1.9 -- Shots in the Woods

German soldiers and Warsaw citizens

End of December, 1939 

Early this month, 53 tenants of the house at Nalewki St. No.9 - exclusively Jews - were arrested in reprisal for the shooting on the premises of a "bluey" policeman, killed by a Jew released from prison, Pinkus ZYLBERYNG.  (The nickname "bluey" was given by us to Polish police who were immediately placed under their orders by the Germans to work together with the German police, or the SS.)

All Warsaw schools (elementary, secondary State and State teachers' schools, also private secondary and trade schools) have been closed by order of the German authorities, ostensibly as a preventive measure against the spread of a typhoid epidemic - which is not true.   It is only a pretext to prevent these schools from functioning.  But there still remain our "komplety", the clandestine schools.   A lot of studying goes on, although it is a bit uncomfortable without a permanent location for study. Most often private homes serve as classrooms. What else can be done in such a situation? We must study because it is a pity to waste a year.  We young ones find it quite fascinating and exciting, for it is something quite different.

On Annopole (a very poor district of Warsaw regarded by some as an outer suburb) there were some wooden barracks. Jews returning to Warsaw and finding their homes destroyed by German bombs during the battle for Warsaw occupied these barracks. One day they were all thrown out into the street. How can one treat people like that? It is cold already.

Where are they to go?

I asked Mama to take in one of these families. She wanted to, but considering the safety of Papa and others in the present circumstances, could not do this.  I understood, but my heart was heavy.

The German commandant of Warsaw again calls on all Reserve officers who took part in the September campaign to report on the 14th December to Gdansk railway station in order to be transported to a POW camp.  At least honestly explaining for the first time what they intend to do with these people. For failure to report this time heavy repercussions are threatened.

Papa's friends maintain he did the wrong thing by returning.  But all of us are so happy with him here. The house has changed completely. Even Mama has cheered up and finds a pleasant smile for everyone despite the many problems resting on her shoulders. She is even more loving towards me. Sometimes, "in flight" and occupied by something important, she embraces me, gives me a hug and a kiss.

The first more severe frost came half-way through the present month.  All of us queued for coal. My feet and hands became so cold that I thought they would drop off. All the same, I received a bucket of coal - and the best one at that because the Jewess Ryfka in the fuel store likes me very much.  

I helped her son a few times with his geography and maths lessons.  I did not want any payment and she had not forgotten the favour. Today she put some beautiful pieces of coal for the stove at the bottom of my bucket. Then she filled it up with dross so as not to offend anyone with such favouritism. She loaded the bucket so well that I could not carry it and had to pull it along the ground.  No-one could help me because an armed "bluey" policeman stood in front of the store to maintain order.

Oh well!  Although my hands were stiff and the bucket was heavy, one must gradually become accustomed to a hard life.
For as adults say - life is not a fairy tale, nor is it strewn with roses. And even roses, although beautiful, have thorns.

Oh yes, life becomes much too tragic at times. Because news has reached us of a mass execution in the woods around Palmiry near Warsaw.  For what crimes?  What have these people done that the Nazis murder them?   There is no way of finding an explanation.

Another horror: On Boxing Day at Wawer, near Warsaw, SS-men were looking for two criminal offenders - as they announced publicly.  The two were hidden in a sort of combined restaurant and bar. When they were trapped by the SS-men they opened fire. The outcome of the shooting was that they killed one SS-man and wounded the other. A few minutes after this incident a German patrol drove up to the scene. The innocent owner of the establishment was dragged out and hanged on the door of his restaurant there and then.

But that was not enough. 

Throughout the night innocent people were pulled, in their underwear, from their homes and beds out into the freezing night to be shot on the spot. 107 people were lost in this massacre.

I know from the parents of a friend living in Wawer that among those singled out to die was a resident of Wawer called Daniel GERING, an official of the National Party Bank.  Being of German origin, he spoke the language well.  When the Germans learned his name, they gave him 15 minutes three times to declare that he was German.   In this way he would avoid death. However, he kept replying: "I was born in Poland, I am a Pole and will die a Pole, no matter what kind of death."

A salvo rang out. He was shot with the others.