THE FINANCIAL CAPABILITIES

Many of the Jews living “above” were able to take up paid jobs. Dawid Zylbert, aided by Mieczysław Małkowski and hiding in Warsaw’s Kępa Potocka, was making a living under the name Henryk Polkowski, selling cigarettes and newspapers at Plac Trzech Krzyży. Mietek Lipski, hidden by the Żak family at Plac Grzybowski in Warsaw, was often leaving his hiding place and making money by driving a rickshaw.

Jews hiding in confinement were usually deprived of any way to earn an income. Nonetheless, there were exceptions to this, as well – Fawel and Abraham Rotsztajns and Mosze Lederman, hidden for nearly four years by the Krusiński family in the village of Uniszowice (Lublin region), were earning their keep through making and selling shoes.

Usually, those hiding underground had to count on the hospitality of their Polish keepers and use their own savings or, sometimes, the money provided by Żegota. The Ryszewski family were hiding 13 fugitives from the Warsaw ghetto. “… my sister,” Mrs. Zofia Brusikiewicz recounts, “would take anything we could to the market, to Praga. She’d sell it. The Hidden had some gold, we’d take that and sell it, too, exchange for food ... who had money, gave money, who had none, didn’t.”