Concordia University MIGS

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1920

May 12 1987. Today is my lucky day. I've decided to write my biography. My name is Abraham Zylbering. I was born on January 5, 1920, in a small town called Bodsanov, in the province of Warsaw. A population of 1200 which were mostly Jews, about 200 were Poles. The town was about 24 km from Plinsk, where Ben Gurion was born, and 18 km from Warsaw. It was surrounded with very rich vegetation, big plantations, an abundance of fruits, vegetables, and hard workers, who were serfs for the rich. It was a paradise, surrounded by water. In the summer tourists would come to visit this paradise.

There was no electricity; we used gas lanterns, to see in the dark. There were no bathrooms or toilets either. A man named Chaim Ber brought in water. The religious Jews would use a Mikve (immersion pool) filled with water to cleanse themselves. There was a synagogue to pray in, which was separated for the men and women. There were all kinds of shtibles (little rooms) where rabbis used to pray. There was a very nice rabbi there, who was good to God and to the people. You couldn't find such a nice rabbi to this day. There were all kinds of organizations which people would join, including the Bund. Allogether, the little city was very cultural. We had a chazen (cantor) to pray with, and a shoichet to slaughter animals according to ritual, and a moyel who performed circumcisions. We had a city hall, which included the town police and a detective.

One day, two children who were anti-Semites set fire to people's houses; just the Polish people's homes. The houses' roofs were made of straw. The detective said that the Jewish people did it. The reason why the detective said this was because the detective was a Pole, and by having just the Polish houses burned, it was easy to blame the Jews. It later came out that the chief of police paid two Polish boys to burn the homes of Poles and say that the Jews did it. He did it so that the city should buy a Semochet (water pump) for fires. The way it was then, the city had to use pails of water one at a time in order to fight a fire. Each person had to volunteer, and the ones who didn't received a fine.

We didn't have phones either, but when something in town happened, everyone found out about it immediately, through gossip and word of mouth. Most of the Jews lived in the city and the Poles lived just outside because they were working in agriculture. The Jews had shops like groceries, tailors, and shoemakers. The young were taught a trade because most Jews were not allowed to attend school, and those who did did not go beyond 7th grade. Money was an issue too. The wealthier children who wanted to attend a higher level of schooling, such as university, had to go to a bigger city like Plotsk. The only way to become educated or to get a job was to be taught a trade. There was a place, like a bank, where you could borrow money with little interest to help out someone who wanted to start or open a business. The Jews believed in Tzedaka (charity), and gave help to one another.

There were plenty of anti-Semites. There was one organization, they called themselves, Sokolov. They used to go around at night and attack Jews. But the Jews didn't keep quiet, they fought back so that the next time the Sokolov wanted to try something, they met resistance.

When I started to attend public school at the age of seven, I went to a Jewish school, and then I went to a Cheder (where they taught you how to pray). I was there until I was about 13 when I had my Bar-Mitzvah. After that I decided to learn a trade, to become a tailor. I went to the best tailor in town, and we made a contract for three years, where he was to pay me 1 Szlota a week. It wasn't much. One year later he raised my pay to two Szlota a week. The third year he doubled that. Then I decided to become an Oskafee(someone who organizes activities in the community).

Every Saturday and Sunday I would meet with my male and female friends, and go to the library, and have meetings. I had a friend from the Bund, named Kalman Braim. He paid a lot of attention to us at the meetings, at sporting events, and cultural affairs. He was a very intelligent man. There was another gentleman named Beenum Letterman who was just as faithful, and the two of them became our leaders, our mentors. Kalman became our secretary.

My three-year contract was up with the tailor, during which time I had become a good tailor. I then took an exam to get a permit just in case I wanted to open up my own shop. Once I received the permit, I no longer wanted to work for the tailor. When I told him this, he offered to pay me 16 szlotas a week! I declined. I went to another tailor who offered me 22 szlotas a week. This was in 1936

Some time passed and I started dating, getting together with my friends, and playing dominos and ping-pong. We had a music teacher who taught us how to dance, using an old record player which ran on batteries of course, since we had no electricity.

It was beautiful in the summer, playing sports in the fields, swimming in the fresh water, singing songs, and breathing in fresh air. We didn't have such things as pollution, acid rain, because we had no factories or cars either. The only means of transportation was a horse and buggy. We had buses that came in regularly from Plotsk to take us to Warsaw or Bodzano. Trucks would also come in to bring supplies and food. My father used to be called Itsle-beshtikland because he used to sell the cheapest. We had a grocery store, then a leather store. He made a very good living for a small town which had more poor people than rich. Many people couldn't afford food, so they would go from house to house asking for food. I used to bring some people home with me to feed, which most Jews did. Nobody ever died of hunger. People were closer and friendlier than in Canada.

