Nancy Fordonski - July 29, 1982
German Occupation
Can you describe the Nuisance Laws? Were there Nuisance Laws put into effect for Jews?
Yes. There were times that uh, yeah, there were, they made a ghet...a ghetto. And they gather all, all together. And uh, we were, we were restricted…
Mm-hm.
to go to the city. We had to live just, and stay just in certain parts of the city. It was called the ghetto. And uh, in the evening…
In which city was this in?
This was in Zdunska Wola. And we could walk around to a certain hour. Everybody what was uh, found later in the street walking or standing or whatever was killed on the spot. The windows have to have dark window shades that no light should come through. And uh, some people were working outside the ghetto, because the ghetto was with uh, with guards in the front of the--it was made up with, uh. [pause] There was a guard in the front of the ghetto and uh, people what were going out and working in the city, so they were led by Germans, by German soldiers.
Mm-hm.
They were brought out and they were brought in after wo...after work they were, they came back with them to the ghetto.
Do you remember what year the ghetto was formed? [pause] If you don't remember that's okay.
I believe that it was in the beginning of 1940.
All right. Was there a Judenrat? A Juden…
Yes, yes. We were very fortunate. We had our--the uh, Ältester, this was uh, he was, his name was uh, Lemberg, Dr. Lemberg. He was a very, very nice, intelligent man, and he was really trying very hard for the whole community to try--like the elderly people, if they couldn't go to work, that they should do different work at home and then the work were, was picked up from them. And then you know uh, people what uh, could uh, do harder work, they did different work. Not that like uh, in, in concentration camp that you were forced to do hard work, even if you couldn't, you had to do it, if not they just drop and this was the end of it. But here in this Zdunska Wola ghetto was really, everything was very much uh, organized that the younger people did different work and the older people did different work and the elderly did. And when it came a time that they had to go you know, there wasn't just a time that uh, they want people for other places to work. Like they were building already uh, camps in Posnan and in different other places in Poland. So there were called men to work. So Dr. Lemberg would see to it that just people what were capable to do it were called in. Not just to take older people or sick people that they hardly made a trip.
Mm-hm.
So really he was, he was one of the greatest people that we had that time.
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