WW2 set texts

Question 1

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- fear for Poles hiding Jews

Answer 1

• A Jew living in the flat of an intellectual or a worker or in the hut of a peasant is dynamite liable to explode at any moment and blow the whole place up. Money undoubtedly plays an important role in the hiding of Jews. There are poor families who base their subsistence on the funds paid daily by the in the Jews to their Aryan landlords. But is there enough money world to make up for the constant fear of exposure, fear of the neighbours, the porter and the manager of the block of flats etc.

Question 2

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- chances of survival on Aryan side

Answer 2

• There is hardly a Jew who has lived for any length of time on the Aryan side in the same flat. After a short time something always goes wrong. – other people notice eg that more food is being bought by gentiles, they now have more money etc.

Question 3

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- german threats to Poles

Answer 3

• In April this year, when the Ghetto was burning, when the modern adepts of Nero burned living human torches, when red posters cried from all the walls: “Poles! Woe to him who hides Jews. We shall do to you what we are doing to the Jews”, black despair reigned in “Krysia”

o weak-minded people were frightened by the German threats and gave the Jews notice to leave their flats, thus sending them to certain death, the M. family remained firm in its resolve to rescue the Jews

Question 4

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- ruffians views of Jews

Answer 4

• Young people, ruffians, wenches and craftsman ‘who ride the trams passing through the Jewish district. They are amused, make disgusting and shameful jokes, clearly showing their satisfaction and [(German) joy at someone else’s misfortune] that Jews are finally getting what those people have wished for a long time’

Question 5

Ringelblum the warsaw ghetto- no politcal reason

Answer 5

• What is the root of this Polish behaviour [NO POLITICAL REASON!]- ‘what makes this even sadder is that it is not organised, governed, and managed… no political reason commands the Poles [to act this way]’

Question 6

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- hard for Poles to help Jews because of other poles

Answer 6

• Noble individuals ‘face not only the German terror but also the hostility of Polish fascists’

Question 7

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations-money is not strong enough motivator

Answer 7

• BUT MONEY ISNT ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN - ‘people who hid Jews for money only and had no strong moral motivation got rid of their dangerous ballast sooner or later & turned the Jews out of their flats

Question 8

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations-village as a place to hide

Answer 8

• hiding in rural areas was fraught with danger. The challenges were deadly, because the majority of urban Jews had little knowledge of the types of risks associated with surviving in a village milieu.- ‘As regards Jews’ hiding in the countryside, this proves to be a difficult matter, as in small towns and particularly in villages everybody knows everybody else and a stranger arouses general curiosity.

Question 9

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- tactics employed by Germans

Answer 9

• Germans understood Christians would hide Jews so Germans would employ two tactics: the method of rewards and the method of threats’- Notes that in some places a kilogram of sugar was being offered for every captured Jew + Posters threatening capital punishment for this “crime” appeared before every “liquidation action”

Question 10

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- antisemites helping Jews

Answer 10

• Among the Polish families hiding Jews there are doubtless some anti-Semites’

Question 11

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations-Jewish reliance on gentiles

Answer 11

• A Jew is a little child, capable of taking a single step by itself! A Jew cannot move in the streets. His Aryan friend has to visit him frequently and arrange a thousand and one matters for him.
• Aryan friends have to ‘arrange a thousand and one matters for him’

Question 12

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- Mr M

Answer 12

• M. senior was known for his liberal attitude towards Jews. He was an honest man, well known for his nobility of character. “Modern” trends had not reached him, he could not understand hatred for Jews, and he brought his children up in the same spirit….. these attacks by native anti- Semites did not influence Mr. M’s conduct in the least.

Question 13

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- M family

Answer 13

After the death of her husband, Mrs. M. carried on the family tradition. … When the “resettlement” of the Warsaw Jews started and asylum was being sought on the Aryan side, a certain social [workers’] group turned to the M. family with the request that they build a hide-out.

• M family saved the lives of 34 Jews
• Besides the three protectors—grandmother, son and grandson_ Mrs. M.’s daughters are also a great help in dealing with the “Krysia” residents’ everyday problems, shopping, selling belongings, keeping up contact with the outside world.

Question 14

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- response to Mr M

Answer 14

• Was nicknamed “the Jews’ errand boy” by native anti-Semites- outsider.