I decided to go to Warsaw for the summer. My father's brother lived there. My father was born there, but my uncle stayed in Warsaw. While in Warsaw, my uncle got me a job with one of the best tailors in the city. I was making jackets and pants. The pants were contracted out while the jackets were in-house. I stayed the entire summer with my uncle who divorced my aunt. Being in Warsaw had a good effect on me. The first few days were hard because I was not used to such a big city, but eventually I got used to things. Every night, I enjoyed doing things with my friends who were also from Bodsanov. Two of them in particular were Uri Beeterman, and Itzik Cohen. We went for walks together to Geeka street, which was usually so busy with people, you could lose the person you were with. There was also Zalefkas street. Jews mainly occupied both these districts, so no one was afraid of being harassed by anti-Semites.

One incident I can remember was when I met with my friends in a garden, and we heard screaming. An anti-Semite was looking for a fight with some Jews. But both my friend and I having blond hair and blue eyes did not look Jewish, so we were not bothered. The person was still yelling out for police, but there were none around. We were near a park called Krashinkskra, where we knew we wouldn't be bothered. The Jews in the area we were in were fighters and would not allow themselves to be harassed by anti-Semites.

While in Warsaw, I went to the cinema, theatres, and good restaurants. We enjoyed the outdoors because we didn't have television. It was a different life, a better life than Canada. No cars, maybe a few but very seldom. We never sat in the house, since there were all kinds of organizations to keep us busy. Warsaw's Jewish population at that time was 350,000. There were a few Jewish theatres on Nwvarshti street, Gensha street and Milanska 5. And then there was Ida Kaminsky, the actress who had a theatre named after her.

Around July, I went back home to Bodsanov. Everything seemed so small compared to Warsaw. The houses looked like you could touch the ceilings. I felt like a midget who just grew! From one corner to the other it seemed like a hop, skip and a jump! It was very hot in the summer and I didn't feel like working. I just wanted to rest, and have a good time. My friends and I went to men's clubs, where we played sports, and went camping.

1937

The date was now November 1937, and I got sick with typhus, which broke out as an epidemic. I was one of the first to get it. I had a very high fever, so my mother called the city doctor. He told my mother that because of the sickness I developed a rash on my body, so he prescribed a cream and medication. There were about 36 people who got sick in Bodsanov. Some were taken to the hospital which was 24 km away. One person even died. I went to the hospital myself, but by the time it was my turn to see a doctor, they told me the danger had passed. I was told that typhus is a 12 day sickness, you either live or die. I got past the crisis stage already, so I was going to live. My mother used to sit near me and apply cold compresses to my head. She never left my side. Little by little I got better, while friends and neighbours came by to wish me well, and were happy at my recovery. I was still very weak from eating little during the 12 days I was ill, and I became very skinny. I had to learn again how to walk, like a child taking its first steps, and to eat too. But as each day passed my condition improved. My mother took good care of me. Who could take better care of someone than a Jewish mother?

In the same year our small town of Bodsanov became a big city. We got electricity! Everything was lit up: the streets, homes, walking paths.It was like another world for everyone. When we had weddings, we would use lanterns to the huppah because in those days, wedding ceremonies were done outside the synagogue, but now with electricity, you were able to see it.

1938-39

It was now 1938 and after a few weeks passed I went back to Warsaw and back to the same tailor I had worked for previously. I was now sewing pants for the soldiers. The tailor I was working for was a specialist in the field. I started a normal life again.

As for sleeping arrangements, I slept in the same building as the shop. He took me in and gave me room and board. I got so used to the city that I decided to stay there. I made more friends. I lived there until 1939, when people started talking about a war with Hitler. Hitler was demanding Danzig (a port city in Germany) from the Polish government. Hitler promised Chamberlain (a British Prime Minister) to sign a contract stating that he would not start a war by attacking Poland. I decided to go back to Bodsanov. It didn't take long before Russia signed with Hitler a non-aggression pact. So Hitler attacked Poland instead of Russia!

I remember exactly the day, September 1,1939 at 2:00am. Hitler took one side, and Stalin took the other. They both attacked Poland. It took only a few hours and Poland was destroyed. The railroads were gone; the train stations didn't work, not to Russia, not to anywhere. People started to panic. The police from our city burned all the documents so that they wouldn't fall into the Russian's or into the German's hands. There were not even any police around, they all ran away! They left everyone in the lurch and alone!

Two days before the war broke out, a soldier got killed who was from our city. He got killed at the eastern border, and they brought him back to our town for burial. They buried him like a hero. He received the biggest medal called Milituti(military). I have one too which I threw into the ocean in Danzig, but that is another story. The soldier's name was Ignace Grabofski. I remember his name because he was the biggest anti-Semite from the Sokolov organization. They presented him as a soldier, gave him a medal of honour even though he was an anti-Semite. In their hearts everyone was happy that an anti-Semite was dead, but they still attended the funeral. As evil as he was, the Germans were far worse than him. The Sokolov never killed a Jew.

