Tag #120788 - Interview #100343 (Meer Kuyavskis)

In early 1940 ghetto was founded in Lodz. Our Zhidovska street was inside the ghetto. There were Jews from cities there as well. One young lady housed in with us. Her parents disappeared during the one of the first actions of the occupation. I cannot recall her name. First everybody thought that everything would be OK. Judenrat was established in ghetto consisting of prominent Jews, which was supposed to take care of people there. Its function was not only provision with primary good food given by cards, but also providing them with work. My brother and I had odd jobs at the sewing factory. Ghetto was surrounded with barbed wire. There were armed guards at the gate. Very soon we understood that the life there could hardly be called living, it was a bitter existence. None of its inhabitants knew what the next day had in store for him. One of the main functions of Judenrat was to fulfill the orders of the commanders, including supplying people for all kinds of actions.