The more intense the street battles with the Oenerowcy and the other Polish Hitlerites became, the more carefully we guarded our offices, meeting halls, clubs, public meetings, and, especially, our First of May demonstrations. In the thirties we so enlarged our militia that it practically encircled the whole First of May demonstration, and yet we weren’t able to prevent a dreadful incident that occurred during the 1937 First of May demonstration.
In the later years, our First of May demonstrations had become ever larger, with many more demonstrators than in previous years. In protest against wild Polish antisemitism, the Jewish workers joined the demonstration in huge masses. So it was also in 1937. Both of the large courtyards at 34 Nalewki, the central gathering point of our First of May demonstrations, were jam-packed with people. The demonstration started out from Nalewki, wound its way to Muranowski Square, Miła, out to Smocza, and then through Nowolipki to Żelazna Street, where the Polish workers quarter began. The demonstration was so long that when its head arrived at Żelazna Street, the tail end was still at Miła, occupying four long blocks. Although we posted a tight and strong guard around the entire demonstration, we could not occupy every little corner of the several miles the demonstration stretched. On the way, near Smocza, a narrow street branched off, called Gliniana. Feiffer’s large leather factory was located there. The whole time our lookouts kept reporting that the way ahead was calm and that there were no suspicious activities in the surrounding streets.
All at once, when about half of the demonstration had passed by Gliniana Street, there was a terrific boom, and suddenly a thick black cloud of smoke blocked out everything around as if with a heavy black curtain, walling off from view a large part of our demonstration. At the same moment, shots and screams were heard among the crowd of onlookers. The smoke obscured everything. We couldn’t tell from our position where the shots were coming from. When the smoke lifted, we all saw that a bullet had struck a little boy whose mother was holding him as she looked on at the demonstration. Emergency first aid was immediately summoned, and the little boy was taken to the hospital. A short time thereafter, he died. His name was Avremele Schenker. He was five years old.
During the whole time of the panic and shooting our marchers stood in one place, not moving. Nobody broke ranks. The Printers Union band, which found itself close to the spot where the shooting took place, began playing loudly, and others began to sing loudly, because everyone seemed to understand quickly that some kind of terrible assault had taken place, and it was necessary to play and sing loudly to keep the panic from spreading to our other, more distant ranks. The demonstration was so long that neither the head of the demonstration, nor the tail end of it, had any idea of the terrible incident that had just taken place in the middle. One can imagine the agitation of the marchers when the news of the assault spread from mouth to mouth. Nevertheless, everyone maintained discipline, and the demonstration continued, ending in good order and according to plan.
We immediately began our own investigation into the attack. According to witnesses standing in the street watching the demonstration when the attack took place, this is the way it happened: At a certain moment two cars drove up from Gliniana Street. Several people jumped out, and in the blink of an eye threw a smoke bomb and began shooting. They then immediately returned to their cars and drove away in the direction of Okopowa Street.
The police began a formal investigation. After a few days a public notice appeared saying the ones guilty of the murder of the child had not been found. Every person, however, understood the character of the police investigation and the value of their notification.
That is how a murderous assault by Polish Fascists on Jewish workers was carried out, an assault that followed all the principles of a cowardly and vile attack from behind our backs and behind a cloud of smoke.
The Warsaw Bund’s Central Committee and the Central Committee of the Youth-Bund Tsukunft jointly placed a tombstone on the little boy’s grave with an inscription saying he fell victim to antisemitic hooligans.
The police would not allow a funeral.