p.322, Translated by Deborah Green

Chapter Twenty One,
Summer 1939

It is the summer of 1939, Austria has been incorporated into greater Germany and the Czechoslovakian tragedy has ended. Next in line is Poland. Hitler is demanding Danzig and the Danzig corridor. There are some that say that he will demand more. The Polish-German flirtation has suddenly ended but not because of Poland. Suddenly the air becomes heavy, the mood tense, the future is unsure. There is talk of war.

The regime attempts to raise people’s spirits. There are reports from high government officials who have “information from knowledgeable sources”: the German tanks, which appear so impressive at parades and in photographs, are actually made of tin; the German military pilots are 17 and 18 years old, inadequately trained, not mature enough to pit themselves against the excellent Polish military force. These same officials state that economically, Nazi Germany is facing a catastrophe - businesses are failing, people are living on artificial foods and there is not enough food to feed the populace. They assure the public that Hitler does not want to go to war with Poland because he knows that Poland is militarily well prepared and “won’t return a button from the coat” (in reference to Danzig). Marshall Amigli-Rigz proudly declares in his speech to the masses that the Polish nation is “strong, resolute and ready” to defeat the enemy. Even so, the country is not calm. The people are feverish, they are not heeding these “logical assurances.”

In other ways, everything is “normal”. Haynt is full of alarming news about the Jewish situation. The waves of pogroms and unrest, the economic boycotts, the efforts to remove Jew businesses from the economy, the expulsions, do not stop; students in patriotic red and white caps carouse in the streets. The students join with the -ultra reactionary “Nara” and “Falanga” fascist hooligans, underworld thugs and Nazi provocateurs and beat Jewish men and women, old and young, with clubs in which they have inserted razor blades.

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Twenty years earlier, during the Russian revolution, it became faddish to cut off the beards of Jews and to throw them off trains (see Chapter 4). Now, twenty years later, while Poland stood face-to-face with war with Germany, the Poles began chasing Jewish mothers & children in municipal parks. The hooligans would overturn the baby carriages with infants in them, chase the mothers, herd them screaming out of the parks. Women become hysterical while the children cry and their attackers rejoice, enjoying their work, humiliate the women, all the while shrieking: “Down with the Jews, Send the Jews to Palestine.”

The judicial process for the crime of “insulting the Polish people” became an affliction. If two porters, one a Jew, the other a Gentile, argued and one called the other a “pig” or “thief” and the Gentile informed the police that the “Kike” had called him a “Polish Pig” or “Polish Thief” the Jew would get sentenced to hard time for “insulting the Polish people”.

Jews are harassed and tortured daily but are abandoned by those that should protect them. Not one Polish political party or newspaper, with very few exceptions, showed enough courage to stand up against the anarchy overtaking the country. On the contrary, there was support for this massive anti-Semitism: by some, openly and with joy, by others, quietly and discreetly, but with no less pleasure.

Simultaneous efforts were being made to uproot Jews from commercial life. Market days in small towns are changed to Saturday so that Jews cannot conduct business; pickets bar the way into Jewish stores and physically prevent Gentiles from entering; Jewish peddlers are driven from the marketplaces and their “territories”, the little tables that hold their pitiful merchandise are looted by Polish “salesmen”, for the most part, low level workers, train workers, mail carriers, street sweepers and their wives. The Jew haters incite them, telling them that Jews became rich because of these little tables and they also want to become wealthy.

In Chapter 6 we described how difficult the pre-war years were for Haynt. The newspaper refused to obey the government’s decrees concerning what it could report (or rather, not report) about the persecution of Jews and confiscations that continued non-stop, several times a week and even several times per day. As was previously mentioned, Haynt was shut down twice.

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While all this occurs, life goes on. It is summer. People want a breath of fresh air, they want to forget the nightmare of a life threatened by the dual grief of persecution and fear of war. Chaim Finkelshteigen, who with his family had spent his vacation in the old Jewish town of Kazhimietz near Uislen, was visited by his good friend, Rafael Sheafer, from Warsaw. He is the director of the Central Palestine office in Poland. He describes the horrible spirits in the capital and the uncertainty and anxiety that rules the Jewish community. He is personally distressed by the situation of his brother-in-law, Ben Zion Chilinovitch. Chilinovitch was an employee of “Moment” but because of the financial situation over there (see Chapter 20) Chilinovitch has decided to quit his job. Sheafer sheepishly asks if there is a position available for him at Haynt.

During the conversation Finkelstein confided that the management of Alt-Nei was worried that there might be circumstances which will lead to the same situation as at Moment.

The owners of Haynt are in debt which they pay off monthly. If the government had decided to pursue Haynt it could find someone to buy Haynt’s outstanding note, call the loan and demand that Haynt repay the entire balance of the debt at once. Naturally, this would be impossible and at that point a trustee would be appointed to watch out for the interests of the new creditor. The example of Moment showed that it was not difficult to implement such a tactic and the subsequent events at Moment revealed the tragic.

Sheafer agreed that Alt-Nei was justifiably concerned. Thinking out loud he said that the Zionist International Executive Committee must be made aware of the potential danger. If Haynt should fall into enemy hands, not only would it be a loss for Polish Jews it would also impact the Zionists. Sheafer was certain that the Zionist Executive Committee would help. He decided that Chaim Finkelstein should attend the 21st Zionist Congress to be held in Geneva that August and explain Haynt’s situation.

On August 21, 1939, Chaim Finkelstein traveled to Geneva on behalf of Haynt. Ischak Greenbaum chaired the conference and Finkelstein obtained a formal promise of a loan from Eleazer Kaplan, the head of finance of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee had a discretionary investment fund in Poland. The Polish government had frozen these funds and they could not be removed from Poland.

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It was decided that Haynt could borrow this money in order to erase its debt. The details were to be handled in Warsaw, where Kaplan would go right after the Congress, “if there was no war.”