Small Riga Ghetto

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blatt, Ch. Schabel and others). The new arrivals from Kaiserwald lived under
worse conditions than those who had come to the camp before them. They had
already been robbed of all their valuables in the concentration camp and had
no more possessions to trade, so they had only their meager rations to live on.
A large clinic headed by Professor Mintz was set up. Dr. Gurewitsch also
found a broad scope for his professional activity there. Because of various accidents
and misfortunes, there was no lack of patients. Other doctors such as
Dr. Gitelsohn, Dr. Jaworkowsky, Dr. Blowetz, Dr. May and Dr. Goldberg
worked at the large work stations.
The dentist Berniker was in charge of a dental clinic that was amply and well
supplied. Dr. Heimann from Warsaw worked together with him.
There were also several older children (Berniker, Sima Kamenkowitsch, Nathan
and others) and babies (Feldhuhn and others) at the camp on Ūdens
Street. Unfortunately, this small group of children was taken to Kaiserwald
and from there to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. * Only two of them were
lucky: young Arian Berniker, who looked older than his age, and Sima
Kamenkowitsch, who managed to get transferred to the Park satellite camp.
During the extermination Aktion he was living there, and so he survived.
As soon as the murderer Sorge from Kaiserwald was put in charge, hard
times began at the HKP. His visits were always connected with torments. He
made body searches of the prisoners, took away the photos of their relatives,
which represented the holiest of holies for everyone, and burned them up. He
also ordered the prayer books and other religious implements to be destroyed.
At that time one of the block representatives was a certain Raikin, who was
later sent to Spilve, and from there via Kaiserwald to the Stützpunkt. All of
these depressing cares made it necessary to look for a way out, so it was decided
– with Eggers' permission, of course – to set up a new camp in the city,
located at the HKP headquarters. This new camp was called the Park (see the
chapter on the Park satellite camp).
After Rubinstein and Legow were arrested and sent to Kaiserwald, the truly
decent German Jew Wolf from Danzig succeeded them as the camp elder.
Even under these difficult conditions, the Jews prayed every Saturday and on
every religious holiday. At Passover a Seder was organized, including matzos
which were baked for everyone at night. Moreover, to help people cope with
these difficult times and give their broken hearts some support, the artists in
the camp (Sperling-Tschuzhoj, Joffe, Kotzer and others) did all they could.
* [Ed.: They were taken to the forest.]