Page 88 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Zofia Lubińska-Rosset - "Okruchy Pamięci".

Gehsperre
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At the end of the summer of 1942, the so-called Sperre was
announced. It was an absolute ban on leaving the place of resi-
dence for a period of about one week, during which the Germans,
with the help of the Jewish police, removed from the homes all
children under 10 and people over 65 as well as the sick and ex-
hausted by hunger. The panic in the ghetto was enormous because
everybody was aware that all those caught would be killed.
I was not even nine and sick with measles at the time. I had a
very high fever, cough, photophobia. And the children, especially
younger ones, were taken away without exception, and nobody
asked for documents. I was small, skinny, sick, so just the one to
take away. When a Jewish policeman entered our apartment, my
Mom covered the part of the bed I was lying in, protruding from
behind the wardrobe, with her body and categorically answered the
question about children – there are no children here! To this day,
I do not know if the policeman did not see me or did not want to
see me, but he told the German supervising officer that he had not
found any children in the apartment.

It did not mean that the danger was over, because the Sperre
continued and the police or the Germans could appear at any time
to conduct another search.

The rescue came the same day (or maybe the next one?) in the
person of uncle Salek's younger brother - Moryc. He came with a

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German: Allgemeine Gehsperre – an extermination action combined with an absolute ban
on leaving the place of residence introduced by an announcement no 391 of Ch. Rum-
kowski on September 5th, 1942 with no deadline (until further notice), preceded the day
before by his humanly incomprehensible call "Give me your children" delivered on the
so-called firefighter square.

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