And when the war broke out and the police left, we still didn't see any Germans. Most people of Bodsanov left to the Vistula. I myself left with them. The reason we left was because we heard a rumor that the Germans were planning on taking all the young men to work and to the army. But it wasn't long until we returned, because the German airplanes followed us, and were shooting at us. Warsaw at that point had surrendered and we were caught in the crossfire. We didn't see any Polish planes, just German. So we walked back the 20km trip. It was quiet but we figured that German soldiers there might march in on us.

I remembered that day very well because a neighbor of mine was to marry that day in Warsaw, at 3:00 that very afternoon. I asked the bride-to-be a question. "Why in Warsaw and not Bodsanov?" She replied because the wedding was called off a few times before. People would gossip something about her or her husband to be, spreading lies, or rumours and someone would call the wedding off. At least in Warsaw, they wouldn't know any one. They prepared everything quietly, so nobody would know. They just invited the immediate family and wealthy friends. They even brought in the rabbi from Bodsanov. This was on Thursday 9:00pm. That same day, everything was destroyed already, and no one was able to get to Warsaw. The bride thought that maybe the wedding wasn't meant to be!

So far in the city no Germans arrived, but the city was full of crooks, robbing houses. When the war started, the police let out all the crooks from the jails! With no police around it was chaos! Every night we would hear of friends who were robbed ....every night!

One sister of the bride didn't go to the wedding, because they had a store where they sold material. She didn't want to leave the store unattended fearing that it would get robbed. My parents had a store which was left alone. There was a lot of material which we hid. There were also a lot of cigarettes and chocolates. The sister who was left behind came to me and told me that all the food that had been prepared for the wedding was eaten up by the guests and whoever else that came along. Since the wedding was called off the guests could not return home to Bodsanov. It was better to eat the food than let it spoil. She then asked me to come to her house and her business because of all the crooks. I arrived with two of my friends, packed everything in boxes, and prepared to sleep over until the bride and her family came back from Warsaw. My younger brother Menacher, also packed boxes and brought them into the makeshift room we were to sleep in. This was a Thursday. All the windows had iron bars. At night we took turns watching, every three hours.

Two days passed and Warsaw was surrounded by Germans, and all the guests who went to the wedding, even the rabbi, were trapped in Warsaw. In the meantime German tanks and soldiers arrived in Bodsanov and they took over the city. Since I was working for a Pole who was specializing in officers' pants, Germans were approaching us looking for these articles of clothing.

Later that day, I was standing along with 20 other Jewish people in front of a synagogue, and we saw a German soldier screaming "raus!" (German for"leave"). We, as Jews, understood what the German soldier was yelling at us because Yiddish is similar to German, so we all started to run through the gate of the synagogue. Then we heard gun shots. Apparently, a Polish man named Poleska who was sweeping the streets didn't understand the German soldier. He didn't run so the soldier shot him. I saw everything through the gate. The man started shaking then dropped to the floor, after which the Germans then continued driving on. At the same time, the Polish people came running to help the man and said that he shouldn't have gotten shot just because he didn't understand German. One Pole then said to another:"If you're going to be a traitor you're going to end up like that!" Little did they know that the Germans were really after the Jews.

The Germans then formed a committee to which the Jews were to report for work. I didn't have to go because I was already working for the tailor making pants for the soldiers.

We kept seeing a lot of German soldiers arriving at our city, passing along the main street near where we lived. A couple of soldiers stopped in front of me and one in particular approached me and asked in German "Du bist ein Jude?" (if I was Jewish). So I replied yes. The soldier cautiously looked around to see if any one was around and then whispered to me "You (the Jews) should run away from here, it's going to be very bad for the Jewish people!" He continued: "Hitler will not stop until he breaks his neck!" It's possible, I said to myself, that not all Germans were Nazis?

A couple of days passed, and the Germans needed more Jewish workers. Soldiers came to our house, and chose my father and two younger men in our neighborhood. I didn't understand that with so many young people, they chose my father at his age? When I got home from work and saw what was happening I offered the soldiers myself in place of my father to work. If my father went to the place that the Germans were to send him, he wouldn't come back alive. The Germans wanted us to take a small boat, and travel from Bodsanov to the other side of the Vistula and transfer cattle to be used as beef for the soldiers. We did this from 9:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night. It was a 9km walk in the rain. Soldiers with ammunition told us that if our boat capsizes, and the cattle fall in, they would shoot us! I was very strong back then and I had to hold the horns of the cows so that they wouldn't fall into the water. I don't know where I got the strength to do that!

