Resilience, Labor, and Starvation Across Ghettos

Kulis (Coolies)

Coolies

Rickshaw driver.jpeg

A rickshaw driver and his family

Warsaw Ghetto, September 1941

 

Background 

Jews resisted the dehumanizing conditions of the Warsaw ghetto in many ways, among them through poetry and song. This Yiddish song was written by Sh. Sheynkinder and composed by Goldberg. The first part describes the plight of Chinese unskilled laborers (Coolies), and over the background of a 1930s Oriental-kitsch melody, it depicts a British imperialist impression of a rickshaw runner. It continues to describe the plight of Jewish rickshaw drivers in Warsaw ghetto: “A Jew can be a coolie, too … He’s been tested by good and bad … [He] stands tall despite his troubles. He pulls it all around.”

Diana Blumenfeld, who performed in theaters of the Warsaw ghetto, sang this song on Polish radio right after the war. The lyrics go on to portray the pitiable state of the Jewish inmates of the Warsaw ghetto, who had to use rickshaw transportation to get around the overcrowded ghetto after trams were taken out of use. [1]

 

Physiological Strains of Rickshaw Driving and Starvation

Not only do these songs serve as artifacts and memories of this time, but music and songs that survived the holocaust can also tell us about the lives and experiences of everyday life in the concentration camps. This song, for example, both gives us a cultural comparison of the struggle of oppressed and enslaved peoples all over the world and it also tells us about the physical demands expected of Jewish workers in the camps.

Nearly 30% of the population of Warsaw was confined to an area of 2.4% of the city. Within the ghetto, which was sealed in December of 1940, the death toll was high because rations were set at 181 calories per individual per day. Crammed into spaces with an average of 7 people/room, disease was also rampant. By August of 1941, just one month before Joest's picture was taken, the death rate had reached over 5,000 persons per month due to disease and starvation. By mid-1942, about 83,000 jews had died. 

In light of these conditions and the toll driving a rickshaw would have taken on the body of a man living on such a restricted diet, we are informed of the strength and resilience of these workers. It is difficult to imagine that one would have the energy or strength to pedal rickshaws with people in the front seat when calculations show that the official supplied rations did not cover even 10 percent of normal food requirements. What does this mean for the human body? To give an idea of the average diet of a male Jew in the ghettos, we can look at preserved rationing books. And remember, the average male needs about 2400-3000 kilocalories a day.

example diet in Warsaw Ghetto [2]:

180 grams [6½ oz.] of bread /day,

220 grams of sugar /month,

1 kg. [2.2 lbs.] jam, ½ kg. of honey /month

 

 

 

Source

[1] Diana Blumenfeld. Music and the Holocaust. Retrieved 2016 from http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/it/places/ghettos/warsaw/blumenfelddiana/

[2] Arad, Y., Gutman, Y., & Margaliot, A. (Eds.). (1981). Documents on the Holocaust, selected sources on the destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union (pp. 228-229). Yad Vashem.

Resilience, Labor, and Starvation Across Ghettos