Page 105 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. "Fragmenty pamięci".

Wielka Szpera 5-12 września 1942 The Great Szpera, 5-12 September 1942

Chaim Rumkowski`s speech
from 4 September 1942

Give me your children

The ghetto has received a heavy blow. They demand that it give up that which is the most precious
– the children and the elderly. I was never blessed with offspring, and for that reason, I gave children
the best years of my life. I lived with the child, and I breathed with the child. Never have I thought
that my hands would be forced to offer the child as a sacrifice. In my twilight years, I have to come to
you and ask, “Brothers and sisters, give them to me! Fathers and mothers, give me your children”.

Chaim Mordechaj Rumkowski przemawia na placu strażackim do mieszkańców getta
Chaim Mordechaj Rumkowski gives a speech to the ghetto inhabitants at the fireman’s square
I could sense that “something” was approaching. I had been bracing myself for this “something”, like
a vigilant watchman who wants to prevent this “something”. But I failed, because I didn’t know what
the danger was and what awaited us. Taking the sick from the hospital came as an absolute surprise
to me, as you could tell, seeing as people dear to me were there, and there was nothing I could do to
help them. I thought that this would be the end of it, that they would just leave us be, which is all
I wanted, which is what I had been working so hard to insure. But fate decided otherwise. This is the
fate of the Jews: to suffer more and more, especially during the war.

Yesterday, I was ordered to send more than twenty thousands people from the ghetto. Unless we do
it ourselves, others will do it for us. A question thus arises: should we do it ourselves, or should we
leave it to others? Mindful not of how many we would lose, but of how many we could save, we have

105