As an ambulance driver in the German army, Fritz Macco was sent to Warsaw. It seems that fortunately he was able to get noncombatant duty. According to the Grossmanns and Mrs Mŭhlschlegel, Fritz Macco was able to find Lidia and visit her, possibly twice, to bring food and to try to persuade her to escape. Hartmut Grossmann was told by Fritz's mother, Karla Macco, that the young soldier had come to believe that he had been spared forjust this: 'that this was his special task, to get in contact with Lidia. . .' But, he said, she refused to escape and said she 'wanted to stay with her people'. Fritz Macco survived until 1944, when he was able to intervene with the Gestapo on behalfof his mother, who had been imprisoned for her Baha'( activities. His efforts kept her from being sent to a concentration camp. But in September 1944, Fritz Macco was killed on an island in the Vistula River, in Poland, presumably by Russian troops who overran northeastem Poland during the Red Army's summer offensives.
It seems that no one is still alive who heard this remarkable story from Fritz Macco himself. But the fact that a number of people knew the story of the German soldier's attempt to save Lidia Zamenhof, and have provided independent versions, is enough to make it worth recording. * Unless more information comes to light, it is not possible to know the full story. As Hartmut Grossmann has said, 'What really happened, we don't know.'
* Howcvcr, Adam's son Ludwik, who was in closc concact wich Lidia until August 1942, ncvcr heard anything about the episode.
THIRTY
It Will Not Be Forgotten
The inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto knew that their only hope lay in an early victory by England. But as time dragged on and Allied liberators did not come, the situation in the Ghetto became worse. The Nazis intended to starve the Jews, and allowed them smaller food rations than they gave the Poles. In fact, the small amount of bread, potatoes and fat each person was permitted did not provide enough nourishment; but with food smuggled from the other side, the inmates of the Ghetto managed to cling to life. The penalty for smuggling was death; but, every day, people of all ages risked their lives to crawl through a hole in the wall or a sewer to bring back a loafofbread. Many smugglers were children, for they were agile and could get through small openings in the wall. They were also more likely to inspire pity if caught by the police. As the Germans cut rations further, smuggling became virtually the only source of food in the Ghetto, and the cost of food rose drastically. Many people, especially the refugees, could no longer afford to eat. Charity soup kitchens could not feed all those who were hungry, and people began to starve.
'You see mobs of children in rags begging in the street nowadays,' recorded Emmanuel Ringelblum in early 1941. 'Walking down Leszno Street every few steps you come across people lying at the street comer, frozen, begging.' At a funeral for a number of small children from an orphanage, he had recounted earlier, the other children from the home placed a wreath on the monument inscribed: 'To the Children Who Have Died From Hunger From the Children Who Are Hungry.'
Since the occupation, people had been seized in increasing numbers for forced labor. The news from the work camps was becoming more and more alarming, as reports ofthe death ofcamp inmates reached the Ghetto. In his secret diary, Emmanuel Ringelblum recorded a heart- rending scene: one day, Jewish forced-laborers returning to the Ghetto wefe getting out of the wagon when their Christian watchman ordered them to sing. One among them, who was a cantor by profession, stood on the auto and began to sing. The street became filled with people listening to him. He was chanting in Hebrew a prayer from the memorial service, 'God, Full of Compassion'.
54 ■ On board the PHsudski at the Sixth Street Pier, Hoboken, NewJersey, awaiting
departurefor Poland
55. Fritz Macco in Wehrmacht uniform. At extreme right, Karla Macco. Third from right: Dr Hermann Grossmann
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Lidia's last postcard to the Isbrŭckers. In the upper left corner it bears the stamp of the Warsaw Ghetto's Judenrat (Jewish Council)
It had become clear to the people in the Ghetto that if the war did not end soon, they would all starve to death. 'The number of the dead in Warsaw is growing from day to day,' wrote Emmanuel Ringelblum in March 1941. 'In the house I lived in, a father, mother and son all died from hunger in the course of one day.' By April not even ration cards could get bread or potatoes. People were dying in the streets. Professional people like the Zamenhofs were in the worst situation. 'The professionals', Ringelblum wrote, 'are in desperate straits. By now every thing they had has been lost or sold; their bodies are swelling from hunger.' Injuly: 'Ten houses are empty in 7 Wolynska Street. All the residents have died out. In general, this death of entire families in the course of one or two days is a very common occurrence.'
'Why are they all so quiet? Why does the father die, and the mother, and each of the children, without a single protest? Why haven't we done the things we threatened the world with a year ago?. . . There are a great many possible answers . . .' he wrote. 'One is that the [German] occupation forces have so terrorized the Jewish populace that people are afraid to raise their heads. The fear that mass reprisals would be the reply to any outbreak from the hungry masses has forced the more sensitive elements into a passivity designed not to provoke any commotion in the Ghetto.'
The Esperantists continued to send food parcels to the Zamenhofs, butnoteverythingtheysentreachedthem. Injune 1941 Lidiagotword to Hans Jakob in Geneva that she had received two parcels from Porto, Portugal, and one from Goteborg, Sweden. 'I thank you from my heart for your trouble,' she wrote. But in July she wrote to the Isbrŭckers in the Netherlands: 'Please forgive my long silence. I received your card and am happy to know you are well. However, I could not receive what you wanted to send me ... I wish all good for you. About us I can tell you nothing new. About Adam there is no news at all. A long time ago I received a card from Ponti [Dick Ponti, in the Netherlands] but could not respond. Please give him my greet- ings . . .'