The Bulletin of Temple Beth Sholom, May 18, 2003

TEMPLE BETH SHOLOM Temple Beth Sholom THE BULLETIN- COMMERATIVE ISSUE WARSAW GHETTO REMEMBRANCE GARDEN May 18 2003 Iyar16 5763 Vol. 3, Special INSIDE THIS ISSUE TBS DEDICATES WARSAW GARDEN Rabbi's Message Cantor's Message 3 President's Message Executive Director 4 Men's Club Column 5 Uprising Timeline 6 Cover story continued 7 The Uprising 8- By Marek Edelman 39 Kaddish 40 Temple Beth Sholom is a Conservative Congregation affiliated with The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism They were weakened by starvation and emotionally battered, but for nearly a month the inhabitants of Poland's Warsaw Ghetto demonstrated that the strength of the human spirit prevails, even under the most adverse of conditions. Now, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the uprising, the perseverance of those lost heroes and heroines is celebrated with the dedication of the Warsaw Ghetto Remembrance Garden, a project of the Men's Club of Temple Beth Sholom. The keynote address is being delivered by nationally acclaimed educator and historical consultant Dr. Michael Berenbaum. Dr. Berenbaum was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation and served at the re-quest of President Carter as Deputy Director of the President's Commission on the Holo-caust. He i s the author and editor of twelve books, including "After Tragedy and Tri-umph" and "The World Must Know." Other speakers at the dedication include City of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Senator Richard Bryan and Congresswoman Shelly Berkley. Ambassador Chic Hecht also is expected to attend, along with numerous dignitaries. The official introduction of the memorial will be marked by a musical performance under the direction of Cantor Daniel Friedman, and remarks will be made by Rabbi Felipe Goodman. (Continued on Page 7) 2?Rabbi's Message The Witnesses Rabbi Felipe Goodman If you look at this stones you will understand. They are not like any other stone that you have ever seen. These stones speak, they cry, they embrace you and above all they make you re-member. If you look close enough in each one of those stones you will find millions of faces, hundreds of lives truncated, dreams that never were. If you look even closer you will see the children, you will see them smile with the laughter of innocence and you will see them cry the tears of God. If you touch these stones they don't feel cold. They are not like any other stone that you have ever touched. These stones are warm with feelings; you can feel the dying embrace of a mother who was too weak to hold on to her child. You can feel the warm touch of a father as his hand touched his son's hand for the last time. If you touch these stones you can touch the brutality of the enemies of Israel but you can choose to touch the greatness of the character of our people. Stones are witnesses. These stones looked up to heaven every day for many years. Every day they saw the sun shine and the rain fall; when these stones looked up they felt the steps, they felt the boots and the bullets. Did they feel each one of the bodies as they collapsed one by one? Did they feel each tear as it fell just as they felt the rain? Can these stones tell the difference? Stones are witnesses. These are the rejected stones, the paving stones. They were not meant for sculpture or for Architecture. These stones tell stories that words can not describe. These stones know how people died but they also know how peo-ple lived. We all can hear them cry: "Choose life! Always choose life! "Think not about the end." "Think about the beginning!" the stones plea. "Live! Be who you are, embrace God and our tradition not because of the way you die but because of the way you live!" And then there are the stones outside. The ones from Jerusalem. Those stones tell a story too. A story of hope, of redemption of Justice! Every time we pray Hallel, every time we praise God for his miracles and deliverance there is a verse that comes to life, now more than ever it speaks to us as it says: "Even Masu HaBonim Haita L'Rosh Pinah (The stone rejected by the builders has become our cornerstone)." Psalm 118 Debris litters the street in front of a building de-stroyed by the SS dur-ing the sup-pression of the Warsaw ghetto upris-ing. Photo credit: Archiwum Akt Nowych Cantor's Message?3 THE MUSIC OF THE GARDEN'S STONES Cantor Daniel Friedman The music of our Jewish souls radiates from generation to generation. Music has always played an integral part in the lives of our people. From ancient times where the sounds of the Kinnor, Neval, Shofar, Chatzotzera, Uggav and Halil were heard echoing in the Temple to the contemporary sounds of the Harp, Trumpet, Violin, Clarinet, Piano or Accordion, music has given us expression to our feelings as Jews. Be it a simcha or a solemn com-memoration we have sought to release our emotions and lift our prayers and feelings to God through music. When I was asked to put together a few CD's of music to accompany this Warsaw Ghetto Remembrance Garden, I thought long and hard on how to give a musical expression to this magnificent monument and stay true to the stones and the people who walked on them. I knew there was a vast amount of contemporary music composed in reflection, but I did not want only to repre-sent modern composers who may or may not have a connection