Small Riga Ghetto

110
Germany. Slowly a fire was starting to smolder which in the following year
flared up brightly in the form of a putsch (attempted coup). This attempt was,
however, very ruthlessly suppressed by Hitler and his "faithful" and cost the
lives of many key officers such as von Stauffenberg, Witzleben, von der
Schulenburg and others.
The key Allied leaders – Roosevelt, Stalin, the King of England and Churchill
– also declared in their speeches that the war would be pursued to a victorious
end. They hoped that "perhaps" this year would already bring freedom
for all the peoples of the world.
For those of us who were sitting in the ghettos and experiencing our tragedy,
these were merely comforting phrases. The promise that our misery would
perhaps end in the year to come could not help us. Even then, only a few thousand
out of tens of thousands of Latvian Jews were left, and they too were
growing fewer from day to day.
Only the reports from the front were like camphor shots that kept us alive.
We lived on the defeat at Stalingrad; we lived on the defeat of the German
military forces led by General Rommel in Africa. We knew we no longer had
much time in this life, but still we wanted to see the destruction of those who
had destroyed us.
"Tomus nafschi im Plischtim!
(My death together with the Philistines!)
Stalingrad, Stalingrad!"
That was the only thing we heard! We pushed all our cares aside. We still did
not know any details. The Germans reported that Stalingrad had been occupied.
The Russians reported the contrary.
Finally came the day of mourning ordered by Hitler to mark the defeat at
Stalingrad. Whole newspaper pages were devoted to the heroes who had
fought so "bravely". The generals who had been taken prisoner were retroactively
appointed General Field Marshals (as had happened to Field Marshal
Rommel).
The new Field Marshal Paulus, who was later forced to march with his "victorious"
soldiers in the grandiose parade in Moscow, had quickly changed his
opinion of Germany.
For us these days of mourning were days of joy, although our situation in
itself had become even harder.
Stalingrad! Stalingrad!
"Perhaps" we would yet be liberated this year?
That was our first month of 1943.