When the German army was about to enter the city, the active members of the Jewish Labor Bund were asked by its leaders (those who hadn’t yet fled from the city) to destroy anything in their possession pertaining to the organization — lists of its members and committees, or any other documents or photographs that might fall into German hands. My mother burned many items but three particular portraits remained — of Karl Marx, I. Chmurner and Israel Lichtenstein. I remember her handing these portraits to my brother’s fiancée, pleading: “Shprintse, these were the three Socialist leaders that I have revered and idealized throughout my lifetime — since I was a teenager. I just cannot destroy the portraits of these personalities myself! So, please, Shprintse, dispose of them — by burning them, burying them in the ground or by whatever means necessary!”
Jews were singled out for “special treatment” from the very onset of the German occupation. According to their master plan, we were to be gathered in concentration centers and eventually — completely annihilated. That plan was labeled by the Nazis as “the final solution to the Jewish problem. “
Immediately, the German occupiers in uniforms and the civilian Volksdeutchen (Poles of German descent) began to plunder Jewish homes, factories, stores and businesses — and to kill. Torture of the Jewish population became their favorite sport. Public hangings, mass shootings, book burning, desecration of the synagogues and cemeteries, crawling, whipping and side-curl “shearing parties” – all became daily occurrences. No place was off limits – these events occurred on streets, in houses of prayer and in private homes. Their favorite targets were people with “handicaps” — short, hunchbacked and hook-nosed Jews, wearing Yibetzes, Tsitses and Peyes (traditional clothing and adornments) – who were forced to crawl, stand, run, climb and pose in the most ridiculous and compromising positions. Often they would have to hang their tsitses on crosses of churches, while they were being mocked, ridiculed and photographed — so that the Hitler Youth in Germany could learn what “the typical Jew of Poland”, the “major enemy of the Reich”, looked like. The religious Jews were not the only targets, and it was common for these “sporting” events to culminate in massacres. The Poles were often happy to join in these activities
Jews were captured in the streets, dragged from their beds, and driven away to forced labor — many never to return. Some were forced to dig “trenches” into which they would fall dead when they were shot after they had finished digging their own graves.
The Germans drafted the remainder of the Jewish Community Council members into the a council or Judenrat (better known in Lodz as Beirat). They found an ideal pawn in Khaim Rumkowski, whom they designated as the Altester der Juden (elder of the Jews) in “Litzmannstadt” (Lodz, renamed in German) – to help them carry out their demonic plan.
As early as the tenth of October, 1939, the Germans demanded that the Judenrat deliver to them a daily contingent of six hundred young Jews for Zwangsarbeit (forced labor). Khaim Rumkowski and the Judenrat obliged them. Allegedly this voluntary cooperation with the German authorities was to spare the Jewish population from the daily and ostensibly unexpected abductions that would have otherwise occurred at the hands of the German soldiers, for the purpose of obtaining “slave labor”. Every day Jews from another section of the city were “invited” to deliver themselves to a given point in the city for Zwangsarbeit. Woe was to those who failed to report on time. The additional abductions did not, however, cease either and the sadistic torture parties continued. As previously mentioned, the main interest of the perpetrators in capturing Jews was in the sadistic pleasure of ridiculing and torturing the victims.
The most respected and beloved leaders of the Jewish community -leaders of labor unions, various political parties, rabbis and other community organizations – were arrested as hostages — their lives, the Germans claimed, would be sacrificed in exchange for any disobedience on our part. Among those arrested were many friends of my parents and parents of my school friends. These hostages were at first gathered in a prison in Lodz, later taken to a concentration center in nearby Radogoszcz, where they were tortured. Most of them were executed by firing squads soon thereafter.
The terror tactics and edicts were increasing daily.
Jews were required to bow and step off the sidewalk for anyone in a German uniform or with a swastika armband. In some parts of the city where many Jews resided — including Piotrkowska Street, which was the main street in the center of the city — Jews were not allowed to walk altogether. They were also forbidden to appear in certain non-Jewish quarters. Jews were forbidden to trade with non-Jews, to use public restaurants, theaters, parks, public or privately owned means of transportation, to buy in non-Jewish stores, or to have any form of relationship or dealings with their non-Jewish neighbors.