Question 15

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations-why did Jews trust the M family

Answer 15

• The group was prompted to take this step because of a fresh proof of the nobility and helpfulness of this family. Mr. and Mrs. M. had disinterestedly taken in a poor Jewish seamstress without being paid and treated her like their own child. It was deduced that the M. family could be trusted with the lives of two score people.

Question 16

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations-the professor pre war

Answer 16

• The professor recognized no national differences. At his lectures the O.N.R. ruffians were not allowed to divide the lecture- hall seats into Aryan and Jewish sides.

Question 17

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- response to the professor

Answer 17

Fascist and racialist attacks smashed against his seminars as against granite walls. When the war broke out, the professor was left without means of subsistence and lived by giving private lessons.

Question 18

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- the professor during war

Answer 18

He remained faithful to his humanitarian principles. He stayed in touch with his Jewish pupils in the Ghetto, and they practically worshipped him. He wrote them letters full of warmth and sympathy, raising their spirits and encouraging them to believe in a better future. When the “resettlement action” began, he extended a helping hand to his students and acquaintances. He set the example of hiding Jewish intellectuals in his flat, and others.

• Pre war attitudes informed war time behaviour?

Question 19

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- blame for Poles

Answer 19

The blind folly of Poland’s anti-Semites, who have learnt nothing, has been responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Jews who could have been saved despite the Germans. The guilt is theirs for not having saved tens of thousands of Jewish children who could have been taken in by Polish families or institutions

Question 20

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- Mr I

Answer 20

• Mr. I. a Methodist clergyman, lives in his own villa near Warsaw. Military authorities occupy it from time to time when they are on leave. This fact does not, however, prevent him from rescuing Jews who have fled to the forests after the “resettlement actions” and are hiding from the Germans. Many Jewish children, particularly, are in hiding in this area and the rural population helps them. Characteristically, even the Volksdeutsche living in this locality do not refuse help to Jewish children.

Question 21

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- maids

Answer 21

• we know of other cases where the Aryan maids could have extricated themselves from the clutches of the “resettlement” headquarters and could have escaped going to Treblinka by simply showing their Aryan papers and they did not do so, fully aware of what they were doing. This was the outcome of their devotion to the family which they had lived and suffered with for decades.

Question 22

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- scale of hiding of Jews

Answer 22

• Probably no more than fifteen thousand Jews are in hiding in the capital, located with approximately two to three thousand Polish families. If we take into account that these two to three thousand families are acting with the knowledge and approval of their nearest relatives we reach the conclusion that at least ten to fifteen thousand Polish families in Warsaw are helping to hide Jews—reckoning four per- sons to a family, a total of about forty to sixty thousand persons

Question 23

Ringelblum Polish Jewish relations- silence

Answer 23

Ringelblum says - we must not… generalize. Compassionate silence is often seen, the horror in people’s eyes, the silent expressions of solidarity’

Question 24

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- Polish suffering

Answer 24

• the Polish people are now suffering from the yoke of oppression more than any other nation-except the Jews. They should therefore have compassion for fellow sufferers.

Question 25

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- development of Polish reactions to Jewish suffering

Answer 25

• Poles who sometimes (but only rarely) come to the ghetto, often hand out alms to street beggars. This is a direct, healthy human reflex of mercy, compassion for someone who is, after all, one’s neighbour. They give more than even the generous Jewish bourgeois, because they are terrified seeing death, hunger, and suffering on the street for the first time, so they react to this [s] first impression with a donation. Later, when they come more often, they get used to these images and no longer hand out alms. The heart hardens, reason prevails.