Before going to work though, I bought ten fresh rolls, which was a good thing because they didn't give us anything to eat when we worked. I shared some with my friends Itzik Cohen and Mayer Lubenefsky. We took about nine cows across the river for the German army, which surrounded Warsaw. We worked till night, and by 9:00pm they told us to go home. We ran home! We were cold because we were soaked from the rain, so by running it warmed us up a little.

When we arrived at the city, we weren't allowed on the street. They had implemented a curfew. If they caught us on the street, they would shoot us immediately, so we took side streets. We finally got home, changed our clothes, and my mother gave me hot tea and warm food to eat. I thought that if my father had been the one who took this job, he wouldn't have come home alive. At the same time, my friend Itzik, who worked with me, caught pneumonia, and in a few days he died.

We then heard news that Warsaw had surrendered to the Germans. We heard of an attack on Belgium, and that they were going to send the Jews to the front. We started talking about escaping to the other side where the Russians occupied the Polish territory. They took it in one shot! It was planned from the beginning between Molotov and Ribbentrop (Molotov was the Russian foreign minister, and Ribbentrop was the same for the Germans) to divide Poland between them.

"On August 23, 1939 Hitler and Stalin signed a non-agression pact, called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty. Secret protocols of the treaty defined the territorial spheres of influence Germany and Russia would have after a successful invasion of Poland. Hitler had been creating justifications and laying plans for such an invasion since April.

According to the agreement, Russia would have control over Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, while Germany would gain control over Lithuania and Danzig. Poland would be partitioned into three major areas. The Wartheland area, bordering Germany would be annexed outright to the German Reich, and all non-German inhabitants expelled to the east. Over 77,000 square miles of eastern Polish lands, with a population of over thirteen million would become Russian territory. The central area would become a German protectorate, named the General Gouvernement, governed by a German civil authority.

On September 1,1939 Hitler's forces invaded Poland from the west. According to plan, Soviet troops invaded Polish territory from the east on September 17. Poland surrendered on September 27. The next day Poland was partitioned according to the treaty's scheme, ending a brief twenty year period as an independent nation."

So, little by little, the Jews started to run away to the Russian side. The first group to go was my father and then myself and my friends, which included Beenum Letterman, Kalman Breem, his wife, and then my brother Menacher went. Most were members of the Bund. After my father and his group left, I was still in charge of watching our neighbor's house while they were stuck in Warsaw for the wedding (which never happened).

While we were watching the house, we didn't realize that we were being watched as well! We did 3-hour rotations again. In order to pass time, I was reading all kinds of books about communism and how glorious it was. As I was reading, I woke my friend and told him not to fall asleep because we should be on the alert. He fell asleep though! At the same time, the thieves were watching our every move! I'm a very light sleeper, and I heard a knock at the door. It was the thieves who were checking to see if we were asleep or not. I woke my friend up, who got scared, and was obviously very jumpy about the whole situation. I just had to touch him, and he would jump. He then covered himself with his blanket! I covered myself up too, and pretended that I was asleep.

I remember that I prepared a big hammer beside the bed in preparation for a situation like this, but it was so dark in the room that I couldn't find it! I finally peered out from under my cover and saw three thieves, whose heads were covered with silk stockings to disguise their faces. One of them approached us to see if we were sleeping. They started moving boxes with the material. I decided that moment that I wasn't going to allow them to get away with it! I realized that I was not going to get any help from my friends. I was shivering from fright, because my younger brother Menacher was sleeping so well that he had no idea that thieves had surrounded us.

At the same time my two other buddies helped me schlep boxes to hide them from the thieves. When I saw that the thieves weren't looking, I took the chance to grab my hammer with my right hand, and I started to yell out dirty words to get the attention of the thieves. The thief who was watching me was so close to me that I could have killed him immediately, but my screaming scared them and they started running! My screaming woke my brother, and he started asking me, what happened. Yossel, who was in the same bed as I was, had the oil lamp in his hand. When he saw the knife that one of the thieves had, he fainted! I didn't know what to do, to save my friend, or to keep the door closed, so the thieves couldn't come back. When I was holding the door, I noticed that there wasn't any resistance, so we then all calmed down, knowing that the thieves had gone. Then I found an electric lamp and went into the next room, and strangely found a police baton. I took it in my hand right away and went to see exactly where the thieves came in. From the windows!

Apparently, the police had taken off the iron bars from the window with an axe. We couldn't believe that with all that yelling, nobody in town bothered to come out from their house and see what was wrong! They were all afraid! Without police protection the thieves could do what they wanted. My uncle then asked me if they had beaten me up. I said we were fine. I wasn't scared of the thieves, but of the Gestapo I was.

In the place where I was born, there was a soldier from the military front, who had deserted. He came up on me and asked me if I would give him civilian clothing so he could get out of his military uniform, and if I could take him in to my house for a short while for hiding. I agreed, and gave him a place to sleep, eat, for a whole week. He was from Prijon, a town in Russia, where the Russians had taken over. Before he left, he gave me his address and said, if I am ever in his hometown, he'll pay me back for the kindness I gave him.

