Life In Miedzyrzec (Mezrich)
“This was the 24th of … and life was then so difficult. We hardly had anything left anymore, and besides, the rations of food were very small. And this was another thing. It was the last few months before the deportation. I don’t know how it came about and who started it, you know, in all that … You know, people are really very inventive in order to sustain themselves, and I don’t even know where those little mills came from. Many families what they did … I mean the young men were taken away, very many of them, so there was just either young girls or the mother or father. I don’t know if this was rented or supplied by somebody – a little hand mill to grind wheat, flour – and this was also … why was it forbidden? I don’t know. Because the Germans … I don’t know whether it was the Jewish bakers that had some contact with the grain sellers, the Polish peasants, something.
“Of course, everything was so rationed, and the Jewish ration was very small. Maybe they were only supposed to deliver, let’s say, only 100 kilograms. Instead, they were getting 150. And this 50, which was the illegal part, they would distribute to those people who wanted. Because you couldn’t make flour in the regular flour mill because it was illegal, it was contraband, what do you call it … illegal merchandise.
“And this was also our job. So we were furtively going to this baker’s, or whatever, bringing a sack of grain, wheat, or rye. And this was the place where you live, in one room maybe. There were only six people, because my brothers were taken away. We were taking turns grinding this thing and everybody and everything was white: the table, the beds, and this – I didn’t think of this in a long time – and then we, the girls, would furtively take this bag of flour and deliver it to the baker hoping that we wouldn’t bump into anybody, any German or any Pole, because there were people caught and killed for it. Actually, this was the last few months before the whole tragedy happened. This was our source of sustenance.
“Then on the 24th, I remember this distinctly. You see, there was another thing, now you will really know the story of the ghettos. In this particular place there was this industry going on and the Germans were saying constantly – there was this Jewish employment office – this was a big city, because that’s where the Germans were getting everybody from. If you do some work for the Germans, then they leave you alone. So, there were different colored cards: a green card was for this type of work, a yellow card was better, and so on.
“Anyway, people were frantically trying to get some working cards for their children, especially for the young ones. So, if you had contacts … Of course, those of us who were newcomers, we had the least chances. But somehow, I don’t know who – my father, my mother, it was somebody – even though my two brothers were taken away, the others were home, and I and my sister, we got cards. So, we were working building, so-called, ‘building roads.’ In the morning we had to go there at six o’clock and we were carrying rocks from one side of the road to the other. We thought that this was something which protects you against deportation if deportation comes.
“Of course, my father sort of was … People had respect for him. He was a Jew with a beard, and he was a Talmudist … he was a Talmudist, so didn’t do very much else. Anyway, one day they started this rumor. It was the 24th of August1941. I remember that date because my father and two brothers were killed that night.
“Everybody kept on saying, ‘You know in Miedzyrzec …’ We heard already what is happening in the surrounding communities and, of course, that from Warsaw, people were being deported to Treblinka, to … But people were still saying, ‘Well, in Miedzyrzec is where they need them. They need the brushes, they need the leather, they need the …’”
Did you know what was going on in Treblinka at that time?
“I think we knew. At least there were rumors. We had an inkling, and also there were rumors that some people ran away and brought those news to Warsaw. There was always somebody who somehow brought those news. But with all this, people believed, and people didn’t believe, or didn’t want to believe. Or then, let’s say you believed, so what? What are you going to do? And when the question arises, ‘Why did the Jews go as sheep?’ What was one to do? You hear so often now, ‘How could they just …?’ The whole situation, it was so inhuman and unreal in comparison with any normal life that one knows, even under the worst of circumstances, maybe …
“So anyway, there started some rumors that something is going to happen. And, you know, there were some Jews, in many families, that lived a very good life dealing with the Nazi’s, dealing with the Germans providing those elegant high boots for them and delivering this for them and that for them and finding them jewels and what have you. And I remember this one man, he was a Jewish policeman, so whether he brought this news because he wanted to warn his family or whatever. Anyway, before the deportation started in the morning, but before … That evening people really became very panicky, and some were saying, ‘Well, the men should try, the men should run away.’ Or ‘Let’s hide in the cellars,’ G-d knows, ‘Run out into the field, go to …’ I mean, the people who knew the surrounding villages. And it became really quite panicky, before anything really was happening. I don’t know, maybe some people did save themselves. Some people tried to go, ‘Don’t go, stay, go, let’s run out, let’s hide in the cemetery, let’s do this …’ But the Germans surrounded and simply started shooting, shooting right and left. This was it. And my father and two brothers were killed that night. My other two brothers, we never heard from them again either …
“So, we didn’t know. I mean, they were taking out … We lived in this storefront, and we didn’t even know that the shooting started. And then our neighbor came to our room and said, ‘Come to our room, we have to hide. Look they’re shooting.’ And so we went up into an attic, my sister, my mother, and I, and those people, and we lay there in this attic.
“Those deportations when they were taking place, they lasted a day or two or three. Then they stopped. Then people were coming out like animals from their holes, and life sort of resumed again. So we were lying there dirty, and shouting, and screaming, and crying, and the shooting … Then, I think, after two and a half, three days, I don’t know, we were lying there without food, and in our excrement. It was really … When you think of it, people survive all kinds of things.
