The Clandestine History of the Kovno Jewish Ghetto Police

4. Ghetto Situation after the Great Action(The survivor must live . . .)

158 After the Action: Moods and Rumors; Camp or Ghetto On the day after the action, October 29, 1941, all institutions in the entire ghetto were closed. The situation and mood in the ghetto were as if after a great earthquake. One did not know what was happening, where one was in the world, what one should say or think. We were completely paralyzed and dejected. People were running around from one to the other like wounded animals, asking what would be, what kind of affliction had befallen us, and what was going to happen next. It was completely impossible to take stock of the horror we had experienced. Had they really murdered the 10,000 who had been taken away? How could that be, what would happen to us? Were we better than they? Did the Germans value us more, were we privileged, when would they take us away? Was living and doing anything at all worthwhile when, in any event, we would soon be taken to the fort? Holding our throbbing heads in our hands, confused by the sad thoughts that were chasing each other, we asked the same questions for the hundredth time, unable to give an answer. Ghetto Situation after the Great Action (The survivor must live . . .) 4 Ghetto Situation after the Great Action 159 The entire ghetto was like one grieving family. There was crying and wailing in every house and every yard. There was hardly a house or a family that was not touched; everyone was missing somebody. In addition, for those who were not directly affected by the action, old wounds were awakened. One was missing a husband, a son, a brother arrested early on; another, someone who went away with the 500; a third—someone taken in the two earlier actions. And so the entire ghetto was one grieving community. There was crying and wailing for the loved ones and dear ones who had been so cruelly torn away, crying over our own helplessness and weakness, crying over our shocking situation, our dark prospects. What would be our end, and when? When would there be an end to the troubles, how long would we suffer; if we were not to survive, what was the point in suffering? Nerves were so weak, people were so exhausted, that they wandered around crying in the streets; women especially ran around in the streets like wounded animals, wailing. People ran to the fences to engage the guards, the partisans, in a conversation: maybe they knew something of the fate of those taken away—because at that time it was not believable that all had been killed, without exception—people would speak to them and inquire, maybe they had seen or heard where the people had been taken to, how many were taken, perhaps there was a possibility to bring someone back. We were still very naïve, thinking that at least some of the younger men had been taken for work. The partisans, our “good friends,” smelled a good source of income, and immediately offered to bring back anyone who was requested; as long as they were well paid, they would bring back anybody asked for, the main thing was “Yidele [little Jew], give money.” People in despair, seeing a feeble ray of hope, brought money and goods to the fence; they put down a deposit toward bringing someone back. They sought pity from them, stuffed them with all kinds of good things, so that they would do something. They, the partisans, took everything, but needless to say, they brought no one back. They only cheated the Jews of a little more money, a few more valuables. People did not go to work. Who cares? one thought—what could be worse than what we have lived through? All along we had been implored to go to the airfield because this would help with all our troubles, and here, with the action, hundreds or maybe thousands of able-bodied people had been HISTORY OF THE VILIAMPOLE JEWISH GHETTO POLICE 160 taken away; they had shown their shift papers at the selection, which had not even been looked at. In fact, people from the airfield had suffered more than everyone else. Since thousands of people with armbands had gone to the Fort, working at the airfield provided no protection—so why should one work? That was the mood of the people, and in the first few...