In 1941 a Youth Division was established at the Jewish Social Mutual Aid Organization and the Zukunft became one of the Division's important contributors. We were able to reach large numbers of young people. Our lecturers took charge of numerous youth groups, which were at that time established under the House Committees in every apartment house. There was the choir with its active programme (public concerts were given in the Judaistic Library). School-age youth was also being organized. The SOMS (Socialist School Students' Organization) was re-established, and numbered a few hundred members after a very short time. Comprehensive political education and cultural activities were carried out.
At the same time the Skif, whose activities were until then limited to securing financial help for its pre-war members, started large-scale work among children of school and pre-school age. A so-called "corner" was established in every house, where children found a home for a few hours every day. The Dramatic Club, led by Pola Lipszyc, gave performances twice a week. During the 1941 season 12,000 children attended these performances (Dolls and The Granary were shown 80 times). Instruction classes were held for children 12-15 years of age. The Instructors' Council members themselves attended instruction classes covering a full secondary school course.
Six periodicals were published by us in those days: 1. Der Weker (weekly), 2. The Bulletin (monthly), 3. Tsait Fragn ("Problems of the Times"--a theoretical political magazine), 4. For Our and Your Freedom (monthly), 5. Yugnt Shtime (The Voice of Youth--monthly), 6. The New Youth (monthly). Considerable effort went into the publication of these papers. As a rule, the single old Skif mimeograph machine would be working the whole night through. Usually no electricity was available, and working by carbide gas lights proved extremely strenuous. At about 2 a.m. the printing personnel (Rozowski, Zyferman, Blumka Klog, Marek) would complain of tremendous eye pains and it would be almost impossible to continue working. On the other hand, every minute was precious. At 7 a.m. the issue, no matter how many pages it held, had to be ready for circulation. Everyone worked harder than they were physically able to. They averaged two-three sleepless nights a week. It was impossible to catch up on one's sleep the following morning, because one had to pretend complete ignorance of the printing activities. The manager of the printing office, Marek, was also in charge of circulation (people actually circulating the paper were: Zoska Goldblat, Anka Wolkowicz, Stefa Moryc, Miriam Szyfman, Marynka Segalewicz, Cluwa Krysztal-Nisenbaum, Chajka Betchatowska, Halina Lipszyc and others). After a sleepless night, there usually followed a difficult day, always in suspense, uncertainty whether everything reached its destination, whether all was in order, whether there were no "slip-ups".
Once Marynka was stopped on the street by a "navy-blue" [Polish] policeman while carrying 40 copies of The Bulletin. It happened under the ghetto wall, on Franciszkanska Street. She pretended she was an "ordinary" smuggler and wanted to take care of the matter accordingly--by offering a bribe of 500 zloty. The unusually high offer made the police suspicious, and they asked to be shown the "merchandise". Now the inevitable happened. Not stockings, but printed sheets of paper fell out from under the girl's skirt and littered the street. The matter became serious, and Marynka already saw herself in the Gestapo's dark shadow. Suddenly a lucky "coincidence" occurred--an argument started not far away, and fists were soon flying. Such disturbances could not be tolerated near the ghetto wall. The policemen lost their heads, did not know what to do first, and turned around for an instant--long enough for Marynka to gather the papers, throw the policemen their promised 500 zloty, and disappear... As to the "argument", it was intentionally started by "Little Kostek" (S. Kostrynski) who had noticed Marynka's predicament.
It might be interesting to add that according to a sort of poll that we were able to conduct, our publications were being read by an average of 20 people per copy.
Our periodicals were also circulated throughout the country. This phase of our work was organized by J. Ceiemenski and I. Falk, both of whom had been previously authorized by the Party Central Committee to maintain continuous contacts with groups throughout the country. In addition, Mendelson (Mendele) was delegated by the Zukunft Committee for the purpose of organizing the work of youth groups outside Warsaw.
In the meantime the terror within the ghetto kept increasing while the ghetto's isolation from the outside world became more and more rigid. More and more people were being arrested for sneaking onto the "Aryan side", and finally "special courts" were established. On February 12th, 1941, seventeen people previously sentenced to death for illegal trespassing in the "Aryan section" lost their lives. The execution took place in the Jewish jail on Gesia Street. At 4 a.m. shrill cries notified the neighbourhood that "justice" was being meted out, that seventeen outcasts, including four children and three women, were being duly punished for leaving the ghetto in pursuit of a piece of bread or a few pennies. Cries from other jail cells could also be heard, the voices of future victims awaiting trial for the same offence, a total of 700 people.
The same afternoon the entire Jewish population was notified of the execution by special posters signed by the German Commissar of the ghetto, Dr. Auerswald.
The ghetto could clearly feel the breath of death.
During a short meeting of the Party Executive Committee (Abrasha Blum, Luzer Klog, Berek Sznajdmil, Marek Orzech), held the same day, it was proposed to publish and post short leaflets reading: "Shame to the Murderers."
The ghetto was dumbfounded by the terror of what was happening and by fear of large-scale retaliations on the part of the Germans. Once more every effort to decide on armed resistance was nipped in the bud. The fear of the Germans and of their policy of collective responsibility was such that even the best refused to show any signs of protest.
Now the events began moving at a breath-taking pace. The ghetto streets became a bloody slaughter-house. The Germans made it a habit to shoot passers-by without the slightest provocation. People were afraid to leave their homes, but German bullets reached them through the windows. There were days when the toll of terror was 10-15 quite accidental victims. One of the more notorious sadists, a Schutzpolizei gendarme by the name of Frankenstein, had on his conscience over 300 people murdered in one month, more than half of whom were children.
Simultaneously man-hunts were being conducted on the streets by German and Jewish Police. The captives were sent to various labour camps throughout the General Government. The Germans gained doubly from that procedure: first, they obtained the needed working power; secondly, they were able to show that all evictions were caused by the Germans' desire to "increase the productive power", and that in German labour camps, even though the conditions were difficult, one had an opportunity to live through the war... The Germans were truly magnanimous. They even permitted the people to write to their families...
These letters found their way to the ghetto in great numbers and their result was disbelief of the more and more persistent reports concerning mass executions of Jews. Repeated deportations throughout the country, allegedly to Bessarabia, passed almost unnoticed, because the ghetto obstinately believed the rumours that letters had arrived from these people also. Likewise, people dismissed as untrue the story of the wholesale slaughter of almost the entire transport of German Jews brought the previous year to the vicinity of Lublin. The stories about the executions in the Lublin woods were too horrible, it was thought, to be true.