to this particular time and space. So, I decided that I would find artists and composers who lived and worked at the time of the occupation of Poland in addition to contemporary composers and artists of Jewish descent. I focused my search on Jewish composers and artists but did not want to limit this expression. With this in mind, I expanded my search to include other composers whose music was embraced by the Jewish people, music from Chopin to Boccherini. I also decided to create a compilation of Partisan songs, Yiddish songs, and other songs that are identified with this era and the Jewish experience. My biggest concern was to remain true to the stones as I endeavored to find music that would bring back to life, a part of the life of that time. I also thought that silence is sometimes the best music and that these stones sing a tune of there own without enhance-ment. Each stone, upon contemplation, reverberates with its own music and together these stones are a symphony. A symphony commemorating the lives of those that walked upon them. In the end, I created these CD's to be used in many different ways. As you sit and experience this garden, I hope the music will set your mind wandering on a journey back into time and then forward into the future with optimism. I believe these stones and this garden speak to us about a brief period of time in the history of our people. A time filled with sadness, but also a time that can give us great strength and resolve to continue our struggle as a Jewish people. This is our struggle that stands up as a testa-ment, a remembrance, and forces us to never forget where we have been as we continue our journey forward in life as Jews. Beyond the music, I hope you will listen to the sound of these stones, alone, and imagine the world from which they came. Imagine the world we have today, and work for the world we can create for our children. May 18,2003 Jews captured during the sup-pression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are led by the SS to the Umschlagplatz for deportation. The original German caption reads alternately: "To the Umschlagplatz" or "Deportation of Jews." Photo credit: Poland National Archives 4?President's Message/Executive Director's Column Jeff Zucker, President Z'CHOR The dedication of the Warsaw Ghetto Remembrance Garden at Temple Beth Sholom is almost exactly 60 years after the end of the Ghetto Uprising. As time has passed there are fewer and fewer living witnesses to those events. Time tends to convert the horrible into the merely historic, just dry facts with less and less relationship to our lives. However, living beings are not the only connection with that time, and words are not the only way we can relate to it. As anyone who has ever picked up an old toy put away long ago senses, physical objects can connect us to our past. Through these tangible objects the past itself becomes tangible. It can be touched and felt, just like the stones that are the central focus of the Remembrance Garden. Hopefully, these stones and the entire memorial will help keep both the inhumanity and heroism of that time alive for a long time to come so that we never forget those who died and fought there. We will mourn them, but we will also take heart from their courage. We at Temple Beth Sholom have the honor of having received these Ghetto stones from the United States Holo-caust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. We recognize that with that honor comes a great responsibility. The construction of the RemembranceGarden is just the first step. We are developing a docent program which will hopefully make the memorial a part of the education of every child in Las Vegas, and an experience available to everyone who shares our belief that it is only by remembering the horrors of the past that we can prevent them from occurring again in the future. Let us never forget what happened, and, with that memory rededicate ourselves to the proposition that it must never happen again. Robert Mirisch?Executive Director THESE STONES ARE VERY PERSONAL In 1891 my grandfather, Max, at the age of 17, emigrated to the United States to es-cape conscription into the anti-Semitic Polish army. (Sometimes being a draft-dodger is the right thing to do.) His family lived in Krokow. He came alone and with 7 pfennig in his pocket. But for his courage in making that lonely and arduous journey, if I would have existed at all, I may have perished in the Holocaust, along with the rest of my fam-ily who didn't take the risks Max did. On a trip to Israel I inquired at Yad Vashem about the records they might have con-cerning my family. A few weeks after I returned home from my trip, I received in the mail two affidavits from Yad Vashem. They told of two members of my family who were young in 1943; as was I. It told of how the person swearing to the affidavit witnessed them shot down in the streets of Krocow. Those papers personalized the war for me in a way no history book or newsreel could. Here it was, as down and dirty as it gets. I subsequently found and became very close to members of my family who, in fact, escaped to France (it was OK then to go to France). My cousin escaped over the roof of his home when the Gestapo came to get the family and he never saw his mother again. He and his father spent the rest of the war spying for the Resistence and run-ning. That too brought the war