Forest to Freedom: Recollections of My Life in Poland During the Holocaust, 1939-1944 by Michael Erens

Author:Michael Erens [Erens, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

After the action, the ghetto changed its character. It looked more like a camp. We were no longer allowed to move freely around the town. As a technical worker I had more freedom of movement and could be more active in the preparation for the escape. Most people did not recover from the shock after the action and were depressed and resigned. We spent evenings in our rooms, in the darkness, talking in a whisper, avoiding to mention the names of killed family members.

Among us was a known humorist and folk singer, Gruber. During these evenings Gruber, with his delicate voice, in almost a whisper, was performing popular Jewish folk songs, medleys, not only about the sad past, but also the freilich ones, the gay ones, that could not lift our spirits. All the songs sounded like funeral prayers, a reminder of the past and the lost ones.

To make things worse, an epidemic of typhoid erupted in the camp and was decimating the survivors. The Hasidic people intensified their prayers to God: “God of ours, the only God,” believing that things got so bad and that now is the time for the Messiah to step in. He did not. They still could not believe that their God, to whom they prayed twice daily, deserted them and punished them, not with plagues, like the Egyptians, but with torture and death.

They still did not lose their faith. They stayed together and kept praying more intensely. In this tragic time they did not forget to collect money, to be sent to the Belzer Rabbi, their spiritual leader, who was hiding far away near Krakow.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.