In the meantime the tailor I was working for named Karnatzki was working for the military making pants as I have mentioned before. Two false deutchen (German sympathizers), and a Gestapo officer came by who were looking for leather material to make boots. They couldn't find it anywhere. They went to the barber's shop first and asked if any one knew where they could find leather. Chanan Tober, the barber, told them where they could find some and where it was hidden. It was with us, in our store, in our cellars. I was smarter and two days before I had hid it at my uncle's in the ceiling which nobody knew about. So when the Germans came to the store my sister Goldie was minding the store. The soldiers told my sister she had better tell them where the leather was, because they already knew where it was hidden! And if we find it we'll shoot one member of your family. But my sister knew that nothing was there, because I hid it, but she didn't know where. There were only small pieces left, but Goldie showed what was left to the soldiers. They didn't believe her and started looking all over the places where Chanan said it might be. They were digging and digging, and came up with nothing. They got fed up and called back Chanan the barber, and said,"The Jew fooled them!" They told him, "If he knows where the leather is, then start looking!" He checked the first cellar, the second cellar ....nothing.

After a while, he stopped searching and told the Germans he couldn't find it. The soldiers started yelling at him calling him, "Dirty Jew, you fooled us!" They started to beat him, and smacked him with the cellar door, until he was bleeding from all sides of his face. My sister couldn't look. She actually went to get cold towels to put on Chanan's face, even after he had squealed on us. A Germans then started to yell at Goldie and ask,"How could you help a man who just gave you up to destroy you?" He continued in disbelief, "If we were to find the leather, we would have shot someone in your family, and here you're helping him? Give him scheisse (shit), not wasser (water)" But my sister couldn't take revenge, so she helped him out, cleaned him, fed him ....

This all happened when I was at work, so when I came home from work my sister told me about it. I thought if it was me, he wouldn't be alive at that moment. It didn't take much time until the Germans became more hostile to the Jews, including the Poles who were kissing the asses of the Germans. The Poles also disseminated a lot of gossip and misinformation like: "This Jew did this, and this Jew did that...."

There was a town named Vwechayeva, not far from Bodzanov full of false-deutchen, who were worse than the Germans. The Jewish people went to work without food and before I left my town I went to the synagogue. The Gestapo came to see our rabbi in the middle of a prayer, and they ordered him to run with his Talis and Tefillin, and to fall on his face, get up again, fall down again repeatedly, to humiliate himself. All the Jews watched in panic, as the rabbi was being punished for being Jewish. He was such a good rabbi, and the people couldn't bear it. They knew that when they saw this happening to their rabbi, they knew that it was time to get out of there. My eyes couldn't believe what I had seen.

The same day that afternoon, around 1:00, I came home to eat lunch and then met my friends and discussed leaving, but chose not to tell anyone to avoid a panic. Included were Froim Rajchgot who later moved to Canada, and Yankel Brown, who lives in Paris now. We brought with us just a small package between the three of us which contained a change of clothing. We didn't say goodbye to anybody. We rented a wagon with a horse, and we left our town. My younger brother Yoinee, who was 13, ran after me in the wagon, crying with bitter tears, which I can never forget. I now think, "God, why didn't I take him?" He later was killed by the Germans, as was my sister Goldie.

The horse traveled slowly, but we soon arrived at Vesheengro. It was 18 km from Bodsanov. We arrived at night at the train station and bought tickets to Warsaw. At that moment some German officers approached and asked if we were Poles or Jews. We were all wearing large hats, which concealed our faces for the most part and were not recognizable to others. We answered them in Polish since we all knew Polish and they let us continue on our way. We piled ourselves into an open box car and hid ourselves from sight and as the train left the station we fell asleep from exhaustion.

When the train arrived in Warsaw we heard screaming coming from outside which woke us up. There were Poles and Germans checking the box cars for Jews. We were scared as there was no one there to protect us. The Poles were even worse than the Germans. The Germans had their orders from Hitler. They had guns to kill us. The Poles were involved for more personal reasons. They hurt and killed us with stones, knives and beatings.

We scurried from the train undetected and hungry. Both Froim and I had family in Warsaw, but we knew they would be sleeping at that hour, so we found an abandoned area of town to get some sleep. We woke several hours later and went to Yankel's friend's house. Froim had a crush on his friend's girl friend Faiga Sarniak, who was at her sister Hetzel's house. They wanted to pick her up so that they could all go to Russia. So they went by the sister's house to pick up Faiga, and said goodbye to Hetzel. We were now on our way out of Warsaw to Praga and came to Berager Bridge where we got a Polish driver to take us to the border and bribe the guard to let us through, for money of course.

