|
May
26, 1942
...Relief
work doesn't solve the problem; it only keeps people going a
little while. The people have to die anyway. It lengthens
suffering but cannot save them; if it [the Jewish Self-Help]
really wanted to do anything, it would have to have millions
of zloty at its disposal every month, and it does not have
them. It remains a proven fact that the people fed in the
soup-kitchens will all die if they eat nothing but the soup
supplied and the dry rationed bread. The question thus arises
whether it would not serve the purpose better to reserve the
available money for selected individuals, for those who are
socially productive, for the intellectual elite, etc. But the
situation is such that, first of all, the numbers even of such
select individuals is quite considerable, and there would not
be sufficient even for them. Secondly, the question arises why
should one pronounce judgment on artisans, laborers and other
useful persons, who were productive people back in their small
towns. And only the ghetto and war have turned them into
non-people, into scrap, into human dregs, candidates for mass
graves. There is left a tragic dilemma: What shall one do?
Shall one [hand out the food] with little spoons to everybody,
and then no one will live, or in generous handfuls to just a
few...?
Ringelblum,
I, p. 365. |
