Small Riga Ghetto

117
Without paying any heed to these circumstances or to the further fact that the
whole enterprise was at very great risk because of the German Jewish police, *
the leader of the resistance movement at that time, Owsej Okun, did not give
in but continued to organize.
He received tremendous assistance through the cooperation of the teacher
Ilja Lat, the engineer Michelsohn and the mechanic Botwinkin.
As the reader already knows, two men had disappeared when the police
force was liquidated. One of them (Damski) was shot by Krause and the other
(Israelowitsch) left the ghetto with a work crew bound for the Jewish work
camp at the Gestapo headquarters. There he found a hiding place with a family
he knew, that of the decorator Rosenstein (husband, wife and son). Other
helpers available to him were Stupel, Konrad Treister, Jakobsohn and his good
friend Edith Kaufmann (from Berlin). For a short time he was hidden in the
attic until a hiding place with two Aryan women in the city had been found.
It took a fairly long time for the Gestapo to get wind of the case and arrest
him (people claimed that he had been betrayed by one of the two Aryan
women, who had quarreled). All those who had helped him in the Gestapo
work camp were also arrested and taken to prison. Except for Mrs. Kaufmann
and Israelowitsch himself - both of whom were urgently needed for the interrogations
concerning the weapons incident - all of them were killed.
Our new Kommandant, Roschmann, was particularly interested in the weapons
incident, and he did not rest until he had found out everything. This was
the reason why Krause came to the ghetto every day before driving on to
Salaspils. On those occasions the two of them had long talks and the Russian
Danilow-Milkowski was also included as an examining magistrate.
One day an older Jew, whose name I no longer remember, was arrested in
the ghetto on Roschmann's orders. After entering the room of Police Chief
Frankenberg, he asked permission to go to the latrine and disappeared. He hid
in the Aryan-owned vinegar factory (next to Lauvas Street), but was later arrested
and taken to the Gestapo. This incident was also connected with the
weapons incident.
After some time, Israelowitsch was brought by Gestapo people from the
prison to the ghetto. He was taken to a large empty square, and some Jews
were seized and ordered to dig at a certain place pointed out by Israelowitsch.
Evidently they hoped to find buried treasures. After that all of them went to
* [Ed.: There is absolutely no reason for this unfounded allegation by Kaufmann. His well
known dislike for German Jews prompted his suspicions.]