Question 26

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- Jewish suffering as long time desire

Answer 26

• It suffices to look at the faces of the young people, ruffians, wenches, and craftsmen who ride the trams passing through the Jewish district. They are amused, make disgusting and shameful jokes, clearly showing their satisfaction and Schadenfreude that Jews are finally getting what those people have wished for a long time

Question 27

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- dominance of sin over aid

Answer 27

• we know and appreciate the position of a large faction of the enlightened intelligentsia and conscious workers towards our misery, expressed in the strongest feelings of sympathy and expressions of solidarity. However, that is all the good that can be said about it, and the litany of sins is, unfortunately, much longer and fraught with deplorable, unforgivable wrongdoings

Question 28

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- Polish dominance

Answer 28

• Poles always have an advantage over a Jew, because it is him who, in case of a dispute, will be put in prison without discussion by any authority. Indeed, the Poles allow the Jews to live
• When a Polish commissioner of a house, shop, or factory is honest, he pays the Jew his monthly salary. But if he does not want to, no one stands up for the Jew. And such people of ill will are, unfortunately, numerous

Question 29

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- exposure of jews by Poles

Answer 29

• at times, in order to get rid of a Jewish creditor, he was turned over to the authorities, and thus many a human life has been wasted through the fault of Polish clients.

Question 30

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- Jews as also bad

Answer 30

• Clearly stereotypes are present - Jews for sure have a lot to answer for in this respect, and are known to be deceitful, unreliable, bungling, and unscrupulous however, we are talking about Poles, and it is clear that they were quick to learn from Jews all their methods and exploit them. But this also makes RIngelbaum’s point one of human morality not just Jews

Question 31

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- the police

Answer 31

it is the officials who are by far the worst. Police officers, tax inspectors, prison wardens, officials working for power stations, gas works, the city, trams and everyone else - they are a problem, a real plague’. *

Question 32

Ringleblum –Polish Jewish relations-every Jew has his pole

Answer 32

• ‘every merchant, intellectual, or social group has a Polish helper who aids them, lends support, allows their survival, keeps them alive, even if only just’

Question 33

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- gratitude of Jews

Answer 33

• Jews remember fondly and with profound gratitude the support and helping hand lent to them by individual Poles. They most certainly will never forget this and will try to return the favour in the near future

Question 34

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- Jews believe in Polish superiority

Answer 34

• One thing strikes as unpleasant, though: a strong sense of inferiority. This Inferioritatis Komplex’” pleases every Jew when someone says that he looks like a Pole, or when he can boast of friendships and contacts with Poles, as though this were a reason for glory in itself. Most Jews behave meekly towards Poles, flattering and serving them as if they were indeed something significantly superior.
• A Jewess is proud of casual flirting with a tram driver or installer

Question 35

Ringleblum – the Warsaw Ghetto- Jewish faith in poles

Answer 35

• They have confidence in the Polish people

Question 36

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- awareness amongst poles

Answer 36

• standards of national, religious, and social awareness among the Polish general public proved to be very low.

Question 37

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- the ND

Answer 37

• The Polish nationalist ND- It opposes Hitler only because he is German and oppresses Poles-but it would not mind it happening the other way around. It is a combat group, very radical–they hate the occupier, but also admire him. Their motto is:”Germany showed us at least how to build a state”-and they are talking, of course, to a large extent about Jews.
  not a prevailing view

Question 38

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- popular conception of German/ Nazi policy

Answer 38

• The most common is a different opinion, which is unfortunately often expressed by major figures from reliable circles. These people say this: “We would never have solved the Jewish question in the same inhuman and barbarous manner as Germans did. Nevertheless, the Jewish question in Poland was a significant and very difficult issue. So it would be foolish if we did not make use of what the Germans have done and allowed Jews once again to take economic positions, from which they were removed, because in such case we would have to re-start the economic struggle for those positions.

Question 39

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- role of German propaganda

Answer 39

• Is German propaganda the reason behind the hostile attitude of the Polish general populace [towards Jews]? It certainly is not, because the “reptilian press” receives no respect, even among the greatest ignoramuses. There is general opposition to German propaganda, which naturally includes their anti-Jewish propaganda.

Question 40

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- demand for full equality of Jews

Answer 40

• The group demanding the full equality of Jews is very small. Its voice disappears entirely among the general hustle and bustle. Its most important part, it seems, is comprised of PPS supporters from the Barykada environment, but they have little influence.

Question 41

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- benefit of ghettos for poles

Answer 41

• confining the Jews brought many Poles material benefits- . I am not even talking of those who simply make a living smuggling to the ghetto. Imagine a shopkeeper who lost a cleverer Jewish competitor.

Question 42

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- Poles view of the ghetto

Answer 42

• they have no idea about the true tragedy unfolding in the ghetto. I do not know why so many Poles seem to think that Jews have a good life in the ghetto. You often hear people say that the ghetto is stocked up with supplies for at least 15 years.

