Small Riga Ghetto

92
caused a great deal of damage to the empty houses. Water and sewage pipes
had burst almost everywhere.
An outpatient clinic and a hospital were also set up.
The German ghetto also claimed the engineer Antikol's diligence for various
technical tasks. He could often be seen there, accompanied by his coworkers,
helping our German brothers.
He set up a special kitchen for his large staff of helpers.
In June 1943 the Technical Authority received its first blow: its workers
were arrested in the "weapons incident".
The next blow was that Sauer, the commandant of Kaiserwald, sent his people
(including Mister X) one Saturday to take away all the machines. This occurred
a short time before the final liquidation of the ghetto.
In any case, we survivors will always remember the Technical Authority and
the engineers Antikol, Saslawski and others with the greatest gratitude.
When we found out after our liberation that these people, who had been so
devoted to us, had all died, we felt genuine pain.
XVII.
Gradually we began to lose heart. All our hopes had been pinned on the spring
offensive that was to clarify our situation. Spring was almost over, and there
was still no movement on any front.
The only offensive that was being made was in the ether. All the warring
parties waged war by means of the radio. This duel of words greatly excited us
as well. Incidentally, our "the Jews want it that way" news also provided an
abundance of material for this type of struggle.
But the offensive did begin after all, at the last moment, and it was made by
the Germans. German military forces pressed in on Moscow from all directions.
In the military reports of the one side we heard the names Orjol and
Kursk-Wjasma; in those of the other, Staraja Russa and even Schlüsselburg
near Leningrad.
From these reports we realized that the situation was very bad, but probably
worst of all for us!
Nonetheless, life in the ghetto went on. They began to move workers into a
satellite camp for peat-cutting. Nobody was keen to do this work, for everyone
still remembered the thirty-two girls who had been shot in Olaine.
To fill the satellite camp, they recruited mainly convicted criminals and people
who were serving prison sentences.