However, our leadership was permanently in contact with the police. It was important to forbid individuals direct contact with the “authority”.
We spent almost seven months in the ghetto and we organised our lives anticipating a possible long-term stay. We had a kitchen, a doctor’s surgery and, given the circumstances in the ghetto, we had a well-ordered life. We set up a hospital where doctors, who were fellow-internees, treated paralysed patients. We organised a canteen where hot meals were prepared on a daily basis. Approximately 50 orphans of the town received a free meal every day.
There was a public bath outside the ghetto and we had access to it, if we paid. The elderly ghetto inhabitants were also able to use all facilities created by our collective. This improved their lives dramatically. Thanks to our contacts with the town’s inhabitants, we were able to influence their lives, end rivalries and integrate them in our community.
Our civilian superior was a government official whose Romanian name in Olgopol was “pretor”. Our military superior was a staff sergeant. Both were corrupt. The material situation improved a lot: we had a greater choice of food, we were not hungry and we had gained some physical strength. We received assistance from home and from the Jewish community in Romania. The news from the front indicated a certain defeat of the German army. This boosted our morale and increased our prospects of returning home.
As soon as we arrived, we had to introduce strict hygienic measures in order to prevent the possible outbreak of a typhus epidemic. We went from door to door and asked the elderly town inhabitants whether there was any vermin and explaining the dangers of a typhus epidemic to them. Due to a lack of hygiene and medical care, this disease had already caused the deaths of thousands of people in Transnistria.
On our visits we also got funny replies. One inhabitant confirmed that he had no bedbugs in his house. We asked him:”Aren't you bothered by vermin at night?” His answer came promptly: “Evade [of course], at night!” We put the same question to another ghetto inhabitant when we discovered two bugs crawling on the wall. We received the following reply:”Only those two on the wall!" Our information campaign may have enjoyed only partial success, but we did not experience an epidemic during our time in Olgopol.
There was work outside the ghetto as well. That’s why we had to paint the windows and doors of a hospital. I was one of the workers, together with a fellow-sufferer who was a professional house painter. Food at the hospital was relatively good, but more importantly: when nobody was looking, we could organise different instruments for our doctors, e.g. scissors, tweezers, forceps etc. but also cotton wool, bandages and medicines. All of this was needed urgently.
Not far from the ghetto we had founded a soap refinery which was a kind of soap factory. This was possible because one of the internees, Paul Lessen, already had a lot of knowledge about soap production. The “pretor” and the staff sergeant provided oil and soda, and they also sold the finished product on the market and made a high profit. Soap was a scarce commodity in those days. Thus, we had the “authority” in charge on our side, and we managed to satisfy some of our vital needs, e.g. we were able to get cooking oil for our canteen.
Our leadership also had connections to the partisans who were operating in our region. Escape routes were discussed with them but turned out to be too risky. Therefore, our joint activities with the partisans were limited to the passing on news and swapping clothes for food.
We spent almost seven months in the ghetto and we organised our lives anticipating a possible long-term stay. We had a kitchen, a doctor’s surgery and, given the circumstances in the ghetto, we had a well-ordered life. We set up a hospital where doctors, who were fellow-internees, treated paralysed patients. We organised a canteen where hot meals were prepared on a daily basis. Approximately 50 orphans of the town received a free meal every day.
There was a public bath outside the ghetto and we had access to it, if we paid. The elderly ghetto inhabitants were also able to use all facilities created by our collective. This improved their lives dramatically. Thanks to our contacts with the town’s inhabitants, we were able to influence their lives, end rivalries and integrate them in our community.
Our civilian superior was a government official whose Romanian name in Olgopol was “pretor”. Our military superior was a staff sergeant. Both were corrupt. The material situation improved a lot: we had a greater choice of food, we were not hungry and we had gained some physical strength. We received assistance from home and from the Jewish community in Romania. The news from the front indicated a certain defeat of the German army. This boosted our morale and increased our prospects of returning home.
As soon as we arrived, we had to introduce strict hygienic measures in order to prevent the possible outbreak of a typhus epidemic. We went from door to door and asked the elderly town inhabitants whether there was any vermin and explaining the dangers of a typhus epidemic to them. Due to a lack of hygiene and medical care, this disease had already caused the deaths of thousands of people in Transnistria.
On our visits we also got funny replies. One inhabitant confirmed that he had no bedbugs in his house. We asked him:”Aren't you bothered by vermin at night?” His answer came promptly: “Evade [of course], at night!” We put the same question to another ghetto inhabitant when we discovered two bugs crawling on the wall. We received the following reply:”Only those two on the wall!" Our information campaign may have enjoyed only partial success, but we did not experience an epidemic during our time in Olgopol.
There was work outside the ghetto as well. That’s why we had to paint the windows and doors of a hospital. I was one of the workers, together with a fellow-sufferer who was a professional house painter. Food at the hospital was relatively good, but more importantly: when nobody was looking, we could organise different instruments for our doctors, e.g. scissors, tweezers, forceps etc. but also cotton wool, bandages and medicines. All of this was needed urgently.
Not far from the ghetto we had founded a soap refinery which was a kind of soap factory. This was possible because one of the internees, Paul Lessen, already had a lot of knowledge about soap production. The “pretor” and the staff sergeant provided oil and soda, and they also sold the finished product on the market and made a high profit. Soap was a scarce commodity in those days. Thus, we had the “authority” in charge on our side, and we managed to satisfy some of our vital needs, e.g. we were able to get cooking oil for our canteen.
Our leadership also had connections to the partisans who were operating in our region. Escape routes were discussed with them but turned out to be too risky. Therefore, our joint activities with the partisans were limited to the passing on news and swapping clothes for food.
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