Small Riga Ghetto

89
good and bad occurrences. The only thing that was blameworthy was that
some individuals really did not understand that they had to keep a necessary
distance.
It was not easy to get into the German ghetto from ours and vice versa. For
this we needed a special permit from our office, issued by the representative of
the Jews, Leiser. But the German Jewish policemen often turned a blind eye if
a person knew them or bribed them. Besides, the secretary of our ghetto administration,
Boris Kaplan, was always very obliging in this regard.
The "spring season" was opened in the German ghetto with the shooting of
the Czech gynecologist Dr. Ranzel. In the course of a house inspection Krause
came to his room in Wienerstrasse * (Mazā Kalna Street). There he found not
only Dr. Ranzel but also his wife and daughter. When Krause noticed that the
wife was smoking, he punished her immediately with a slap in the face. The
doctor, a former Czech officer, slapped him back, whereupon Krause drew his
revolver and shot him on the spot.
In another incident, Krause got into a verbal exchange with a Latvian guard
and swore at the man coarsely. The Latvian lifted his weapon threateningly in
order to shoot him down. Krause was saved from death only because the German
Jewish policeman Haar, who was standing nearby – a very strong man
who used to be a boxer – tore the weapon out of the Latvian's hand and gave
him a powerful shove besides. Of course Krause now took an interest in the
man who had saved his life and rewarded him by making him the chief of the
German-Jewish police force.
We Jews were also "very grateful" to Haar and proved it to him in a way
that the reader will learn in the chapter on Kaiserwald.
XV.
In this chapter I would like to tell about the economic life of our ghetto.
Robert Schlomowitsch was the first director of the Wirtschaftsamt (Economic
Authority). Later, after the "weapons incident", when Keilman was no
longer in favor and thus was not eligible for the position of ghetto representative,
he took over as director of the Economic Authority.
The larger the ghetto became, the more shops were opened to distribute
food. The workers in these shops included Schmulian, the engineer Schlossberg,
the Kraskin brothers (all of whom used to own lumber businesses),
* [Ed.: Berliner Strasse]