“And then when you heard the voices that things had quieted down, we went down. Our room, I remember, was totally vandalized. I’m talking about the Poles. There was not a dress left. Everything that was still a little bit … You know, my sister and I, we still had our clothes from Lodz, the clothes that we were putting on when we were traveling. It was everything: the tablecloths, the … I remember my mother in the morning with some tablecloths for Rosh Hashana … This was just before the holidays.
“We found out that night there was about 40,000 Jews – because they brought them from other places – about half of the Jewish population was taken to Treblinka. My uncle at that time … Most of the families, there wasn’t one family that was intact. My sister was away. I remember when she came back. So many people were killed that night. I went back. And you know everybody was hoping, maybe they were hiding, maybe they did this, maybe that. And the bodies were laying there, all three of them … I went back and told my mother …
“And, then it was quiet for a while.”
What was your father like?
“My parents, I can honestly say they were saintly people. They were very religious, very honest, they wouldn’t even hurt a fly. In fact, I think it was my father’s undoing because people took advantage of him. He was losing money in business because he was trusting everybody, he was very easygoing. And this man really lived with G-d. He once said, ‘I only hope that if they get me, if I’m going to get killed, I will have time to say the Viduy,’ the prayer before death. I’m almost sure to say he didn’t have any time. They dragged him out of the room and shot him on the spot. Him and my two brothers …”
Do you want to take a break?
“No.
“So then the same cousin of mine … they took away his wife and his two children. One was a baby. The baby was born in the ghetto, and he was away. When he came back, he said, ‘No. We are going to do something about it. The rest of us they are not going to take.’ So, he … he was really very enterprising, although, he lost his life. He got together with some man, and I don’t know how and where, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, in the fields outside of town they found a cave or were digging this cave. Anyway, a few families got together and, ‘If we hear anything about another deportation, we are going to hide.’ And we did. Maybe a short time later … of course, sometimes those rumors were false …”
How were you able to get out of the ghetto?
“You know, when the first deportation took place, so many families were gone that the Germans took away a few streets and the rest became a ghetto. But this ghetto really never was very fortified. I suppose because the Germans knew it was so temporary … they are going to deport everybody.”
You could just walk in and out?
“You were not supposed to. There was a gate and there was a barbed wire around, but you could … bribe the Jewish policeman. Look, in Jewish communities you also have scums. Some people, you know, give him whatever or so, he’d let you in or out. And then, also, some of the people were still working for the Germans – the poor Judenrat. They were told that if they change the colors of those–permits, those permits will be honored. I mean this was the Germans’ constant deception. You knew clearly what’s happening, but people still try to, almost welcome that deception, maybe … maybe … I remember that even I got another card which was supposed to be a safe one.
“In the meanwhile, this was right after the holidays, every day there were rumors there was going to be a new deportation. So those few families … then other families wanted to join us. By the time we ended up, I think there must have been 30-35 people in the escape. In the meanwhile, nothing was happening in town. But the people were afraid. What to do? And during the day you had to be quiet because there, some Polish peasants, there were some shepherd boys with their cows, and what have you.
“I remember my cousin and I every night we would go out. This was still nice, it was fall, and sometimes after a beautiful walk and the moon was out and we were thinking, ‘It looks so peaceful and quiet as if nothing is happening and look what’s happening.’ We had some peasant woman from whom we were getting bread and milk, or something like this.
“Then it was getting very cold, and nothing was happening. I don’t know whether this cave was discovered by some shepherd boy or not, anyway, we decided it was no use. We would freeze to death or starve from hunger. And everybody moved back to the city.”
So you went back to the ghetto?
“Yes. I was working. I had this, with another girl, she was the one who was eventually instrumental in my being alive. So we worked again on the road, ‘building the road.’ This was outside of the city. My mother and my sister went back to town and my two brothers were away, and nobody … there was no family left for all practical purposes.
“So one day in the afternoon came these rumors. This was a Jewish detachment out for working, the men and women. ‘Don’t go back to town, there is a deportation.’ I remember now, it was really cold. So this girl, her name is Eshte, she survived, she was in Auschwitz, but she survived. She grabbed me by my hand, and we started running. And there was a farmhouse and a barn. And she dragged me into this barn, and we went upstairs into the barn and covered ourselves with hay, even over the head, and there we were lying.
“Later, towards the evening when the people were supposed to go back, because people started running – you know, nobody wanted to go back to town. The German commander came out and started shooting people and grabbing people and putting them on the truck and taking them back to the city. And there we were lying. This I remember it, our hearts were beating, if someone would discover … it’s the end. If not … And it took maybe an hour or so and then it quieted down. And there we were lying.
“I don’t know when … It was cold, but that hay was sort of protecting you. Then late at night we hear somebody come into the barn. I’m talking about some decent people. And we hear a voice downstairs. We were upstairs in that hayloft. We hear a voice saying, ‘If somebody is here, be quiet, but I am leaving some bread and milk.’ And the voice was gone. And one of us went down and there was some bread and milk, and we took it. We never saw anybody.
(To be continued)