We got through and got to the Cheblesk train station on the border. We had heard that Russia is a haven for Jews. While waiting for the train, we noticed an advertisement for a restaurant and we were hungry at this point and went to that restaurant. That would be our last good Yiddish meal. In came a man from the city named Zalman Zilberberg. He came from the other side - Bialystok. Don't forget that my father and all his friends his age had left our town before we did, and this man Zilberberg made the announcement that he knew where they all were, although he didn't give me the address. He caused such a panic telling us what to expect once we cross the border, that Faiga got so upset and decided to go back. He said that there was no food to go around and all the men and women were sleeping together on straw in barns with mice and lice. It was too much for her to take. If she would have stayed with us, she would be alive today. Zilberberg had basically sent her to her death. He survived I found out later. He is still single, my age.

In towns near the border, we didn't see any Germans or Russians, just people who lived there. We met these people who would help us across the border in exchange for money. As we started through we heard a woman screaming. We rushed to the edge of the water and saw a woman standing in the shallow water with her husband beside her. Her leg hurt and she was having problems standing. Her husband was standing next to her and wouldn't help her up. He was afraid. We all went into the water to help her out. She didn't know how to thank us. After we left her, our clothing remained wet until the next morning and we were cold and hungry. So we went to a stranger's house and paid to have a warm glass of tea and some food. By that time our clothes had time to dry off.

We then left for the train station and it didn't take long to gather our stuff. It was around midnight and we were all tired, so we lay down to take a nap. It was cold, but we were young so it didn't bother us too much. The area we were sleeping in only had room enough for 2 people, for Froim and Yankle, so I took the time to look around. I asked around if there was a shul (synagogue) near by and was given directions. It was only about five minutes away. When I got there I was told that there was no place for me since there were so many people already. People were sleeping everywhere. I also noticed several signs on the walls which said in German. Achtung!, Bodsanova! (Beware of what happened in Bodsanov!) Everybody was put into the Bodsanova ghetto. With that I ran as fast as I could back to my friends and I told them the news. We found another driver who took us to a market around two o'clock at night, and asked some night workers where the ghetto was and followed their directions. We met Russian soldiers and they started yelling at us in Russian. "Stay still or we'll shoot!" We didn't understand Russian so we all ran away!

We then met a Pole and asked him where the ghetto was. He said it was about a five-minute walk. We walked so fast that we woke up the whole ghetto, and in the end we didn't find anybody from our town. We searched till the morning. We went back to the market and as I was looking around I spotted my father and more people from my town of Bodsanov. They were staying at the private home of a priest. They occupied the whole house. We were tired at that point from searching the entire night. The homeowners gave us breakfast, and then we passed out. The conditions were almost the way that Zalman Zilberberg said they would be; everybody sleeping together, eating off the floors. I, on the other hand, didn't think it was that bad. There was at least hay on the floor, and the men and women were separated. The food that was given to us by the Russians was in turn supplied by the Americans. The Russians kept most of the money for themselves, leaving most of us hungry without much food. We met there Russian agents who told us to go to Russia to look for work.

During the day, more people from our city would come pouring in. We started to prepare; myself, my friends, my brother Menacher. In my family we were four children. Goldie was the oldest, and then I, then Menacher, Yoinee was the youngest. Only half of us would survive. Every day that went by got worse and worse. Froim decided to go back to Bodsanov, to get his love. Froim said to me that love is stronger than iron. He actually made it back to Bodsanov but when we got there, her parents wouldn't let her go, and so he came back to Russia. In case you were wondering how Froim was able to freely pass through the guards and the Gestapo, he was fair haired and passed as a German. You can't compare the Russians to the Germans. At least the Russians didn't kill people. You could give the Russians credit; they welcomed us with open arms. If they wanted to, they could have closed the borders, but they didn't.

Two weeks passed and we were getting used to living the life of sleeping on the ground on straw, and I reminded myself of the runaway soldier I had encountered who gave me his address, which wasn't far from Bialystok. So I took with me my cousin Pinchas (who now lives in Israel) and we went to visit the soldier who had promised me that if I'll be in Projan, to come see him. And he recognized me right away. I gave him my hand, and he told me right away: "You can't be here." I told him that I didn't want anything from him. Instead he gave me a change of clothing so nobody could recognize me and some food. We left and went to see if we could find a tailor to try and earn some money.

Pinchas was a tailor as well. We found work right away. They were so busy that they didn't want us to leave. They even fed us, had Shabbat together. They had a strange way of eating. Normally you would have the soup before the main meal, which is usually meat. They would have the meat first, then the soup. I asked why and they answered, "If you eat first the soup, you can then eat the meat, and the meat is more important than the soup." We stayed with them for one week, and were about to leave when they approached me with an offer. They wanted me to marry their daughter! Our response to that was, "Who's thinking of marriage now? In a time like this?" She was a good looking girl but when she started talking she gave me a headache!

