Mila 18 - Leon Uris [158]
Alexander Brandel and David Zemba were among the fortunate not on the roundup list.
But dozens of people from the Bathyrans and the Labor Zionists and Revisionists and Bundists were not so fortunate. Black Friday shattered the ghetto and it sank to its lowest depths.
On the Sabbath following the massacre the ghetto was plastered with terrifying orders and the loudspeaker trucks roamed up and down, up and down, booming the edicts.
ORDER OF DEPORTATION NOTICE
1. By order of the German authorities all Jews living in Warsaw, without regard to age or sex, are to be deported to the East.
2. The following are excluded from the deportation order:
(a) All Jews employed by German authorities or in German enterprises who have their Kennkarten properly stamped.
(b) All Jews who are members and employees of the Jewish Civil Authority as of the day of this notice.
(c) All Jews belonging to the Jewish Militia.
(d) The families of the above-mentioned. Families consist only of husband/wives and children.
(e) Jews employed by social welfare agencies under the Jewish Civil Authority and Orphans and Self-Help Society.
3. Each deportee is entitled to take fifteen kilograms of personal possessions as baggage. All baggage over the weight will be confiscated. (All valuable articles such as money, jewelry, gold, etc., should be taken in order to use it for an orderly resettlement) Three days’ food should be taken.
4. Deportation commences on July 22, 1942, at 11 A.M.
5. Punishments:
(a) Jews in the published lists not reporting will be shot.
(b) Jews undertaking activities to evade or hinder orderly deportation will be shot.
JEWISH CIVIL AUTHORITY, WARSAW
Boris Presser, Chairman
ANNOUNCEMENT
Each deportee who reports voluntarily will be supplied with 3 kg. bread and 1 kg. marmalade. Food distribution will be held at Stawki Square.
Staging center for deportation will be the process center at Stawki 6-8 on the Umschlagplatz.
JEWISH CIVIL AUTHORITY, WARSAW
Dr. Paul Bronski, Deputy Chairman
ANNOUNCEMENT
Each day deportations will be clearly posted and announced for the proceeding day. Deportees for July 23 shall come from the following areas:
Elektoralna St. #34–42
Chlodna St. #28–44 inclusive
Orla St. #1–14 and 16–34
Leszno St. #1–3, 7–51, 57–77
All Biala Street
BY ORDER OF PIOTR WARSINSKI
Jewish Militia of Warsaw
Chapter Six
THE UNDERGROUND RECOILED FROM Black Friday and set out to determine what was behind the deportation.
For the first three days the Germans had an unexpected success. Wild Ones who lived in hiding without Kennkarten left their secret hovels, unable to resist the temptation of the three kilograms of bread and one kilogram of marmalade promised by the Germans. There were more volunteers than could be processed at the Umschlagplatz.
The deportation center was in a gray four-story concrete structure at Stawki 6-8, just beyond the northern gate. It was out of view of both the ghetto and the Aryan side. Once a school, it had later been an Orphans and Self-Help hospital.
Waffen SS Haupsturmführer Kutler, in charge of the detail, was a member of the Kommandos who had carried out the massacres on the eastern front. Kutler was in a state of drunkenness, tormented by a continuous nightmare of blood. His gory dreams were shared by most of the other Kommandos, who kept themselves going on liquor and dope.
A pair of thick iron doors hung across the entrance. Inside, a half dozen Nazis made selections, standing in front of the never-ending lines of humanity. A few were returned to the ghetto for labor. Most were passed along to the immense cobblestone yard surrounded by a high wall.
The courtyard detail was composed of Nightingales and their Litt and Latt compatriots under the direction of a few SS men who held various Alsatian dogs at leash end.
A brick train shed and platform some two blocks in length ran to the extreme end of the courtyard. A train of forty-four cattle and freight cars stood in readiness.
As the selectees came in, their belongings were ransacked for jewelry, money, valuables