Question 43

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- why Poles have good view of the ghetto

Answer 43

o This view stems slightly from antisemitism not just blindness- With a strange mixture of anger and admiration for Jewish cunning, people say that everything is cheaper in the ghetto than over here. “These Jews will thrive everywhere and always. They’d manage to bribe not just a German, but the devil himself. Or the mortality numbers in the ghetto, stories of beggars, and other evidence of the ghetto’s poverty do not generally have any impact. It is a well-established notion that Jews are doing all that for show’

Question 44

Ringleblum –Poles about Jews- polish indifference

Answer 44

• Overall, Polish society reacted to the ghetto with indifference.

Question 45

A teacher and his students - background

Answer 45

• The testimonies of 42 of his pupils – all child Holocaust survivors
• Testimonies describe violent acts of mass persecution (e.g. pogroms, Aktionen), and they talk about atrocities committed against individuals (e.g. beatings, torture, sexual abuse). The children saw neighbors, friends, and family members getting killed, sexually abused, humiliated, injured, or losing their minds; and of course the children themselves were often enough at the receiving end of violence. The stories also testify to the complex relationships between non-Jews and Jews during the Holocaust.
• immediate aftermath of the Holocaust

Question 46

A teacher and his students- story told w lack of emotion

Answer 46

Asher Bickman, Stolyn age 14 - ‘my mother was wounded. She fell over and remained lying on the ground. The Germans surrounded her like hungry wolves. After she had been raped, the shortest one shot her with his Parabellum pistol’.

Question 47

a teach and his students - trauma response

Answer 47

• apparent lack of emotion that seems to characterize many descriptions of loss and pain - This phenomenon occurs in most child testimonies of the time & calls for explanation.- bottling up emotions as a trauma response learnt in the war
• The traumatic nature of the events can be inferred from the amount of detail given over to their description, from repetitions of expressions such as “before my eyes,” or from the reiteration of crucial statements accompanying key events, utterances that may well have been etched onto the minds of the young at the time

Question 48

A teacher and his students - story of getting bread but no overnight sleep

Answer 48

• sisters Busia, aged six at the time, and Shulamit, not yet four, had to fend for themselves after having lost their parents in the forest. “We both began to wander through the villages,” recounted Busia. “Nobody begrudged us bread, but nobody let us stay overnight, so we learned to spend the night in a field or in an orchard, and sometimes, we used to steal into a cowshed.”

Question 49

A teacher and his students- lack of help even with food

Answer 49

• D. G’s experience in the countryside was even tougher: “Nobody wanted to let me in and nobody wanted to give me a little piece of bread either,” he related, and he had to steal food in order to survive. “During that time,” his story continues, “I taught myself to eat raw chickens, beetroots, etc. I did not spend my nights in the same places that I spent my days. My [hiding] places were in haystacks, straw, broken boards, piles of rubbish.”

Question 50

A teacher and his students- story of actually trying to enter ghetto

Answer 50

age 16: I decided to go into the ghetto, and whatever was going to happen to all Jews would happen to me, too. But a Ukrainian stopped me. The Ukrainian explained himself: “In the ghetto, everybody has to be hatless with their hair cut off, and even women and girls must also have shaven heads without a shawl or headscarf…. ‘Ghetto’ means ‘death’ or, literally, ‘sentenced to death,’

o Lack of understanding of ghetto from Jew?

Question 51

A teacher and his students- saving in the hope of future fortune

Answer 51

• Later on for that same boy- A peasant called Pavel dragged me, frozen stiff, out of a pile of barley and asked me…. Pavel prepared a hole for me underneath his stove, hoping that, when the soil thawed out, “Liovke” would bring him “that fortune.” Thanks to this delusion, he sheltered me for nearly four months. He survived incidents from the Germans and the Banderists,25and risked his life on more than one occasion.

Question 52

A teacher and his students- abandoning others for chance of survival

Answer 52

• Ch. Perlmutter, Lokatch, age 17- Seeing the black orgy of beating, robbing, raping, and shooting Jews in our shtetl during the first weeks of the occupation, I said goodbye to my colleagues and stopped talking to people. With boundless spirit, I threw myself into studying the German language. Later referred to herself as a ‘German girl’ to other people. Even hitchhiked under that identity
• I disguised myself as a Pole and said goodbye to my starving, despairing sister and brother.