One day we went back to Bialystock to see my father. We moved to the city and it was much better. We were three families together. It wasn't comfortable but it was better than where we were staying. I ate breakfast, and then I went to the store. There was a line where people were pushing and falling out of line. So I took it upon myself to settle everyone down and organize the line. It took a few minutes until I was inside the store. I picked up some shoes at a great price, and then I went to resell them for a profit. I actually doubled my money. I did that several times in the day. I had so much energy I wish that today I had that same energy. It took me two minutes until I was back in the store, pushed my way through and went back out to sell again. In the meantime people had started to register to go to Russia where everyone wants to go. Our choices were to go to Russia or back to Poland, and we decided to go back. Surprisingly 90% of people registered to go back to German occupied Poland to be with their families where they were exterminated.

My father changed his money back from rubles to Polish szlotis. He had this money from selling his stores. We took this money and hid it in a wall!

Something we didn't expect to happen happened. One night at midnight, the Russians came in with a list, and rifles and ammunition and told us to get dressed quickly and leave all our money except for 1320.00. In 15 minutes we were all ready, and they told us that we were going to Siberia! That news really saved our lives. They took us to the train station; found us a car, and a place to sleep. Something inside of me told me to go and get some food before the long journey to Siberia; so without attracting attention to myself I carefully went to find a bakery.

It was dawn, and the sun was rising. I was a very big eater and was afraid that if I didn't eat something soon, I would starve to death. I finally found a bakery and bought two bags of 30 fresh rolls. I had at that time 4000 rubles that I had saved with me, and the rest of it was still in the wall where I placed it. The rolls didn't cost a lot of money, just five rubles. I went back to the train, but the soldier that was watching me earlier didn't want to let me back in. I tried to explain that I just gone to get something to eat. The rolls smelled great as their aroma escaped from the warm bags. I had already eaten three rolls as I walked back to the train. I didn't want to be separated from my father and brother, so I told the soldier that I was there with my family. The soldier started yelling which got the attention of my father and brother who poked their heads out the car. My father shouted back that I was his son. With that, the soldier allowed me back inside were I joined my family once again. I had so many rolls so I gave away about 20 of them to some very hungry people, and the remaining seven rolls I kept for myself.

THE TRAIN RIDE

The train finally started to move and every car had a soldier with a rifle to ensure that we wouldn't run away. "Even if we were to run, were would we go?" I said to myself. The soldiers weren't happy to be there either. They wanted to be back home with their counterparts, the Germans. The Gestapo was already starting to punish the Jews at this point. The soldiers were telling those who wanted to return back home, that if they returned home, they would be hurt, killed by the Germans. Even we were thinking of going back to Bialystok where I had hid all the money. We weren't told where we were going exactly. My father thought we were heading back to Warsaw. The soldiers didn't tell us that we were going to Russia.

Since Poland was at war with Russia, most Poles would not have been thrilled about going to Russia. So the soldiers' secrecy actually saved our lives. Most of us did know where we were going. We wanted to go. Later that night, one of the soldiers approached us and arrested us, and told us we were going to Warsaw. Then traveling a whole day and night without food, they told us we were approaching Minsk. We were told when we got to Minsk they would give us food. At the stop we picked up people who were to bring us food. They were going to give us Kippltouk. We didn't know what that was. It's in fact Russian for hot water! We thought they were giving us food! So out of our group they chose me to do some work for them. I was able to leave the station and get some food at a restaurant.

Once I arrived at the restaurant I was given an old pail, with what looked like water. I stood there waiting for some sort of item of food, when I was told that, "That's what I was getting." The water was dark with oil from the train. For this we had to wait for six hours. So I proceeded to bring the pail with the water to the people, and nobody even wanted to try it. I started thinking that the rolls I got earlier came in very handy. The six hours passed and we finally started moving again. The train then got to a fork in which one way led to Moscow, and the other to Siberia. It was at this point that we were sure that we were going to Siberia to work. We were on the last car, so we knew where we were going. Most people on the train were registered to go to Siberia, but others turned back in fear. Little did they know that they were heading right for the tiger's mouth. When they reached home, they were surprised at not being able to find anybody from their families. The Germans got them all. At the end they got captured as well.

I had a Polish friend of mine Mechel Huxt who was a die-hard communist, who was ready to leave his mother and father for Russia for the communists. But when he saw all the poverty in Russia he ran back to Poland. He was put into a Polish jail for being a communist and he said, "For this I have to fight?" He thought he would find paradise in Russia, and all he found was poverty. "I was going to sacrifice my parents, my whole family." Then he vanished. Never saw him again.

