November 1, 1943 – Dawid Rubinowicz
WHEN
February 8, 1942
WHEre
Poland
The Diary of Dawid Rubinowicz
Dawid Rubinowicz was 12 years old when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Seven months later, he began keeping his diary. He faithfully recorded all of the privations, hardships and humiliations of the occupation. Naturally, much of his writing focused on his family’s deteriorating circumstances. As food and other resources became scarce, Dawid wrote about the daily struggle to survive.
Cruelty toward jews
There were greater dangers than just dwindling supplies. Jews, even as young as Dawid, were often taken without warning to do forced labor. Often it was only for a day, but sometimes it could be longer. One of the worst jobs in the wintertime was to be conscripted for snow removal. Shoveling snow in the bitter cold, with little food and rest, was backbreaking work. Still, it was a job that needed to be done, so Dawid didn’t complain about the actual task, only about the harshness of those who were supervising the labor.
On February 8, 1942, Dawid wrote about an incident that illustrated just how cruel some of the Nazis could be. He wrote, “While I was shoveling snow, a boy told me this German had gone to a Jew’s house and turned everyone out of the place. He’d then ordered the snow to be shoveled into the house because it was so dirty inside. I didn’t believe it. In the evening, however, I went and saw with my own eyes that it was really true, what he’d told me in the morning. Everyone was terrified, as you can well imagine.”
This was an example of how some of the Nazis were not satisfied to simply impose hardships on the persecuted. They indulged in sadistic cruelty simply because they could. Nothing could better illustrate the contempt that the Nazis felt for their Jewish victims.
Read more about Dawid’s diary.
