Rutka Hirschberg Testimony (doc. 301/1129)

Original, manuscript, 2 pages, 210 x 295 mm, Polish language

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Rutka Hirschberg, 14 years old.

Aryan papers.

Drohobycz.

Record taken by Bauminger.

In 1939 we left Wilno and headed for Lvov. My parents wanted to take me to Drohobycz and then to return to Lvov. When we reached Drohobycz, my parents found work there and we all stayed there. I went to school right away. I kept my best memories from this school. On June 22, 1941 the Russo-German war broke out. The day before I had received my school certificate, I had been on a school excursion, and nobody had been thinking about the war. In the morning terrible noises woke us up. We thought these were just military drills but then the radio and newspapers put us right. The evacuation of Drohobycz began. The army left. The situation was unclear. The worst was when the Bolsheviks left the town and the Germans still weren’t there. Ukrainians went mad then. Pogroms began. Ukrainians would go from house to house with truncheons, axes, stanchions, and beat Jews. One man wanted to save us but his wife did not let him save the Jews. We didn’t even hear the Germans enter. Their first orders. Jews are allowed to buy things on the market square only within specified hours. Armbands were introduced, the Judenrat was organized. They robbed a great deal, and gave away for the contingents the poorest ones who couldn’t ransom themselves.

One particular situation remained etched in my memory. Nearby, there was a very rich German delicatessen. The owner’s daughter, very pretty, the picture of health, slapped a Jewish child on the face, dressed in rags, who had asked for a piece of bread.

From time to time, Job’s news of the coming action. We would go into hiding. In the wall of the attic there was a hole through which we crawled into our hideout. It was so low

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we had to lie flat on the floor.

We got work in the roofing-tile factory, Städtische Ceramische Werke,1Note 1: Städtische Ceramische Werke – Municipal Ceramic Factory near the prison of Brygidki.1Note 1: Brygidki – prison in Lwów It was a sealed camp for girls, they lived in the barracks behind the factory. The roof of the barracks was leaking. They worked hard thinking it would save them from deportation. At first it was possible to go out into town from there with a pass. During the actions in Drohobycz there was a terrible panic in the roofing-tile factory as well. We hid in a summer-house near the factory. The Germans didn’t think that somebody might have hidden in the summer-house which was just by the factory gate and that’s how we managed to avoid death. They put all the girls onto the trucks then. As one of the factory’s managers, Daddy defended them, then one SS man took out a pistol and wanted to shoot Daddy. At this moment one Polish woman, looking at all this from the upper floor, gave a terrible scream. This must have disconcerted the German for he hid the pistol. Very many girls were taken that time to Bełżec.

Städtische Werkstätte. The most talented youth worked there, coming from the most influential families in Drohobycz. They made beautiful things: sculptures and paintings showing folk life, toys. It seemed to be the safest placówka [workplace]. Once (it was after I left, I know this from what my friend told me) an automobile with SS men arrived and the whole youth was loaded onto the automobiles. They behaved like heroes. With heads held high they sang Poland is not yet lost, 3Note 3: “Poland is not yet lost” – the Polish national anthem. Hatikvah, 3Note 3: Hatikvah – Zionist song, currently the national anthem of Israel. La Marseillaise 3Note 3: La Marseillaise – the French national anthem. and The Internationale 3Note 3: The Internationale – a communist song, former national anthem of Soviet Union. and that’s how they drove through the town knowing that they were going to their deaths.

In Drohobycz there was also a camp Beskidy. I don’t know much about it, apart from that the richest people gathered there. It lasted the longest. When they realized that they were being hounded they hid in hideouts.