Back to the train, we were traveling deeper and deeper into Russia, getting closer to Siberia. The train finally stopped. We were hoping that we were stopping so that they would give us something to eat. We were told that the same people who were chosen before (I being one of them) were to go again. This time they gave us food like macaroni. It was better than nothing. The Germans wouldn't have given us anything. You can't compare the Russians to the Germans. Nobody died from hunger, myself included. I can't complain. The Russians took us in.

I myself was never a communist. I would never think of being one. I love freedom for the people. I don't like to be forced into silence as most Russians are. The people there are like mannequins. With the big mouth I have, they would surely have thrown me into jail for hard labour for the rest of my life!

It took about four days and nights until we came to Alexandra Novalock, Vichestroy, of the province of We Lodka. This is a country where it stays light for six months and dark for six. It is far north, deep inside Russia. I remember this place so well; I won't ever forget it.

The soldiers separated us into two groups. The first was the group I was in, in We Lodka, and the second group was sent to another camp called Doskastroy. We gathered our things and made our way to the camp where we noticed that there were already a lot of people there who were coming out to meet us. Some were crying, hoping that perhaps one of us was a relative or something. These people were apparently arrested for being political piranhas. They were poor people who had hid food and articles from the government illegally, and so were captured, arrested, and sent to Siberia.

They became jealous of us Jews as we were getting more food than they were. Even so, they were very friendly people. As we were settling in, they brought us horses and wagons. It was the middle of the summer, and as we found out, there were only three months of summer, but in these three months everything grew, Including potatoes and wheat.

When we got to the camp, we noticed that everything was surrounded by forest. There were also tigers, we were told, all in the forest. A lot of Russians said that they were frightened to go into the woods in fear of running into a bear. Once you enter the woods, you could easily get lost. Even in the summer, no one dared to enter the forest. Even though it was summer, people arrived in We Lodka with sleds because the summer was so short. There was also quicksand that could easily trap you if you weren't careful where you walked. Even the horses weren't immune to this danger.

The locals were starting to build roads to accommodate the horses and wagons to bring in food. We then moved into the barracks which were separated for men and women. We were just three men, my brother Menacher, my father, and I. They put us together with 12 more men, and we shared this shelter between the 15 of us. We became the best workers after some time. We didn't have any beds, but only straw to sleep on, called sheyniks. They gave us some soup and boiled water. All of us had no baggage. All we had was soup and nothing else. We were very tired, and waited until it got dark. The clock said 12 o'clock midnight and we saw that it wasn't getting dark! We asked around what time would it start to get dark and we were told that in the summer time, we had no nights! In Russian this was called Bialy-notches. We had to cover the windows in our bunks with rags to keep out the sunlight so we could sleep.

We woke at seven a.m. and we went to the restaurant. We were looking for some noodles to add to our hot water but couldn't find any! They organized us for work. Menacher, my father, and myself were sent to work in the same section in the forest to chop wood. We had never chopped wood before. There was a farmer there who taught us how to chop the trees down. His name was Boucheenya. We learned fairly quickly to saw the trees down. My brother had to cut the roots from the trees, and my father took the roots to make brooms.

After a while, I became very good at working in the forest and soon got a promotion, which in turn gave me two kg of bread in payment. Everyone else got the same 800 grams. We were working for bread, not money. The bread was wet which made it heavier. In the winter it was frozen, when we received our 800 grams of bread, it looked like nothing because of the water and ice weighing it down. The bread looked as black as coal. To make it edible, we would build a fire to heat up the bread to soften it.

In the summer the horses were working just at night because in the daytime there would be huge flies and mosquitoes. We would chase them away. There were these other flies we called, Bombushkes, because they were biting through the skin, especially the horses,' that would cause them fall to the ground after being bitten. The horse would get covered with blood after being bitten. Since we worked at night, we would make a fire to scare off the flies. We would use the horses to carry the wood that we chopped to bring it to a water source where we dumped the wood into the river to be transported elsewhere. The wood was used all over Russia. One day we asked the manager: "Why is it that you have pity with horses, but for the people, nothing?" So the manager answered, "The people I can get as many as I want, for the horses I have to pay 600 rubles."

Several months went by, and the weather got colder and colder as winter came. The days and nights both got shorter. The manager told us something that scared us. He said that in the winter it got so cold that we were all going to die from the cold. It was minus 35 degrees celsius. In the same sentence he told us that we had to work because if we didn't work, we weren't going to get food.

There were about 250 Jewish people in the camp. The holidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were approaching, so the decision was made by everybody to go out to the forest, not to work, but to pray. We each took our Tallis (prayer shawl), and started to pray in the middle of the woods. The manager found out what we were doing and rushed out to us and asked "What are you doing?" Someone blurted out in Russian, "The Jewish God came to the forest." The manager noticed all our white Tallises, and asked "Who organized this?" But nobody answered, everybody stayed quiet. When he asked again, we just sang our prayers louder. I wasn't such a religious man myself, but I was a believer. Later, the manager knew whose idea it was.

 

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