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HISTORY OF THE VILIAMPOLE JEWISH GHETTO POLICE 326 When the recruitment for Riga became a fact, the Labor Office immediately let it be known that those who had family members there should report voluntarily. Ten or fifteen women and men showed up to report voluntarily. The required number was 300. Since volunteers alone would not be enough, the second forced recruitment for Riga started on October 16. Recruitment lasted a whole week, from October 16 to 23. This time the recruitment dragged on for a long time, in part because of our own lack of promptness. The police had already assembled around 500 [sic] people, but the number was still insufficient, all for the same reason —the police arrested and the committee released, constantly in and out. Finally, the required number was achieved on October 23, and they were sent away to their workplaces. It is possible that their being sent out from here, although forced, will be to their benefit. Who knows whose fate is better? Although the entire recruitment activity was not orderly, the office work of the police was carried out very well. After the first transport in the month of February, the belongings of those sent away were taken by strangers, and it was not accurately known who was sent away, who were the members of each family, their profession, where they worked, and so on. There were practical reasons for this at that time, since some were taken from the square and from the gate with only their clothes on their backs. This time, however, the police headquarters had an accurate list—according to the wards—of those taken away, by name, family, address; if they left belongings, these were given to relatives in accordance with the wishes of the deported. Everything was accurately written down and all relevant documents were attached. October 28, 1942. A year has passed since the Great Action—the 28th according to the conventional calendar, the eighth of Cheshvan T.Sh. "B. [5702] by the Jewish calendar. Yizkor!4 May God remember the fathers, mothers, and children who were killed by the murderous sadists. 4. “May [God] remember!”—first word of the prayer for the deceased, part of the Yom Kippur service. The Ghetto in the Times of the Schutz Polizei 327 The spilled innocent blood of the gray-haired old people, the simple honest people, good, devoted Jews, who raised generations and lived productively. The spilled blood of the babies, whom they threw alive into the pits and tore apart with hand grenades, innocent, amiable Jewish children, nursing infants with their mothers’ milk on their lips, older children who understood a little of what was being done to them and with indescribable pain in their naïve faces and eyes asking: “why?,” “why?” Yizkor! The heaven-rending crying and wailing of the ten thousand whose screams should have split the skies. If there is such a one as you, God, your throne is immersed in blood; how can You allow such terrible things on this earth—albeit filthy—but still Your world. If truth and justice are indeed to come to the world, it will, no doubt, be too late. As Bialik said: “Im akharey mosee ha-tzedek yofiya, yimoogar na khiso la-ahd”—If only after my death justice will appear, then let the throne of justice be broken forever. A new world will come after the war, we will be mourned with false tears; a large number of nations friendly to us will rejoice in their hearts that they were able to rid themselves in such an easy manner of a difficult problem—the headache of having to deal with the Jews and their just aspirations. But in the meantime the pain remains with us. The large wound is somewhat closed, but will never heal. Should we survive, the great grief will forever hang over us like a dark cloud. We all remembered this anniversary, some more, some less, reliving the terrible days of the past year, wounds that bleed and are not healing. A year has passed. Had anyone told us at this time a year ago that we would survive another year, we would not have believed it, because it appeared that the extermination of the entire ghetto was imminent. But we did survive another year, and while our situation has not improved, still, we are a year closer to the conclusion. The Meck Episode Sunday, November 15 [1942], the entire ghetto trembled from a...

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