Showcase 6

“What I See on the Street,” fragment of a school essay by an unknown child, written between the end of 1941 and June 1942

1.

“It’s a very cold day, pouring rain. I go out to the street. The street looks sad. The shops are small and very poor. [ … ] Rickshaws and one tram marked with the star of David travel in the middle of the street. From all sides I hear voices crying out for bread. A very small boy, trembling all over, stretches out his thin hand and begs for a handout. His mother died of starvation and the Germans snatched his father for forced labour. And here is a poor woman, her clothes torn and tattered, swollen from starvation, lies in the street as if dead. I can’t look at her and I turn my head away. Suddenly a small girl appears before me, singing some song or another in a sad voice. And here an entire family, a man and his wife, and their three children, sitting on the corner. Their faces are pale, their eyes lifeless. They beg for a piece of bread [. .. ]. [ … ] These are the images [I see] in the street every day.”

Yaffa Bergman (14 yrs old): ‘What I see on the street’, c. 27 Dec 1941 – 1 June 1942

2.

“During this war the Germans have created a ghetto and great hunger prevails there. All I need is to go out to the street to see how great the hunger and poverty is among the Jews in the ghetto. [. u] On the street corner a Jewish policeman stands directing traffic, and not far from him another policeman disperses a group of people. I do not know the cause of this commotion, but when I get closer, I hear that somebody fainted from hunger. This image is not new to me. I have already seen many like them. [u.] Now I suddenly realize, that a poor man has stolen bread from some woman. She wanted to catch him and retrieve the bread, but in vain. The thief had already managed to eat the bread. Further on I see a dead man, lying in the street. He clearly died of hunger, like many people during this war. I want to go to my school, but suddenly I see that the Germans are seizing Jews for labour and I run away, to go home and tell my father. [ … ] In my brain there is one question: ‘Why do we suffer so very much?’.”

Kon (14 yrs old): ‘What I see on the street’, c. 27 Dec 1941 – Jun 1942