potatoes

"Recently the camp received potatoes for the winter. Eighty percent rotten. Nevertheless, the camp came to life. In the camp, mountains of potatoes are heaped up, and everyone can pick them. But the potatoes stink of rot, are reshuffled by hundreds of hands. The selected potatoes are hidden in bunkers and people cannot use them freely anymore. The resignation of the Advisory Committee and the prevention of the free use of potatoes again aggravate the situation of supplies in the camp. Nevertheless, recently there has been no starvation in the camp."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

All that is left are the books

"The Jews of Ukmerge have been dead for a long time. All that is left are the books from the local Jewish library. Recently the books have also been taken out of there and brought to a 'Jewish grave' to the RR [Rosenberg] Task Force in Vilna, which does Judenforschung ohne Juden with Jewish brains . . .

"Seven cartons of books were brought here."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

Little Gardens in the Courtyards

"As last year, so this year, many little gardens are planned for the courtyards, as for example, at Szpitalna 5, Jatkowa 15, Szawelska 5, Lida 8, Strashun 3, Szawelska 1, and Strashun 15. Smaller gardens will be planted in almost all ghetto courtyards.

"Instead of flowers over us, we will make our courtyards bloom for the time being."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

Everything is Dead

"In the ghetto, it is as if everything were dead. The offices aren't open. People aren't working in the workshops. No one understands the events that have occurred. Rarely is there clear and certain information. Everything is veiled in fog. Everything looks unlikely. Every rustle is blown out of proportion. Some say the executions were carried out by Latvians. Some know that they were carried out by the 200 Ukrainians brought especially for that. People say that Hingst and Murer didn't know about the events in Ponar. The street seethes and argues incessantly. No one works, not even in the German units. The ghetto and the ghetto Jews are truly depressed. Everything is dead."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

pleasantly calm

"It has been calm for a few days, even pleasantly calm. Nothing special has happened. Better and better news comes from the front. It grows clearer by the day that a big breakthrough is coming. The Germans are running away from the Caucasus. The Stalingrad-Rostov and Rzhev-Rostov fronts have bigger successes from one day to the next. Today, as I write these lines, the Reds are 120 kilometers from Kharkov and a few dozen from Rostov. Leningrad is liberated [from the siege], and the Germans are driven out of Kronstadt. Today Leningrad celebrates the liberation of the city. In short, it is calm in the ghetto, even pleasantly calm."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

Police Will Collect Library Books

"There are subscribers to the library in the ghetto who do not return their borrowed books. Now such 'frozen' readers are put on a special list to be given to the police. The books of such subscribers are recalled by force.

"In especially malevolent cases, people will be punished for keeping library books."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

a flower

"Outside, it is late autumn. I am not allowed to buy a flower in the street, although I am among the happy ones, who have the right to 'pass.' So I gather beautiful golden oak leaves. Instead of a flower, a leaf, a dried, yellow autumn leaf.

"It is autumn and sad in my soul. . . ."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

100,000 books

"In November, the ghetto library went beyond the figure of a hundred thousand books distributed to readers. Because of this, the library is organizing a big cultural morning recital, which will take place in the Ghetto Theater on Sunday, the 13th of this month, at noon. On the program: Opening by G. Yashunski, welcome from the ghetto chief, writers, scientific circles, teachers, and the Youth Club. Dr. Ts. Feldman will speak on 'The Book and Martyrdom,' then a lecture by H. Kruk, '100,000 Books in the Ghetto.' The second part will be a concert of words and music.

"The finale: distribution of gift books to the first reader in the ghetto and the youngest reader of the library."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

To Jerusalem and Back

"An old Mormon missionary in Nauvoo once gripped my knee hard as we sat side by side, and he put his arm about me and called me 'Brother.' We'd only met ten minutes before. He took me to his good bosom. His eyes began to mist. I was a prospect, an exotic prospect in old tennis shoes and a sweatshirt. His heart opened to me. It opened like a cuckoo clock. But it did not give me the time of day."

~~ from Saul Bellow's To Jerusalem and Back