Small Riga Ghetto

196
he had been a foundling who had merely been taken in by Jews. Aryan papers
were provided for him and Miss Schermann. These two could now move about
the city in absolute freedom. But Rudow remained "passionately Jewish" in his
heart. He understood the infinitely difficult situation of his coreligionists and
helped them whenever he could. He even managed to employ his father and
his brothers, under another name, in his commando.
His position as the elder of the Jews was now taken over by a certain Schönberger
from Jelgava. Meanwhile, Rudow the "Aryan" was appointed supervisor
of the workshops. Whenever he made a tour of inspection together with the
higher-ups, he always made sure everyone knew about the inspection in advance.
Those tanners and tailors who had never before held a needle in their
hands now suddenly looked like masters of their respective crafts. The same
thing happened in all the other workshops. Rudow would show up, accompanied
by his supervisors; he spoke to the Jews only with his voice raised, but
winked at them in secret so they would know they had nothing to fear.
After the arrival of the Jewish transports from Germany, all the suitcases
that had been brought along were immediately confiscated and taken to the Gestapo.
There the contents were sorted by Jews especially appointed to do this
work. This was a work station where people could "organize" various things
for themselves, for often valuables worth a considerable amount of money had
been sewn into the clothing. Although the Jews in this work crew were inspected
from time to time, Scherwitz always made sure they were covered.
Nonetheless, sometimes there were arrests that ended with prison. In any case,
the Gestapo satellite camp (later: Lenta) was the best one by far.
Once a small group of Jews was sent to work at another SD camp in Pleskau
(Pskow). In this group were Rudow's brother, Dr. Rudow, and the woman
dentist Dr. Kirschbaum. The two of them did not return to the Gestapo but instead
were sent to the Small Ghetto. After the great "weapons incident" in the
ghetto, the Gestapo work crew also had victims to mourn for.
The whole family of the Riga interior decorator Rosenstein, as well as Konrad
Treister, Stupel, Jakobsohn and Miss Ebi Kaufmann from Berlin were
taken to prison and died there (see the chapter on the Small Ghetto).
While Scherwitz was on a business trip to Paris, the SD men decided to get
rid of the "Aryan" Tamara Schermann, who was called "Esther Ha Malka”, an
allusion to the biblical Queen Esther. She was arrested and put in prison. Only
with a great deal of effort was Scherwitz able to get her released after his re-