All Jewish properties, jewelry, gold, silver, furs, radios and other valuables were confiscated.
In order to be easily distinguished from the rest of the population, Jews from the age of ten on, were required to wear “Gele Lates” (Star of David patches) — one in front and one in the back of their outer garrnents. Large “Derken Zeichens” (Star of David signs) had to be displayed in the shop windows of all stores owned by Jews. Non-Jews were to boycott these stores. A special ransom tax was also instituted.
Many rumors were circulating among the population, on one hand about German plans for the “final solution to the Jewish problem” and on the other hand about “redemption by the allied forces.”
Fear, expectation of the unknown and survival became the daily way of life for the remaining Jews of Lodz (Litzmannstadt). Many of the older city dwellers constantly spoke of their experiences during World War I, made comparisons, and acted based on past experiences. As my father had predicted, many of those who had earlier escaped to villages and small towns (where they believed that it would be safer, more peaceful and easier to get food from surrounding farms), and many of those who went further east — were killed on the roads. Some managed to return to Lodz, some were arrested or were stuck on the border between Germany and the Soviet Union.
The shelves in the food stores, wood and coal magazines, and other shops selling essentials, had been emptied as soon as the news of the German attack on Poland was announced. Some people were, from the very onset, condemned to starvation and freezing. The groceries, potatoes and heating supplies that some people had managed to stock up in their homes at the outbreak of the war did not last very long.
In order to have the slightest opportunity to purchase bread, we had to get up at 2:00-3:00 in the morning, leave like thieves through windows, move quietly alongside the buildings in the dark of night and risk our lives during curfew-time, to be shot on the spot. Then, we would stand for hours shivering from bitter cold; eventually to be thrown out of the bread line — either because the Germans recognized us, because our Polish Christian neighbors denounced us as Jews, or because the owners decided that bread was no longer available for distribution to ordinary folk. After placing our very lives in jeopardy and standing in line for hours, we would leave empty-handed, while others — especially privileged, well paying old or nouveau riche or black marketers — would receive many loaves of bread through side windows.
From the very onset of the war, the hardest hit victims were the Jewish professionals and skilled workers. Since the Jewish factories, businesses and most of the schools, had been closed (or completely sealed by the authorities), the unemployed wage earners remained without means of subsistence and had no prospects for work. Most of these workers and their families, who had even before the war struggled, and could barely earn enough money for mere subsistence, had very little savings, if any. Even these people who had managed to save up some money from their meager incomes, were unable to withdraw any money from the banks ever since the mobilization of the Polish army began. I remember the chaos among the mob, waiting in despair both inside and outside the bank, as people were trying to withdraw their money for ongoing expenses so that they could make it through the hard times. But the Polish banks (the P.K.O. and K.K.O.) were closed for business. So, when the last pennies had disappeared from people’s pockets, their means of purchasing essentials (bread, groceries, heating fuel, etc.) were also gone.
My father and my two brothers, Shimon, 18, and Elek, 16, found a solution to our financial difficulties. Every day, they would sell their services to replace the relatively “well off”, who were called to Zwangsarbeit, but could afford a ransom to buy their way out of the toil and danger. There was no fixed price for these services. It was strictly a matter of supply and demand. The price depended on how many Jews had the means and were willing to pay the ransom on any given day, how many people were willing to risk their lives to replace them, and for how much money they were willing to do it. Of course, all this was dependent on the number of persons who did not return from Zwangsarbeit the previous day, and how many of those who did return had bludgeoned faces, broken ribs and bones, cracked skulls, and other injuries. My older brother, Shimon, was not very successful in his “new profession”. On the very first day of going to Zwar~gsarbeit, he returned beaten up, bleeding, with black and blue marks all over his face, shoulders and legs, and a fractured nose. Mama applied cold compresses and said that he “was not cut out for that sort of work.” My father and Elek were however, quite successful. They were well rewarded financially for their risk and services, usually ate well on their jobs, and even managed to bring home some food, soap and other items. My mother explained that Shimon was an intellectual and would have achieved greatness in normal times, but Elek had an inborn gift of being streetwise, knew how to get out of bad situations, and was a great blessing to himself and the family during these terrible times of war.
(to be continued…)
©2001 Fela Infeld Glaser and Marty Capsuto
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Child In Captivity 