HUM450 - Days of Nightmare - Jozef Zelkowicz

Jozef Zelkowicz recounts events in the Litzmannstadt ghetto where the Germans have decreed that all children under 10 years old and all adults over 65 would have to be "resettled.  The Jewish Resettlement commission, which is comprised of elder Jews gave a speech to the Jews and explained what the decree was and how they had no options.  They were being ordered to give up 20,000 Jews for "resettlement" and knowing what that really meant, they explained the difficult choices they had. Through his sobbing, he explained that it was decided that it might be better if they did the choosing of the Jews instead of the Germans since maybe they could save the healthy and give up the poor.  In the end, it was a dilemma that had no good solution.

Zelkowicz then details the mood and details of how the Jewish people in the ghetto were reacting to the news and how sad (wailing tears) everyone was to know that this was going to happen.  He describes how the Jewish police would come and take people, but would empathize a bit.  However, when the Germans came, they were extremely brutish in their methods.

Finally, after the children, the sick, and the elderly were taken away, he describes how completely empty and aged everyone became.  Those that didn't try to kill themselves were so horribly scarred that they felt as if they were living in a kind of hell.