closer to me. When I learned of the Warsaw Ghetto Remembrance Garden, I had to tell my California family about it. I was moved by the thought that people in what was truly my country of origin put up a brave fight. Of, course I knew of the uprising, but here was an opportunity to remember the many Mirisches who failed to leave in time. I think of them often. I think of the miracle of freedom my dear, dear grandfather gave to me. He was old when I was young. He was sweet and gentle. He never spoke of his journey; he just loved us. It is only now, at an age older than my father lived to be, that I have come to fully appreciate how extraordinary that dear man was. Grandpa Max, this Remembrance Garden is for you and all your family I never had the privi-lege of knowing. The entire family sends you our love and our prayers. Men's Club - 5 TBS Men's Club Three years ago, at a general membership meeting, a Men's Club member made a proposal that blew us away. The proposal was to have our Club sponsor a major memorial on Temple Beth Sholom prop-erty with the main draw being some surplus paving stones that had once been part of a street in the Warsaw Ghetto. How the man knew that the stones were available or why we could get them from the Holocaust Museum in Washington was never asked. This idea was overwhelming. To think that this small group of people could pull this off was mind-boggling. The proposal met with debate and many concerns. After all, how could our group take on such an enormous project? "Nothing like this has ever been done before so what makes us think we can pull it off?" "What's the memorial going to look like?" "Will there be pictures or documents from the Warsaw Ghetto on the walls?" And so on and so on. But, despite all the concerns, questions, doubts, and skepticism, the proposal passed with total support of the membership. Then before you knew it, we were off on an adventure that would make this exiting project the biggest fundraiser ever attempted by a Men's Club group associated with the International Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs. And just three years later, look what we have to show for the dedi-cated efforts of just a few people: Irwin Goldberg, Henry Kronberg, Mark Scheiner and Rabbi Goodman were leaders in making this Garden, this one-of-a-kind memorial, a reality. As you walk through the iron prison gates into the Garden, you can't help but get a feeling of awe. What really happened during World War II on that stone? Did one of our fellow Jews gasp his or her last breath on that one over there? How many of our brethren's feet walked on this one on their way to no-where? The Men's Club is very proud to be the sponsor of this project. The congregation can be proud to have this edifice right here to help remind the entire City and the visitors to come, not of our Jewish struggles, but of our accomplishments as a people. The Temple Beth Sholom Men's Club wants to express our gratitude to those who contributed towards the construction of the facility, to the fund supporting the con-tinuing Holocaust educational programs and especially to those men and women who had the foresight to bring this project to life. Irwin Goldberg and Jerry Katz, Co-Presidents Jews captured during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are marched off through a debris-covered street to the Umschlagplatz for deportation. May 18,2003 German stormtroopers force Warsaw ghetto dwell-ers of all ages to move, hands up, during the Jewish Ghetto Uprising in April-May 1943. Photo credit: Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes, courtesy of USHMM Photo Ar-chives. 6?Uprising Timeline WARSAW GHETTO TIMELINE UPRISING BEGAN SLOWLY, MADE IMPACT The Jewish resistance movement began in Europe between 1941 and 1943, as word of Nazi death camps reached those facing deportation. Following is a summary of the Warsaw Ghetto response, which is considered "the largest, sym-bolically most important Jewish uprising, and the first urban uprising, in German-occupied Europe" by historians associated with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Germans deport at least 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto between July and mid- September 1942. Mostly young residents of the Warsaw Ghetto create two underground organizations, later unifying through the ZOB, which translates into English as the Jewish Fighting Organization. The intention of the group is to resist relocation. Mordecai Anielewicz, a twenty-three-year-old man, issues a call to Jews to not passively go to the railroad cars. By January 1943, the Germans try to resume mass deportations. Resistance fighters fire on German troops trying to round up Ghetto inhabitants. They use a small collec-tion of weapons which had been smuggled into the camp and force the Germans to retreat temporarily. Encouraged by their success, the resistance fighters plan for future conflicts. They construct bun-kers and other subterranean shelters to provide a level of protection. The uprising takes hold on April 19, 1943 when German police and troops enter the Ghetto to continue relocation efforts. The 750 fighters hold their own against the more heavily armed and trained Germans. The revolt ends on May 16, 1943, following the start of Ghetto fires by the Germans. It is reported that 56,000 Jews were captured. Of those, the Germans shot 7,000. The remaining survivors were then sent to killing centers or concentration camps. Approximately 7,000 of the Ghetto residents were deported to Treblinka. The others were dispersed to the Poniatowa, Trawniki and Ma-jdanek camps. It is widely documented that the Germans intended to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto in three days. The fighters held them off for more than a month. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Holocaust Learning Center. Cover story continued?7 Warsaw Garden Dedication (continued) Following the service, members are invited to tour the Garden, light memorial candles and say Kaddish. An open-air building for quiet reflection, contemplation and prayer, the Garden provides a unique educational outreach for the synagogue, according to Irwin Goldberg, president of the Men's Club. "Its design is reminiscent of the restricted atmos-phere of the Ghetto," he said, "and it incorporates the last remaining original paving stones." Acquired from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the cobble stones are irregular in shape and mounted against walls accented by water and light. The design intention is to "bring to life a space of texture, movement and elements of cour-age," explains Chuck Jones, project architect, Friedmutter Group. According to Jones, the Garden's circular form was chosen "to express the movement of life ? the cycle from beginning to end." He says the garden offers a "connection between ground and sky," and incorporates symbolic elements of the six mil-lion lost to the Nazi's extermination campaigns. May 18,2003 8?The Uprising by Marek Edelman The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, by Marek Edelman "The Ghetto Fights," by Marek Edelman published in a pamphlet called The Warsaw Ghetto: The 45th Anniversary of the Uprising Interpress Publishers pp. 17-39 [undated] I am not acquainted with the young author of this booklet, one of the leaders of the Jewish Uprising. He brought me a typewritten copy, and I read it all at once, unable to interrupt my reading for a single mo-ment. ... "I am not a writer," he said. 'This has no literary value." However, this non-literary narrative achieves that which not all masterpieces can achieve. For it gives in serious, purposeful, reticent words a record, simple and unostentatious, of a common martyrdom, of its entire involved course. It is also an authentic document about perseverance and moral strength kept intact during the greatest tragedy in the history of mankind. -Zofia Nalkowska, LODZ, November 1945 Dedicated to the Memory of Abrasha Blum When the Germans occupied Warsaw in 1939, they found the Jewish political and social world in a state of complete chaos and disintegration. Almost all the leading personalities had left Warsaw on September 7th. The 300,000 Jews there experienced a deeper feeling of loneliness and helplessness than the others. In such conditions it was easy for the Germans to dominate the population from the very beginning by breaking their spirit through persecutions and by evoking a state of passive submission in their midst. The experienced and devilishly refined German propaganda agencies worked ceaselessly to achieve these aims, spreading incredible-for those days-rumours which further increased the panic and derangement in Jewish life. Then, after a short period of time, the maltreatment of Jews passed the stage of an occasional punch on the nose, sadistic extractions of Jews from their homes, and chaotic nabbing of Jews in the streets for aimless work. The persecutions now became definite and systematic. As early as November 1939, the first "exterminating" decrees were made public: the estab-lishment of "educational" camps for the Jewish population as a whole, and the expropria-tion of all Jewish assets in excess of 2,000 zloty per family. Later, one after another, a mul-titude of prohibitive rules and ordinances appeared. Jews were forbidden to work in key industries, in government institutions, to bake bread, to earn more than 500 zloty a month (and the price of bread rose, at times, to as high as 40 zloty a pound), to buy from or sell to "Aryans", to seek comfort at "Aryan" doctors' offices, to doctor "Aryan" sick, to ride on trains and trolley-cars, to leave the city limits without special permits, to possess gold or jewelry, etc. After November 12th, 1939, every Jew twelve years of age or older was com-pelled to wear on his right arm a white arm-band with the blue Star of David printed on it (in certain cities, e.g. Lodz and Wloclawek, yellow signs on the back and chest). 9 The Jews--beaten, stepped upon, slaughtered without the slightest cause-lived in constant fear. There was only one punishment for failure to obey regulations-death-while careful obedience to the rules did not protect against a thousand more and more fantastic degra-dations, more and more acute persecutions, recurrent acts of terror, more far-reaching regulations. To top it all, the unwritten law of collective responsibility was being universally applied against the Jews. Thus, in the first days of November 1939, 53 male inhabitants of the 9 Nalewki Street apartment house were summarily shot for the beating of a Polish po-liceman by one of the tenants. This occurrence, the first case of mass punishment, intensi-fied the feeling of panic amongst the Warsaw Jews. Their fear of the Germans now took on unequalled