Small Riga Ghetto

72
which was in fact our "host". The wages we were supposed to receive from
our employers were paid to the area commissary.
The Labor Authority was set up at 72 Ludzas Street. Its head at that time
was the German Stanke, who had also personally taken part in the liquidation
of the Large Ghetto. He was assisted by the Latvian Dralle, whose name will
certainly be known to many Riga Jews who used to patronize the Jewish Club.
Dralle's father had been employed there for a long time as a waiter.
Incidentally, now that I am on the subject of the Riga club, I do not want to
miss this opportunity to commemorate my good friend Leo Woloschinski. He
was the club's business manager and died a horrible death in July 1941.
The aforementioned Dralle often beat and tortured us. The Jewish leader at
the Labor Authority was a certain Kassel, and he had an assistant named
Maisel (formerly an employee of Louis Thal). The office manager was Mrs.
Wischnewska. Later on we received work booklets, which also served as
passes. These booklets bore the inscription "Jew" in large letters. The employer
had to record in them the hours we had worked.
The outside guard duty was in Latvian hands, but inside the ghetto there was
also a special company of guards (at 66 Ludzas Street). It consisted of German
policemen from Danzig. Initially the chief of this group was the German police
officer Hesfer. Besides him, the murderers Tuchel, Neumann, Kobello, Karasik
and others remain unforgettable to us, for all of them had countless human
lives on their conscience. The reader will hear more details about them soon.
II.
In the beginning, the living conditions in the Small Ghetto were appalling. Between
ten and fifteen people had to live in one small room. They had to sleep
on the floor, and in addition there was the cold, which we felt very intensely.
Because of the unhygienic conditions all kinds of illnesses due to uncleanliness
naturally spread. The situation in the women's ghetto was exactly the same.
The men's opportunities to visit the women's ghetto were limited; they had
to have special permits to do so. The entrance to the women's ghetto was
guarded initially by Jewish policemen and then by women. At this time the
mood was extraordinarily depressed, for people had lost all trust that they
would be safe in the ghetto, and they began to consider how they could manage
to be transferred to satellite camps in the city. This plotting became a virtual
obsession! (see the chapter "Satellite Camps – Small Concentration
Camps"). This obsession led to attempts to escape from the ghetto and from
the work sites. Among those who escaped were Tewje Gurewitsch and his son