The Rebellious Tombstones

There was a new style of clothing in the villages around Skalat: the black-striped women's skirts sewn from stolen talaysim. The peasant market, however, suffered a shortage in parchment torn from the Scrolls of the Law, which shoemakers had long since learned to convert into lining and padding for boots and shoes. On the other hand, the market square and the streets among the Jewish ruins were littered with heaps of books and pages ripped from Talmuds and prayer books: free for the taking. Earlier, when there had been Jews working for Malecki in the “Raw Material Collection Brigade” which gathered large quantities of Jewish books for sale as scrap paper: they even had some exchange value -eight groschen ^[58] a kilo. But that trade ended after the last slaughter, when there were no Jews left to work at it. The books and torn pages were then used merely for packing materials in local stores, and as toilet paper.

Every Gentile knew by now that the Jews were to be totally exterminated -that no remnant of Judaism would be allowed to survive. It was, therefore, acceptable to destroy Jewish buildings and wipe out Jewish cemeteries. The local population seemed to take to that task with sadistic and vengeful joy. The elimination of the living having almost been accomplished, it was now the turn of the dead.

Gravestones, with their holy letters, torn from cemeteries now appeared as paving stones, scattered over stretches of sidewalks and roads. The anguished cry of the stones fell on deaf ears while the dead in the unmarked graves yearned for their memorials. The peasants stopped their graveyard expeditions only after a fatal accident when a tombstone fell on a grave-robber, killing him instantly. Frightened, they believed that the tombstones were rebelling when being dishonored. They feared that the stony strength and weight of the gravestones would inflict black and blue marks and painful wounds. They believed that the dead were taking vengeance.

Fantastic stories were told about the terrible and wondrous events at the Jewish cemetery. Some told of hearing groans and quiet sobbing coming from the graves while others claimed to have seen blood coming from them. A wall made of stolen tombstones had been set-up around the Town Hall. One morning, several of the stones were found lying on the street. The story quickly spread that corpses came out at night to reclaim their tombstones and, indeed, the wall around the Town Hall did appear to be shrinking steadily. Then the peasants stopped stealing tombstones from the Jewish cemetery.

While this brought peace to the dead, the living Jews felt powerless against the constant danger which they faced. Living in the crowded ghetto like chickens in a coop, they awaited their inevitable deaths. The unsatiated local rabble stared mercilessly across the ghetto at some nine hundred Jews who still drew breath there. In wonder, they shook their heads and said: “Can you believe it? They're slaughtered and slaughtered and still they're here! But you can smell the Angel of Death over there.”

[Page 41]

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14