On the Road

Abstract

This chapter details the experience of flight from Poland to Germany and what it meant in real terms to be a Jewish refugee on the roads of central Europe. This is a crucial issue because that kind of forced travel is such a fundamental part of what refugees have to endure that unless it is examined, they themselves cannot be understood. Though the whole refugee experience was fraught with danger and terror, the most difficult moments for many came right at the beginning, when the individuals or small groups of refugees had to evade the enemy troops from whom they were fleeing. Even if refugees managed to evade the hostile soldiers, their lives remained in danger from people acting out of hatred of Jews, simply wanting to rob them, or both. Nighttime was particularly dangerous, especially if Jews were staying at an inn run by a non-Jew. The chapter then highlights the personal chronicle of Yuda ben Ephraim Ḥayim of Piła in Great Poland, who fled to Silesia during 1656 to avoid being attacked by the forces of Stefan Czarniecki.