After The Escape

After each Action the Germans came to confiscate the property of the victims on behalf of the Nazi institution "Verbreitung das Deuschtums in General Gouvernment" (Dissemination of Germanism in the General Government). Stores for Jewish loot were opened in abandoned Jewish homes in Batorego Street. These stores quickly filled up to the ceiling with the furniture, pillows, quilts and linen of the victims of the "Uebersiedlung"(resettlement) which was the official name given to the Extermination Operations. The furniture of the victims was pillaged. It was given away to the Ukrainians who came in thousands with wagons from their villages in order to receive their share of the Jewish inheritance.

Sometimes groups of Jewish workers were housed near their workplaces. In order to safeguard its worker force, the Heeresbarrackenwerke housed its workers in the former Polish Army barracks opposite Bolechowska Street. My father and grandfather continued working at the factory and lived in these barracks. One day my father decided to try using the circular saw to cut some wood. The saw blade caught a knot in the wood, kicked back toward him, and severed part of the first two fingers of his left hand. Bleeding profusely, my grandfather rushed him to the factory doctor. The doctor stopped the bleeding, cleaned the wounds as well as he could, stitched them up and bandaged his hand. This was the only care he received and they hoped infection or gangrene would not set in.Since he could not do his normal work he tried to find other small jobs around the factory, realizing that it was only a matter of time before the Germans would find out he was unable to do his work and send him to a concentration camp.

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