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One day an order came to our shop, that whoever has a pass must go to Majzelsa Street [according to Wladek it was on 27th August 1942]. It turned out there would be a selection there.
They set us all up in a square. Mom was a terrible coward, was always afraid of something. Dad wasn’t with us there, he was in his shop [on Nalewki]. And Mom with Estusia stood at the back. And I stood in the first row. Two Germans stood before us. Two people from the shop management stood beside them with pieces of paper in their hands – they had lists. And they would call out a name and that person would run across to the other side of the street and a new block of people would form there [who were staying in the ghetto to keep working in the shop]. At some point I realized they read the same names twice, because they called and nobody would come up, I realized they wanted to save some people this way. And after some name there was such a moment of silence, and I jumped ahead to that other group. When they finished the selection, all those ‘chosen ones’ were pushed to a backyard of some building, they opened the gate, the police surrounded us, people ran up to those policemen, because they knew that among the detained were their relatives who didn’t make the selection. I had some money on me, because we all had some money then just in case, I got a hold of one and said: ‘Listen, there is my mom and a cousin, take this money and give it to them’. And I gave him all I had, I’m certain he didn’t pass it to them. I didn’t know where to go, I went to Nalewki [to the apartment near Dad’s shop].
They set us all up in a square. Mom was a terrible coward, was always afraid of something. Dad wasn’t with us there, he was in his shop [on Nalewki]. And Mom with Estusia stood at the back. And I stood in the first row. Two Germans stood before us. Two people from the shop management stood beside them with pieces of paper in their hands – they had lists. And they would call out a name and that person would run across to the other side of the street and a new block of people would form there [who were staying in the ghetto to keep working in the shop]. At some point I realized they read the same names twice, because they called and nobody would come up, I realized they wanted to save some people this way. And after some name there was such a moment of silence, and I jumped ahead to that other group. When they finished the selection, all those ‘chosen ones’ were pushed to a backyard of some building, they opened the gate, the police surrounded us, people ran up to those policemen, because they knew that among the detained were their relatives who didn’t make the selection. I had some money on me, because we all had some money then just in case, I got a hold of one and said: ‘Listen, there is my mom and a cousin, take this money and give it to them’. And I gave him all I had, I’m certain he didn’t pass it to them. I didn’t know where to go, I went to Nalewki [to the apartment near Dad’s shop].
Period
Interview
Izaak Wacek Kornblum
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