Small Riga Ghetto

209
This event threw us into a great panic, and each person thought only of how
to save himself. On the same evening, the noncommissioned officer in charge
of the clothing depot (Kapisius) summoned some of our comrades to the second
courtyard, which was opposite the Park camp. He said he wanted to speak
to them about the escapees.
Sascha Woloschinski, Paul Wange and Leo Arenstamm went to the meeting
point. Later they were accused of having planned to escape, and were locked
into separate cells. Wange, who was very strong and had been put into the cell
next to the attic, managed, by his own account, to remove the iron bars of the
cell and escape over the roofs. And he did indeed survive.
That whole night was very agitated in the camp. Some people, like Ritow
and Gruschko, fled through the fence before my very eyes. During an air bombardment
which took place that night, the second Ritow (a painter) disappeared
too, and the next morning Lewin (a leather manufacturer) was missing. But he
was unlucky, for he was caught on the street; Gruschko had the same fate.
Later the whole work crew was assembled and most of them were transported
to Kaiserwald. I used this opportunity to voluntarily hand over the leadership
of the work crew to the Czech Jew Steuer. After that I worked as a
transport laborer among those who still remained in the Park camp. From that
point on we were lodged in the Čiekurkalns suburb and had to wear prisoners'
uniforms.
Some of those who had been taken to Kaiserwald by Eggers were sent away
and died in an Aktion that was carried out there at that time. * Among the victims
was my best friend, Sascha Woloschinski, and my comrades Ljowa
Neuburger, Gruschko, Machmonik, Leo Meller, Lewin and others.
I worked in the Park a while longer until our elder, Steuer, escaped. He
managed to flee in the following way: Aryan women in whose homes Neuburger
and Janowski wanted to hide came to the camp to talk about this matter,
and he persuaded them to save him instead of the other two men. Five
hostages were selected in reprisal for his escape: Jakob Abramsohn, Legow,
Gut, Dubowitzki and I. We were fetched by SS men and taken to Kaiserwald
in a truck, in which we were forced to lie on our stomachs. We were in absolute
despair. Our further fate is already known to the reader from the chapter
on Kaiserwald (section XXII).
* [Ed.: These men were added to those Jews selected on July 27 th and taken to the forest several
days later.]