Tag #108559 - Interview #88474 (Jakub Bromberg)

My brother had a friend who lived nearby. He heard it when they brought these Jews. And saw it through the window. He said they were already dead. They were hanged dead. I stood there looking. Two Germans with guns were walking there. Suddenly some kid walked up to one German and said ‘Jude, Jude, Jude’ [German for ‘Jew’] pointing at me. ‘Komm her, Jude’ [German for ‘Come here, Jew’]. He took me and two others. He led us through Zgierska, Nowomiejska, to Wolnosci Square. There were lots of people there. I was standing next to a sign that said ‘Magistrate’, where the Archeological Museum is currently located [present Wolnosci Square]. After the war you could still see that sign, but today you can’t make it out. They put me there and gave a rope to each group. They took two Jews and asked them to climb a ladder, high enough to put the ropes around Kosciuszko’s neck [the statue of Tadeusz Kosciuszko [24]]. This gunfire that we had heard at night: we thought it was the Russians bombing, but it was the Germans shooting at the base of the monument. Because it was very heavy, they put dynamite there, but it still didn’t fall. Then they caught some Jews, I don’t know how many, 70, maybe 80 and ordered: ‘Abschmeissen den Hund’ [German for ‘Get that dog down!’]. They started to shout and we pulled him down.

I later read in German newspapers, and I liked reading, in Der Stuermer [German propaganda paper, published in Lodz during the war] or in Volkischer Beobachter [German paper, published in Lodz] that the Jews had pulled down and smashed the statue of Polish hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko. [The monument was pulled down by the Nazis in November 1939 and later rebuilt in 1960 by the same sculptor who had designed the original monument.] Some of the base was still there, but of course, during the war this square was empty.