Page 97 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. "Fragmenty pamięci".

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

Where to look for a poet in whose imagination a vision of such monstrous misery would be
born! The soul-shattering screams of those forcibly separated from each other. The children
put on the wagons behave in different ways, depending on their age — they are either calm
or distraught. Girls and boys just under ten years old, children of the ghetto, fully formed
people who already understand the tragedy, who have already suffered so much. The
younger ones open their big Jewish eyes, several millennia old, wide and know not what
to do. They were put on a wagon; for the first time in their lives, they are on such a wagon,
which will be pulled by a real horse. Ho, ho — it seems like a fun ride. Many a toddler jumps up
and down with joy as long as there is still some room on the platform of the truck, stomping
their feet. Meanwhile, their mothers, close to madness, lie on the street pavement and tear
their hair out in despair.

Oskar Singer, 16 September 1942

There is a wagon on Rybna Street with several lost children on it, their eyes bulging. They
have been taken away, and they do not know what is wanted of them. Why are there so
many people standing around the wagon and looking so distressed and troubled? Why are
they crying so much, wringing their hands? The children, they do not want to cry at all, they
are even happy — they have put them on the wagon, and they all are going to ride! After all,
when has a ghetto child ever had the chance to ride? If there had not been so many crying
people standing around here, and if dad with mum had not been screaming so terribly when
they were put on that cart, they would have danced joyfully!

Józef Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days, September of 1942

I saw Germans throwing children out of windows straight into trucks. If a nurse was able to
catch a child, then the impact was lighter. The children were crying and screaming, and the
only thing we could do was watch.

Riva Chirurg, Bridge of sorrow, bridge of hope

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