"Poland was between those two powers, Russia and Germany, both of them expanding. Poland tried to maintain neutrality. The tragedy was that Poland was too weak to enforce its neutrality. Consequently, throughout all of Polish history-- today it's the same situation, and tomorrow it will be still-- whatever Russia will emerge, it will be stronger than Poland. Whatever Germany will emerge, it will be stronger than Poland. Poland is sandwiched between both of them. If both of them agree on the partition of Poland, Poland will be partitioned. If one of them decides to attack Poland, and the other will be neutral, Poland will lose the war. This is the tragic situation. Our Polish ancestors, a thousand years ago-- I blame them! Why did they choose this corner of Europe to establish Poland? Why couldn't they choose Madagascar?" 

"We were eight. One brother died when I was still a baby. I was the youngest one. The difference between the oldest brother and I was 18 years. So when my father died, my oldest brother became like my father. He educated me, he was sending me abroad etc. Eventually it was this man who was commander of all security in Warsaw when the war broke out. Because he was a legionnaire. He was a soldier of Pilsudski during the First World War. And again, crazily, crazily, fanatically for Pilsudski. Whatever Pilsudski said and did was more important than the Holy Scriptures. 

“At the age of six I went to what is called in the United States an elementary school. I went one year early because I was a good boy. [laugh] Already my mother taught me to read, to recite poetry etc. I spend there until the age of 14, and then to the high school, again one year ahead of the other boys my age." 

"You knew that certain streets were inhabited almost exclusively by the poorest Jews.  In my class of 70-80 students, there were some eight to ten Jewish students. Jewish students kept to themselves usually; they did not mix with the Catholic Poles. And the first year there, I was hopelessly weak in mathematics. Cursed. I remember they tried to teach me algebra, and to this day I don't understand anything of algebra. Or physics-- to this day I have no idea how a telephone works.  Now, I was always strong in Polish history, literature, poetry. I could recite Polish classics, etc. And after several days I notice there is a group of Jewish boys who kept to each other, and all of them were strong exactly in what I was hopeless at-- mathematics, physics, etc.  

"All of them weak in Polish history and literature-- they were not interested; they were Jews and probably spoke Yiddish at home. And I got the idea and I approached one of them, named Izio Fuchs. He was older than any one of us. Rumors were that he had some one or two years' mental weakness. But he was completely normal. Yiddish accent. I approached him... and we became friends. The man who was mostly charged by Izio to take care of me was Kuba Przytycki. Whenever I would get a low grade he would scold me-- 'I'm trying to help you, and look what you do!' A wonderful relationship. Lejba Ejbuszyc, he lived in Baluty, the worst part of Lodz, where there were bandits and hoodlums. His language was horrible. Whatever he would say, he would always start or end with, 'And I fuck it. Ja pierdole.' He was big, very strong. Nobody could beat him and everybody was afraid of him, so he was left alone. Aggressive, contemptuous, 'Yeah, I'm Jewish, so what!'  

"The second was Sasha Goldberg. I didn't like him particularly because he was fat and had very bad complexion, to begin with. But he was rather rich. He would boast that he doesn't care for Poland at all. His dad knows all financiers in the world. And when he finishes the gimnazjum, he will go immediately to England, where his dad will introduce him to all financiers in the world. And financiers are richer and more powerful than bankers, only we are stupid and we don't understand. He understands because his dad told him. We tolerated him because he had very nice apartment. He lived alone, his father apparently away on business. He had a maid who stayed with him. From time to time he would invite us all and she would prepare beautiful cookies for us with coffee and Schlagzane-- an Austrian specialty, some sort of ice cream with a certain taste.  

"Next boy: Izio Fuchs. He had such respect from us all. The head teacher of our class, Mrs. Gastmannowa, would never address him directly. Never, 'Izio come here!' but rather, 'Let Izio come.' He commanded respect because he was so very Jewish. He would come to the class with his holy books, and during the class intermission he would go always to the same place and pray. The boys called him a Jewish prophet. Nobody hurt him, but he was a little held in ridicule. In our group, he had absolute authority. He was the one who appointed Kuba Przytycki: 'You will help Kozielewski with his chemistry, physics etc.' Next: His younger brother, the best-looking boy in Lodz. He wanted to be a pianist. He had no spite in his heart. He wanted to be friends with everybody, jumping to everybody like a dog. Everybody liked Salus, but I liked him more than anybody else. He called me Koziol [billy-goat]-- a play on my name."