forms. In this atmosphere of terror and fear, and under conditions cardinally changed, the Bund resumed-or, to be more specific continued-its political and social activities. Despite every-thing that was happening, there were among us, it seemed, people ready to attempt further work. First, psychological difficulties had to be overcome. For instance, a strongly depress-ing handicap was the feeling that one could perish instantly not as a result of any particular activities, but as a beaten and humiliated-not human being-but Jew. This conviction that one was never treated as an individual human being caused a lack of self-confidence and stunted the desire to work. These factors will perhaps best explain why our activities in the first period after the fall of Warsaw were mainly of a charitable nature, and why the first in-stinctive acts of armed resistance against the occupying forces occurred comparatively late and, in the beginning, in such insignificant forms. To overcome our own terrifying apathy, to force ourselves to the smallest spark of activity, to fight against our own acceptance of the generally prevailing feeling of panic-even these small tasks required truly gigantic efforts on our part. Even during the darkest moments, the Bund did not suspend its activities for the shortest time. When the Party's Central Committee was forced to leave the city in September 1939, it had placed the responsibility of continuing the political activities of the Bund in the hands of Abrasha Blum. He, together with Szmul Zygielbojm and in cooperation with the efforts of Warsaw's mayor, Starzynski, organized Jewish detachments which took an active part in the defence of the capitai. Almost the entire editorial staff of the Folkszajtung ("The Peo-ple's Gazette"-the party daily) had left. However, the publication of the Folkszajtung was continued. During the siege period, it appeared regularly, edited by comrades Abrasha Blum, Klog, Klin and others. Public kitchens and canteens originated during the siege continued their activities after the seizure of the city. Almost all Party and Trade Union members received financial help. Im-mediately following the arrival of the Germans, the new Central Bureau of the Party was organized (A. Blum, L. Klog, Mrs. S. Nowogrodzka, B. Goldsztejn, S. Zygielbojm, later A. Sznajdmil ("Berek") and M. Orzech). In January 1940, after the first radio transmitting station of the Polish Underground had been found by the Germans, a new wave of mass terror commenced. During a single night the Germans arrested and murdered over 300 people comprising social leaders, intelli-gentsia and professionals. This was not all. The so-called "Seuchensperrgebiet" (area threatened by typhus) was established, and Jews were forbidden to live outside of this designated area. Furthermore, the Jews were being forced to work for both German and Polish employers, and were generally looked upon as a source of cheap labour. This did not suffice, either. The world was to be shown that the Jews were hated not only by the Germans. May 18,2003 Thus, during the Easter Holidays of 1940, pogroms lasting several days were instigated. The German Air Corps engaged Polish hoodlums for 4 zloty per "working day". The first three days the hooligans raged unopposed. On the fourth day the Bund militia carried out revenge actions. Four major street battles resulted in the following localities: Solna Street- Mirowski Market Square, Krochmalna Street-Grzybowski Square, Karmelicka Street- Nowolipie Street, and Niska Street-Zamenhofa Street. Comrade, Bernard Goldsztejn com-manded all of these battles from his hide-out. The fact that none of the other active political parties took part in this action is significant as an example of the utter misconception of existing conditions common to Jewish groups at the time. All other groups even opposed our action. It was, however, our determined stand that momentarily checked the Germans' activities and went on record as the first Jewish act of resistance. It was imperative that the public understand the significance of the events. It was impera-tive that all the beaten, maltreated people be told and shown that despite all we were still able to raise our heads. This was the immediate purpose of the first issue of The Bulletin which appeared for May Day, published on the battered Skif mimeograph machine which had been found by chance in the Public School at 29 Karmelicka Street. The editorial com-mittee included Abrasha Blum, Adam Sznajdmil and Bernard Goldsztein. The entire issue was dedicated to an analysis of the Easter disturbances. It met, however, with indifference on the part of the public. In November 1940, the Germans finally established the Warsaw ghetto. The Jewish popu-lation still living outside the "Seuchensperrgebiet" was brought inside the special area. Poles living within the designated ghetto boundaries were ordered to move out. Small fac-tories, shops and stores were allowed two weeks more, until December 1st, to complete their evacuation. But, beginning with November 15th, no Jew was allowed to leave the Jewish precincts. All houses vacated by Jews were immediately locked by the Germans and then, with all their contents, gratuitously given to Polish merchants and hucksters. Hucksters and small-time peddlers, the typical brood of war conditions, those were the people upon whom the Germans counted, whose