Tag #108551 - Interview #88474 (Jakub Bromberg)

Then there was anarchy in Lodz. The police had left. My third precinct, where I worked, left as well. Everything was nobody’s. There were store robberies, muggings on the street, there was no government. It was terrible. I was afraid I’d get into trouble. On Friday morning you could hear the gunfire. When they started shooting, I hid in the doorways. I would stand there until they stopped shooting. When I was walking home to 76 Zgierska, from Lutomierska Street, there on that corner – the third precinct was on Koscielny Square – I noticed that there was a huge hole on the first floor; the bomb must have smashed right into the middle of the precinct. All the windows were broken. People were yelling to hang a white flag on the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to show that we surrender. But in the end they didn’t hang a flag. On Friday evening the German army entered the city. The Wehrmacht came in on motorcycles and tankettes [small tanks].

At first the Germans talked to us. In German, because it was similar to Yiddish. They talked and they didn’t pay any attention – Jew or not Jew. Only with time did they start harassing and persecuting Jews. They would barge into an apartment, shout ‘hands up!’ and loot everything. No one was allowed out on the street, there was a curfew set for 5 o’clock. They started shaving the beards of Jews. I remember when they once caught one Jew in tallit, near Koscielny Square. They laughed at him and led him through the gutter like some animal.