Showcase 4

1.

“The old synagogue serves as a [refugee] Point. It has been deprived of its old sanctity. The same damp walls, the same black floor, and the same jagged, messily scattered books. When you open the door, the stink strikes you right at the threshold, a massive aron ha-kodesh [‘holy ark’] blocks half of the hallway. A cooker, a table, camp beds, a cradle, and G.’s shoe repair shop take all the space. They hardly leave room for twenty-eight people to sit, stand, or lie down. [ … ] Nine families living at the Point suffer from hunger. These twenty-eight people keep quarreling for any or no reason, and their fights are always to the death.”

Josef Kirman, The Death of Ms. Kraszewicz, 1941

2.

“The yard is full of mud and dung. All the corners are filled with faeces and rubbish. The house does not have sanitation. No water. They are pouring waste out through the windows. Sanctions imposed by the
[refugee] Point management have little effect. The stairs are slippery from the mud. Railing sticky from filth. Insalubrious air. The kitchen, where we prepare meals for children, is filled with smoke. Under these terrible conditions, we are taking care of refugees’ children.”

G. Kon, S[ima] Rydyger, Report on care work activities at refugee Point Stawki Street 9, Warsaw Ghetto, Decernber 16, 1941

3.

“The entrance is terrible. The first room stinks. The worst, the incorrigible filth [ … ]. It is crowded in the second general room, black. Eyes stinging from the smoke. The care worker has to distribute the meal among her screaming, fighting charges. They curse, beat one another, crowd around the pot with groats. There are corpses lying in the room, no one has taken them out for several days, there are sick people, swollen. What to do? […] And the children are almost naked, dirty. How are we supposed to wash here? Where to get hot water from and what to use to wipe one off?”

Brlonislawal Zychlinska, Report on care work at the common room at Zelazna Street 58a, Warsaw Ghetto. December 12, 1941