26 Friday, December 17, 1982

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

'Diary of Dawid Rubinowicz'— a Young Boy and the Holocaust

By ALLEN A. WARSEN

Before Simon Dubnow
was martyred by the Nazis
in Riga, he pleaded: "Jews,
write down. Write every-

thing down." Many did.
Among those who kept re-
cords were Emanuel
Ringelblum, Chaim A. Kap-
lan and Anne Frank.

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In
Miss
1959,
Jarochowska discovered
Dawid Rubinowicz's diary.
She relates the story of her
discovery:
"In March 1959, I went to
Bodzentyn to collect mate-
rial for an article on certain
repulsive crimes committed
during the occupation
which had amongst other
things an anti-Semitic
basis.
"On printing the article
I received anonymous
letters with threats and
epithets of the coursest
kind and at the same time
a certain Mr. Antemiusz
Wolczyk, the former sec-
retary, of the Communal
Council of Bodzentyn,
and the director of one
local radio center, sent
me some material about
Bodzentyn . . . enclosing
with it the five exercise -
books which make up
Dawid Rubinowicz's di-
ary.
"Through correspondence
with Mr. Wolczyk I learned
of the history of the
Rubinowicz family and of
the activities of the diarist
himself. It was very likely
that in September 1942,
when the Hitlerites drove
the Jews from Bodzentyn to

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"It wasn't a notice, but a
caricature of the Jews. On it
a Jew is shown mincing
meat and putting a rat in to
the mincer. Another is pour-
ing water from a bucket into
milk. In the third picture a
Jew is shown stamping
dough with his feet and
worms are crawling over
him and the dough. The
heading of the notice reads:
`The Jew is a cheat, your
only Enemy.' "
Humiliated, still Dawid
pleaded: "God give that this
shame may soon cease."
Of all the entries, this is
the most tender: "Wliile
praying I felt a deep
yearning for father (who.
was deported to a con-
centration camp). I saw
other children standing
with their fathers and the
parts of the prayers that
they did't know were told
them by their fathers,
and who is there to tell
me? . . only God alone.
"God give me good
thoughts and lead me in the
right way. Never before
have I felt my prayers to be
such a burden to me as to-
day. How could they have
been so before? If only God
would allow father to return
soon safe and sound."
This is the final entry. It
reads in part;
"While I was working I
heard a lorry approach, and
singing. I immediately
thought it was the Jews
coming from Skarzysko. I

ran out, and right enough!
— there they were, driving
up. From far away you could
see them waving their
arms, their caps; I saw my
father too. I threw every-
thing down, ran to meet
them and arrived at the
same time as the lorry.
"I immediately took
father's bundle from him,
and he got down from the
lorry. Mother took the
bundle off me and I went
to the police to recover
the parcel. I entered our
flat and couldn't even
greet Father, I was so

glad."

"The Diary of Dawid
Rubinowicz" was translated
by Derek Bowman from the
Polish edition, "Pamietnik
Dawida Rubinowicza." The
diary is published in
English by Creative Op-
tions Publishing, Edmonds,
Wash.

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Suchedniow, _Dawid in con-
fusion of hurried prepara-
tions for the journey forgot
the diary or preferred not to
take it with him.
"Not until 15 years later
did it turn up in the hands of
Mr. Wolczyk."
It should be noted that
Dawid was born July 27,
1927 in Krajno in the dis-
trict of Kielce. His parents,
Janek and Tauba, religious
people, operated a dairy.
They had two more chil-
dren, a son and a daughter.
Dawid, whose school re-
cords still exist and show
that he was a good student,
attended public school until
1939.
Dawid commenced re-
cording his experiences
at age 12 on March 21,
1940 and continued
through June 1, 1942. The
first entry in his diary
reads:
"Early in the morning I
went through the village in
which we live. From a dis-
tance I saw a notice on the
shop wall. I quickly went up
to read it. The new notice
said that Jews may under
no circumstances travel on
vehicles (the railway had
long been forbidden)."
An entry a few days later
relates that on a visit to his
relatives in Kielce, he found
them "sitting so sad." He
learned that "Jews from
various streets- are being
deported and I also grew
sad."
On Sept. 1, 1940, Dawid
wrote: "Today's the first an-
niversary of the outbreak of
war. I remember what we've
already gone through in
this short time, how much
suffering we've already ex-
perienced."
A later entry records
that on his way to the de-
ntist he saw militiamen
(German military police)
stop "a Jew who was
going out of the town and
they immediately shot
him for no reason, then
they drove on and shot a
Jewess, agin for no rea-
son. So two victims
perished for absolutely
no reason."
On Feb. 12, 1942 Dawid
described a constable posted
on a wall:

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