3. The Smugglers

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THE JEWS WOULD HAVE DIED OUT IN A

few months, as the German authorities wished, had they been forced to subsist on the officially allowed rations. But the will to live was strong and both German and Polish guards were bribable. Smu- ling became a literally vital 09

business in the Ghetto.

During the early months of the closed Ghetto, Polish workers were still allowed to enter to work in various shops and factories. They made a good living on the side by bringing in foodstuffs hidden in their clothes.' Streetcars for Poles ran through the Ghetto; they were forbidden to stop, but conductors and motormen would throw off sacks of food at previously arranged points.2 Many Poles threw packages of food over the Ghetto walls. The concierges of the "Aryan" buildings bordering the Ghetto became big entrepreneurs. For example, on Siena Street some houses had courtyards that gave on Zlota Street, which was parallel to Siena; here there was only heavy barbed wire, no brick wall, and all through the night there was the comin(y and going of provisions in and other goods
- doodialift~

Starvation disease: Atrophy. (Americaii joi)it Distribution Committee)

THE SMUGGLERS

33

out. Bread, vegetables, sugar, butter, cheese were brought in in this manner "for sale at very high prices, of course, because people have risked their lives to get these things.' 13 A large amount of wheat grain was imported in the same way through a similar courtyard on Leszno Street in De

4

cember 1940.

The hunger was so acute that men fought to get on the trucks that carried the workers out for forced labor outside the Ghetto walls. A day's unpaid, hard, unremitting physical labor, accompanied by beatings and the prospect of possible death at the hands of the taskmasters, was little enough to exchange for the chance to smuggle in some extra bread or a few potatoes.5

The ingenuity of the smugglers was amazing. Garbage collectors carried out garbage and brought back food in presumably empty wagons. Those collectors who had horses were exceptionally fortunate. They had passes for two horses. They would take only one out and bring in two by another gate, thus providing horse meat for the Ghetto, a real luxury.6 A clever method for importing milk was used for a time in a building on the Ghetto border, on Franciszkanska Street; milk was poured into a pipe that ran across a street from the roof of a house on the "Aryan" side to a rooftop in the Ghetto.7The undertakers operated little hand-carts; under the corpses brought to the Jewish cemetery just outside the Ghetto they hid articles to be exchanged; in the cemetery these would be bartered for food with their Christian counterparts who worked in the adjoining Christian cemetery. In this way, whole calves and loads of potatoes were brought in .8 The peak was reached one day when 26 cows were transported in this manner.9 The food was concealed under straw and in the coffins that had held victims of typhus or of other diseases. This made no difference to the famished-starvation over
34

THE USES OF ADvERsITY

rode any squeamishness.10 Traffic went on through the

sewers, too. Smugglers made their way in the noisome filth to the "Aryan" side where Polish confederates would hand them down packages and sacks of food through the manhole openings in exchange for jewels, currency or other articles of value. Some houses situated on the borders of the Ghetto, bombed out in the siege of Warsaw, had communicating cellars that extended as far as five houses under and past the Ghetto confines; these were naturals for smuggling. Small packages were passed through holes in the walls made by the removal of one readily replaceable brick.

The Germans were fully aware of the smuggling that went on and accepted it as a normal procedure at the same time as they took vigorous measures to combat it. Dr. Hagen, the medical officer for the General Government of Poland, when asked to allow milk to be brought in for infants, angrily replied, "How dare the Jews make such a proposal when they can supply all their needs with contraband?"" The death penalty established for illegal commerce with Jews did not deter the Poles from supplying the smug lers nor did the public execution of two men

ng and six women in the Ghetto stop the Jews from trying to outwit the Germans. There was no other way to satisfy the needs of the population.

