By order of the Nazis, Jews of Bialystok move into the ghetto. gems found. After a three-month stint in the ghetto Jail, he was stripped of his rank and influence, which enabled the Jews to breathe easier. ‘‘Another anecdote Mrs. Lejzerson shared with her friends in Israel involved a Nazi officer who ordered whisky in a Jewish restaurant. No sooner did he drink the contents of his glass than he fell to the floor dead. The entire Gestapo brigade was summoned and ten Jewish prisoners were taken. Only after two medical specialists were called to examine the body and the Officer’s wife testified to his history of heart disease were the Jews exonerated. This miraculous salvation, it should be added, was spurred by yet another massive “contribution” to the Nazis. *“‘Jenta Lejzerson described how all Jews from the ages of fourteen to sixty were sent. away for slave labor. They worked in three shifts, covering a span of twenty- four hours a day. She told of the pitifully meager wages paid for this forced work and how the black market raged in the ghetto, supplying necessities unavailable through normal channels. The ghetto itself was inde- scribably constricted and crammed with people. The population was susceptible to epidemics of dysentery and typhus. Most of the cultural institutions in Bialy- 68 stok had been eliminated, yet the irrepressible Jews maintained several schools and underground religious services, as well as various social and _ health organizations. ‘In September 1942, a new rumor circulated that another expulsion of Jews in the ghetto was imminent. Religious leaders promptly proclaimed a public fast, fearing that the ‘“‘Black Corps,”’ the Nazi extermination brigade, was on its way to Bialystok. Later, the people were told they had been granted a reprieve until Janu- ary 1943, because the Jews in the Bialystok ghetto were still needed to provide support for the Nazi war machine. “Mrs. Jenta Lejzerson concluded her bone-chilling story by saying, ‘In Bialystok, Jews are living in con- stant fear of death. The members of the Judenrat con- tinually reassure them that thanks to their labor, extermination will be delayed.’ ”’ When it became known that Mrs. Lejzerson received permission to leave the ghetto for Israel, many of her fellow inmates begged her to get in touch with family and friends in the Holy Land. She was also asked to tell the awful truth about their situation. She honored both requests. The Bialystoker Memorial Book