, the wails, screams,
laments and moaning that rent the air were unbearable. We stood there like
that for several hours. Then a thorough search took place. They searched us
all three times, took everything they found, and told us to go to Suriah.¹⁷⁶⁸
A Jewish youth, enraged by what he had gone through, shouted “There have
never been such barbarians.” For those words, the yevonim [34] threw him
in the river. As it happened, the young man knew how to swim and miraculously
swam off somewhere else.
The Germans accompanied us for a kilometre with a hail of rifle shots.
I had just experienced my first expulsion. What began for me now was a trail
of pain, sorrow and countless tribulations. I suffered hunger, deprivation,
thirst, cold, all the afflictions in the world. I wandered from village to village,
from town to town. I slept in the fields, ate raw turnips and roasted
potatoes. Sometimes I ate nothing for four or five days, filling my stomach
with water to keep body and soul together. I grew weak. I could hardly drag
my feet along. I began to fear that I would collapse on the way from hunger
and thirst. I was a lone lamb driven along in a herd of cattle. I had no one
1768 The word in the original is Suriah, which is the Hebrew for Syria. The author uses it throughout the document to mean Russia, perhaps because it resembles a possible abbreviation for So[viet] R[uss]ia.