The smugglers themselves were not thought of as lawbreakers by the Jews, but rather as businessmen engaged in very speculative enterprises. There was no question about the risk. Dr. Ringelblum describes a scene on Leszno Street; "The head of a Jew is thrust through a hole in the basement of the gutted post-office building. Six guards see him, call over two Tews, and order them to pull him out. They do it, receiving a blow from the guards in the act. They order the smuggler to crawl back into his hole again

I

THE SMUGGLERS

35

and, as he crawls, pierce his head with their bayonets. 1112

Against the possibility of losing their merchandise or their lives were balanced the enormous profits of the business. For example, even after paying off the German and Polish guards, and the Jewish police, to a total of ig,ooo zlotys, one partnership of four smugglers made ig,ooo zlotys in one week. There were all sorts of unusual expenses, however. If a wagon was confiscated and the driver luckily sent to prison, the smu- lers' informal guild supported his fam09

ily and tried to buy his freedom; if he was killed, the family was maintained as long as possible. They even set up a mutual insurance company to pay for confiscated goods.18 Lured by the tremendous profits, by the prospect of getting enough money to get for-ed "Aryan" identification

0

cards to escape from the Ghetto, by the feeling that smuggling was getting back at the Germans, hundreds joined in the traffic in contraband. And hundreds were caught and killed on the spot. Nevertheless, smuggling went on until almost the very end of the Ghetto period. The smugglers, often hailed as saviors, had great prestige in the Ghetto. An inhabitant of the Ghetto wrote: "In Kozla Street, in Biala Street and in Siena Street, memorial plaques should be put up with the inscription-'To all the quiet unafraid heroic smti,-,alers-bonor them!' There will be no memo

0

rial plaques; no one will consider that. I know that greater deeds of heroism took place. But in spite of that, Smugglers, I honor youl"14 A prominent physician concurred with this woman's opinion:

The walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, covered with broken glass, had one and onllv one purpose; that was mass murder by gen

eral starvation. That was the essence of the plain and ugly wall made of bricks and glass. Those who had the wall built were fooled. Against this construction of the enemy arose an

unforeseen force-smuggling. This force which developed on the pathologic base of a closed Ghetto became a paradoxical
36

phenomenon of our life. Smuggling, in principle a negative action, became for us a real blessing. The whole day long, as well as at night, this force was in constant motion, battling incessantly against the fiendish plan of the creators of these walls. Smuggling checked the famine, controlled its speed, its universality, the scope of its murderous action. The enemy fought against the smuggling by strengthening the brick walls, trying to seal the Ghetto off more completely. In vainl Nothing changed the situationl The enemy could not defeat the smugglers. The walls were always permeable.... The smuggler, the 'criminal', by his sweat and blood made our work and our very existence possible. . . .15

No matter how much food the smugglers brought in, it was quickly snapped up by the Ghetto population, at least by those who could afford the high prices. But there was another even more widespread special group of smugglers, not engaged in business, often the sole suport of their entire families. These were the little children from five to ten years of age. They travelled alone or in gangs. The smallest and most emaciated of them wrapped burlap bags around their bony little bodies and crawled through the barbed wire or were hoisted over the walls; the bigger ones acted as look-outs. Hiding in alleyways on the "Aryan" side, they made their way to more outlying districts, begging, buying or stealino, food.16 Death on discovery awaited them no less than for the adults, but more humane policemen contented themselves with merely giving the children severe beatings.17 Dr. Hirszfeld tells of two instances he saw: a German guard took aim and deliberately shot a child in the legs, then shrugged his shoulders and remarked, "One smuggler less"; another turned a child around and calmly shot him between the shoulders.18 To be shot to death was a chance that had to be taken; the choice was between that and starving to death. The little nameless heroes of the Ghetto went on with the only way

THE USES OF ADVERSITY

THE SMUGGLERS

37

open to them. They brought in bread, flour and potatoes to sustain their families a little while longer. Their deeds were celebrated in a poem by Henrika Lazowert, one that became widely popular in the Ghetto:

Through walls, through holes, and through ruins, Through barbed wire I make my way. Hungry, thirsty, and barefoot, I slide through like a snake, At noon, at night, and at dawn, In the heat and hard summer rains. Envy me not my poor bundleMy life itself is at stake.19