favors they tried to gain by presenting them with confiscated Jewish assets and by tolerating their practice of food-smuggling. The walls and barbed wire surrounding the ghetto grew higher every day until, on Novem-ber 15th, they completely cut off the Jews from the outside world. Contacts with Jews living in other cities and towns were, naturally, also made impossible. For Jewish workers, all possibilities to earn a living vanished. Not only all factory workers, but all those who had been working in "Aryan" enterprises, as well as government agencies became unem-ployed. The typically war-time group of "middlemen", tradesmen appeared. The great ma-jority, however, left jobless, started selling everything that could possibly be sold, and slowly approached the depths of extreme poverty. The Germans, it is true, widely publi-cized their policy of "increasing the productive power of the ghetto", but actually they achieved the complete pauperization of the population. The ghetto population was in-creased by thousands of Jews evicted from neighboring towns. These people with practi-cally nothing to their names, alone, in strange surroundings where others were preoccu-pied with their own difficulties, literally dying of malnutrition, tried to build their existence anew. The complete segregation of the ghetto, the regulations under which no newspaper could be brought into it and all the news from the outside world carefully kept out, had a very definite purpose. These regulations contributed to the development of a special way of thinking common to the ghetto inhabitants. Everything taking place outside the ghetto walls became more and more foggy, distant, strange. Only the present day really mattered. Only matters of the most personal nature, the closest circle of friends were by now the focal point of interest of the average ghetto inhabitant. The most important thing was simply "to be alive". This "life" itself, however, had a different meaning to each, depending on his environment and opportunities. It was a life of plenty for the still wealthy few, it was exuberant and col-ourful for a variety of depraved Gestapo-men and demoralized smugglers, and, for a multi-tude of workers and unemployed, it was a hungry existence upheld by the meagre public kitchens' soup and rationed bread. Everyone tried hard to hang on to his particular sort of "life" as best he could. Those who had money sought the essence of their existence in comfortable living, strove to find it in the dense, chattery air of overcrowded cafes, or plunged into the dance music of the night clubs. Those who had nothing, the paupers, sought their "happiness" in a rotten potato recovered from a garbage pit, found evasive joy in a piece of begged-for bread with which the taste of hunger could, for a while, be stilled. These were the tragic contrasts of the ghetto so often exploited by the Germans, photo-graphed for propaganda purposes and maliciously presented to the opinion of the world. "In the Warsaw Ghetto beggars, swollen from hunger, die in front of luscious window dis-plays of food smuggled from the 'Aryan' sections..." The hunger increased daily. From dark, overcrowded living quarters it got out into the streets, came into sight in the shape of ridiculously swollen, log-shaped bodies with dis-eased feet, covered with open wounds, wrapped in dirty rags. It spoke through the mouths of the beggars, the aged, the young, and the children, in the streets and courtyards. Children begged everywhere, in the ghetto as well as on the "Aryan" side. Six-year-old boys crawled through the barbed wire under the very eyes of the gendarmes in order to obtain food "on the other side". They supported entire families in this manner. Often a lone shot in the vicinity of the barbed wire told the casual passers-by that another little smuggler had died in this fight with omnipotent hunger. A new "profession" appeared, the so-called "catchers". Boys, or rather shadows of former boys, would snatch packages from pedestri-ans and immediately, while still running, devour the contents. In their haste, they some-times stuffed themselves full of soap or uncooked peas.... Such was the misery by now that people began to die of hunger in the streets. Every morn-ing, about 4-5 a.m., funeral carts collected a dozen or more corpses on the streets that had been covered with a sheet of paper and weighted down with a few rocks. Some simply fell in the streets and remained there, others died in their homes but their families, after having stripped them completely (in order to sell the clothes), dumped the bodies in front of the houses so that burial would be made at the cost of the Jewish Community Council. Cart after cart filled with nude corpses would move through the streets. One on top of the other the bony carcasses lay, the heads bobbing up and down and beating against one another or against the wood of the cart on the uneven pavement. May 18,2003 When the ghetto was once more flooded with evicted Jews from smaller cities and towns, the situation became disastrous. There were never enough houses and living quarters. Now homeless, grimy people began loitering in the streets. All day long they camped in the courtyards, ate there, slept there, lived there. Finally, when there was no other way, they turned to the specially established "points"-transient homes for refugees. These "points" were one of the darke