Small Riga Ghetto

109
At that time some people were brought into the ghetto from the barracks
camps and work stations on account of various "crimes" – for example, the
whole OT (Organisation Todt) commando. They were later released. These
arrests were caused by the flight of a certain Wolfowitsch. I was unable to find
out whether Wolfowitsch was one of the young men whose truck had been
stopped on the road to Daugavpils. In any case, he had had something to do
with the weapons incident.
The leader of the Pulvertornis (Gunpowder Tower) work column was also
arrested. One day, as he was going to work on Vaļņu Street, he was noticed by
a Latvian who had formerly been his comrade in the Communist Party's youth
group Komjaunatne. The treacherous Latvian could hardly wait to denounce
him to the ghetto command headquarters for membership in Komjaunatne. For
this reason he was arrested and taken to prison. This event had nothing to do
with the weapons incident.
At the end of the year we received a small pleasure: the notorious murderer
Tuchel was badly wounded in a house on Grīziņkalns (Griesenberg) during a
search for a Russian parachutist.
Some time later our columns saw him, quite frail, near his apartment in
Avotu Street (in the house that had belonged to the Galant brothers), as they
marched by.
Blood calls for blood!
The year 1942 was coming to an end. Another year gone by! A year full of
pain and suffering, and the end was still not in sight!
XXVII.
The year 1943 began against the background of the Allied armies' victories on
all fronts.
Of course this fact colored the traditional New Year's Day speeches of the
leading German statesmen and the Führer. In their various addresses, they
even confirmed the "temporary" defeats that had taken place. But they went on
to say that the present situation was only a prelude to the great endeavors being
planned by the German general staff. New weapons (the V1) were announced
which would totally transform the whole conduct of the war and would surely
lead to the final defeat of the Allies. Nor did they forget us, "those who were
to blame for the war". The war they had declared against us would be pursued
to the end (they had been right on this point), and so forth.
But there was tremendous dissatisfaction among the German people. Members
of the general staff already foresaw the great catastrophe that was facing