Question 53

A teacher and his students- parents looking out for themselves

Answer 53

• if my dad runs away and my mom runs away, should I stay with the Germans? So I ran, too. I was already six years old at the time, and my sister, Shulamit, who was not yet four years old, ran after me. Meanwhile, the Germans fired on the forest. I lost my parents

Question 54

A teacher and his students- Soviet saviours

Answer 54

• We spent 15 months in the darkness of the hiding place until Lvov was liberated. The Soviets watched in amazement as the dark faces kissed them and their ammunition. These were lost underground tunnel people, bunker people, people from the sewers, who had risen from the dead.

Question 55

A teacher and his students- trauma prevents storytelling

Answer 55

Derazhnya near Rovno, age 15 - A lot of things I cannot repeat. A lot of things I must not tell. A lot of things I am ashamed to tell. Out of almost 3000 Jews, only – remain. You will not believe me anyway. My dad was killed in the first Aktion. Both my brothers, Asher and Zeinvel, were thrown into the River Horyn for trying to smuggle flour into the ghetto. Why did I run away from the Horyn? And which village did I run to? And how was I rescued? It is none of your business!

Question 56

A teacher and his students- children prioritised by Poles

Answer 56

Vitlin,near Lvov, age 17- a middle-aged Pole – sensed that there was a creature in the straw. He brought me out bread and roasted potatoes and let him stay there. He used to pass on to me horrible reports from Jewish wanderers. One dark night six months later, a wanderer came to him begging for bread. He poured out his bitter heart to him at the same time. I recognized the voice – it was my dad. We went away to the Wienzewo Forest.- only really willing to help children alone – orphans

Question 57

A teacher and his students - parents prioritising children

Answer 57

• We were in the forest for eight months, in a narrow hiding place. Afterwards, there was a raid. My dad went out to conceal the entrance well, and so on. He tried to climb up a many-branched pine tree by himself. Thanks to the camouflage, we were not discovered, but my dad never came back.

Question 58

A teacher and his students- even elements of German kindness

Answer 58

• Tsila Rab, Lvov, age 12- My mom handed me over to a certain Polish woman, L. Eckstein. For six months I stayed at Eckstein’s place posing as a Polish girl until somebody informed on me, and a German and a Ukrainian militiaman came to take me away. On the way to the garrison headquarters, the Ukrainian didn’t stay for some reason. I burst out crying hysterically. The German calmed me down. When I stopped crying, he said to me, “Sing a Jewish song!” I sang him the song that was popular at that time… The German let me go.

Question 59

A teacher and his students- girl who watched her parents get shot

Answer 59

• before my eyes, my dad, Yeshaya, my mom, Sassia, and my elder brother, Ben-Zion, were shot. When it came to me, the automatic gun jammed, and I began to run away….. I wandered about in the deep snow until I came across a Ukrainian named Ivan Ladanov, from the village of Sokolets. I stood there, half-naked and barefoot, and said to him, “My parents have been shot in the forest. Give me a piece of bread.” The members of the household started crying. Ivan stood up and said, “We must s-a-v-e her!” They gave me something to eat and drink, and made me a bed over the stove. In the morning, Ivan dug a hiding place for me under a rubbish heap, and I spent 13 weeks there in darkness.

partly luck

Question 60

A teacher and his students- socialists

Answer 60

• Same boy who went into forest with his dad- Then we got to know a great Socialist and Ukrainian called Harbak Danilo. He took us to his stable loft, [and there we stayed] until the liberators of Europe marched in.- he helped the whole family.

contrast with the man who would only help children

Question 61

A teacher and his students - safety for gold

Answer 61

• After three weeks, we were overtaken by the Ukrainian militia. There were 10 of us. The militia announced, “Anyone who has gold will be released.” My mom, Gitel, gave up her jewellery, together with forty-odd five-złoty notes. Then eight people were shot before our eyes. We, on the other hand, were released

