fighting back, it also brought down the wrath of the occupiers in its most terrible form. On this occasion they began with the execution of a dozen or so members of the Jewish police. They were taken to Loketka Street, amid scenes of indiscriminate butchery and lynched from the balconies of the houses there. This was expected to make the Jewish police more determined to maintain order amongst their compatriots. The following day, SS and Ukrainian militia raided the ghetto, sweeping away hundreds more to be executed.
With the sounds of boots and rifle fire echoing in the street outside the barrack, Weiss suddenly put his head round Klara’s door. ‘Come on, get your sister.’
Klara recalled: ‘I had to drag Manya towards the opening. She had typhus and they were killing everybody who was sick.’ Margulies, Klara and Manya, Weiss and his family and friends slipped down the hole into the cellar, put the boards back in place behind them and waited. They spent a day in the sewer, waiting for the
Aktion
to cease.
‘For me I always remember that day, because I felt safe. It was like a small paradise, a safe place,’ Klara remembered. But the experience had been terrifying for Manya. She got decidedly worse as the day wore on and had become almost hysterical with anxiety, struggling against Margulies and Weiss’s attempts to keep her calm. Klara recalled her sister crying: ‘I’d rather be dead, than stay there again.
Chapter IV
On the evening of 31 May, Chiger, Berestycki and Kuba Leinwand slipped down the shaft to continue work on the tunnel they planned to make their home. Their anxiety was steadily rising and they knew that time was running out. They met with Socha that night to discuss their final plans.
While the meeting was taking place in the sewers, the authorities were hosting a concert out in the street near the administration block. The Julag orchestra was playing popular pieces for the few hundred who had turned up for a little distraction. In Chiger’s account he wrote that in addition to the music: ‘Grzymek arranged a play written by himself and invited everyone to attend the performance.’ One of those at the concert was Halina Wind, the young woman who lived with Weiss and his mother. Throughout the evening, the music was heard drifting through the deserted streets.
Paulina had stayed in the cellar with her children, waiting for Chiger and the others to return. Just after eleven Paulina heard Halina’s footsteps in the rooms above. She was breathless and apparently rushing from room to room. Paulina raised herself close to the floor boards in order to hear what was being said.
‘This is it, the end. The Ukrainian militia and the Gestapo have already spread throughout the Julag. We have to escape,’ Halina shouted. From out in the street came the sound of trucks pulling up outside and the rhythmic crump of boots; fifty, a hundred. three hundred – up and down the street.
By the time the men emerged from the sewer, the barrack was already in uproar. Chiger climbed into the room above and went to the window to look. Already standing there was a short,tough-looking character. Margulies tossed him the news.
‘They’re shooting the Jewish police. That’s it, it’s all finished now.’
They could see that the Gestapo and Ukrainian militia had herded together a group of terrified men wearing the plain peaked caps and dark armbands of the Jewish police. A few men lay dead at their feet. A Gestapo officer took hold of each man’s cap and tossed it away. Likewise their belts and armbands were removed, and then as though it was all part of the same process, they were then each of them summarily shot on the spot. Some of them ran – or tried to run – and were cut down by machine-gun fire. The shooting of the Jewish police was the clearest signal yet. It could only mean the Julag would no longer function; the population was to be eliminated.
‘Let’s start packing,’ said Margulies and he
With the sounds of boots and rifle fire echoing in the street outside the barrack, Weiss suddenly put his head round Klara’s door. ‘Come on, get your sister.’
Klara recalled: ‘I had to drag Manya towards the opening. She had typhus and they were killing everybody who was sick.’ Margulies, Klara and Manya, Weiss and his family and friends slipped down the hole into the cellar, put the boards back in place behind them and waited. They spent a day in the sewer, waiting for the
Aktion
to cease.
‘For me I always remember that day, because I felt safe. It was like a small paradise, a safe place,’ Klara remembered. But the experience had been terrifying for Manya. She got decidedly worse as the day wore on and had become almost hysterical with anxiety, struggling against Margulies and Weiss’s attempts to keep her calm. Klara recalled her sister crying: ‘I’d rather be dead, than stay there again.
Chapter IV
On the evening of 31 May, Chiger, Berestycki and Kuba Leinwand slipped down the shaft to continue work on the tunnel they planned to make their home. Their anxiety was steadily rising and they knew that time was running out. They met with Socha that night to discuss their final plans.
While the meeting was taking place in the sewers, the authorities were hosting a concert out in the street near the administration block. The Julag orchestra was playing popular pieces for the few hundred who had turned up for a little distraction. In Chiger’s account he wrote that in addition to the music: ‘Grzymek arranged a play written by himself and invited everyone to attend the performance.’ One of those at the concert was Halina Wind, the young woman who lived with Weiss and his mother. Throughout the evening, the music was heard drifting through the deserted streets.
Paulina had stayed in the cellar with her children, waiting for Chiger and the others to return. Just after eleven Paulina heard Halina’s footsteps in the rooms above. She was breathless and apparently rushing from room to room. Paulina raised herself close to the floor boards in order to hear what was being said.
‘This is it, the end. The Ukrainian militia and the Gestapo have already spread throughout the Julag. We have to escape,’ Halina shouted. From out in the street came the sound of trucks pulling up outside and the rhythmic crump of boots; fifty, a hundred. three hundred – up and down the street.
By the time the men emerged from the sewer, the barrack was already in uproar. Chiger climbed into the room above and went to the window to look. Already standing there was a short,tough-looking character. Margulies tossed him the news.
‘They’re shooting the Jewish police. That’s it, it’s all finished now.’
They could see that the Gestapo and Ukrainian militia had herded together a group of terrified men wearing the plain peaked caps and dark armbands of the Jewish police. A few men lay dead at their feet. A Gestapo officer took hold of each man’s cap and tossed it away. Likewise their belts and armbands were removed, and then as though it was all part of the same process, they were then each of them summarily shot on the spot. Some of them ran – or tried to run – and were cut down by machine-gun fire. The shooting of the Jewish police was the clearest signal yet. It could only mean the Julag would no longer function; the population was to be eliminated.
‘Let’s start packing,’ said Margulies and he
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