The Horse Adjutant cupation began, I turned 13. It was October 30th, 1939. I initially avoided getting an armband and wasn’t about to look for one even though it was required. Instead, I chose to ignore it. I knew that an armband would mark me for easy abuse. But, if I was caught not wearing it, I could also have been severely punished. Weighing my options, I decided to take my chances with my combined natural Aryan looks and knowledge of the German language. Soon, it would be tested, and my life would depend on it. So, I took my chances and found that I was able to move about relatively freely, more so than most of the other Jews, including my father. This limited extra measure of freedom enabled me to gather items for my family to eat as well as gain critical access to current news and information. I knew my community was being harmed daily, but there was not much I could do about it. It would have been suicide to fight back. The little I did do to survive made a big difference. Looking back it seemed so very little. If you have ever felt the pangs of extended hunger, you may understand just how little. We needed outside intervention to help us and needed it quickly. The war seemed to stall on our doorsteps. As the occupation ground on, the community did rally against the Nazis in a limited way. They set up a warning system to alert the ghetto when the Nazis were entering the town. It was a simple system. Somebody would whistle in the hills above the town at Przedmieście, and when we heard this it meant, The Nazis are coming! This alert drove the local police crazy. They could not figure out where it was coming from. Most probably it came from a few different people. If they were caught, surely there would be hell to pay. When we heard the whistle, we scattered to hide. Jews could not go to the market; Jewish farmers couldn’t farm. The only way left for us to get some food was to smuggle it at the risk of getting caught. The biggest exception to our misery and our most important lifeline was the mercy of a few very brave Poles. Some of the local people acted with the greatest of courage and humanity by giving life-sustaining food and shelter to Jews. These folks and others like them risked their lives. They have become known to history as The Righteous Among Nations, a designation given by The State of Israel, once it was established after the war. For all time, they deserve to be honored. My family was blessed by one of these good souls. Our savior was our neighbor, Tadeusz Skrabski, and his family. He would bring food to our home every week late in the evening, or send one of his daughters, Janka or Jadwiga. I don’t know if my family could have lived through those tough times without their support. That is how desperate our situation was. I know of only one Jew who was hidden by the Poles. He was in the Przedmiescie area. He was a converted Jew who was married to a Polish girl. I remember him well
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