Question 62

A teacher and his students- sexual assault in saving

Answer 62

• Bauman, who escaped the Warsaw ghetto to go into hiding on the Aryan side with her mother & sister in Jan. 1943, describes how she was propositioned by a Polish man who had discovered her hiding place. As he clearly attempted to rape her, he stated: “I have decided to help you. I’ll take you with me to my own villa. You’ll live safe with me there till the end of the war, or maybe forever’. – she was able to escape –

Question 63

A teacher and his students- christianity as a saviour

Answer 63

• Chazan, age 17 – “a certain childless Polish woman… took me in because I promised her that I would convert to Christianity”

Question 64

A teacher and his students- luck after German capture

Answer 64

captured by German but then he saw a bigger group of Jews so we managed to escape while he went after them

Question 65

A teacher and his students- successful resistance

Answer 65

• ‘Our Rabbi… organized the rebels who had escaped from the Lutsk Ghetto, and gave them gold and money to buy weapons… The resistance was successful! Many Germans and Ukrainians died. Out of a total of more than 1600 people, the murderers managed to take 350 older people, but the rest escaped, and that is where the tragedy began – day in, day out, raids, cordons, hunger, cold’

Question 66

A teacher and his students- unsuccessful resistance

Answer 66

Chazan, Lutsk, age 17 - The ghetto put up stiff resistance. The uprising lasted for two weeks before it was put down and the resisters were forced to jump into the Styr naked and wounded, in front of film cameras

Question 67

A teacher and his students- help/ unhelp from people they knew

Answer 67

• I ran away to the village of Ivanie, to the Pole, Novachok, for whom my dad, Yehudah, had worked clandestinely as a harness-maker. Five weeks later, Novachok threw us out

Question 68

A teacher and his students- Ukranian aid

Answer 68

• Then we got to know a great Socialist and Ukrainian called Harbak Danilo. He took us to his stable loft, [and there we stayed] until the liberators of Europe marched in.- he helped the whole family - previously been turned away by a Pole who only really helped children

Question 69

a teacher and his students- christianity v judaism

Answer 69

• The German [Army] belt with the inscription “Gott mit uns” [God is with us] was the greatest satisfaction; it gave them the highest authority to rob, rape, shoot, and so on. And whoever did the most was made a chief. When the ghetto was established there were already 34,000 fewer Jews. The ghetto area was big enough for 20,000 Jews to live in, but 122,000 had to squeeze into it. Contributions of gold were demanded for the smallest thing, or there was an Aktion, or the Jewish militia were hanged on balconies. Get your pleasure from it!

Question 70

A teacher and his students - Polish suffering could lead to

Answer 70

He (a Pole who walked by them lying in the forest) clambered down to us and told us, “The Germans took my three children away for forced labor; Ukrainians handed them over. In protest at this, it would be right to take in three other children.

Question 71

a teacher and his students - taking advantage of women

Answer 71

I was able to save myself at the age of 13 only because of my beauty
.
As I stood naked in front of the graves of father, sister and brother , a militiaman whom I knew, S. P—n, brought me a coat, asking me with great secrecy, “Will you be mine?” [and adding,] “If so, I’ll save you!”
He hid me for 13 months. I cried non-stop

Question 72

a teacher and his students- christian woman changing her mind

Answer 72

She took us to a Christian woman, Varka Ragulchik, telling her with great pathos how we had been resurrected from the dead. She pleaded with her like that for six hours, until she convinced her. Varka, I, and my mom dug a hiding place in the cellar. We lay there for six months, until the Gestapo began “showing new wonders” – burning down Ukrainian villages. And if villages were being burned down Brishch would be one of the first. Our Varka was among those whose homes were burned down.

After three weeks, she changed her mind, came out to the Samara woods, and took us back to the hiding place. By that time, the cellar had become her home

Question 73

a teacher and his students - numerical accuracy of accounts

Answer 73

Our town numbered more than 3000 Jews. The first pogrom took place on July 2, 1941, when 645 Jews were forced into the Great Synagogue and shot. Later, there were three round-ups for death and [forced] labor. – this numerical description and knowledge of dates begins most of the accounts

Question 74

A teacher and his students - idea of Germans being the worst enemy

Answer 74

• If anyone tells you that there was such a thing as a good German, don’t believe him! Let him go to the graves of the people of Zholkov and see for himself. Only a single sign remains of the 8000 Jews – judenfrei!- no mention in any memoir of German kindness