1941

It was the middle of February 1941, and it was very cold, and our manager fired the old man who had organized the whole incident that occurred earlier in the forest when we were praying. In fact, firing him was the easy way out; they wanted to convict him for organizing prayers for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanna. Since he stopped working they didn't give him any food. No work, no food. All of us decided to help him out by sharing some of our bread with him so he wouldn't die of hunger. Since we had no doctor with us, we had to take care of ourselves. Even going to our own store was difficult since the salesman who ran the store was a drunk, and came in late every day. So we wouldn't have any bread to eat before work. So I said to myself, "no bread, no work." We were all waiting by the store for the salesman to get our bread. I was infuriated at that point, and I was arguing with the commandant, "I'll go to the main office in Vitestroy, and I will tell them how you treat us!" I threatened. They got scared and told me that if I kept quiet they would give me anything I wanted. I refused. "I won't sell my brothers!" I said. "There is not enough money in the world that would buy me."

So the long nights continued as did our chess games and as time went on I got better and better at the game. I was playing with the man who taught me. We didn't have any cards. The brigadier told us "If we were going to work more, we would receive more bread" and "If you're not going to do it, then forget about ever returning to your homeland. If you don't get used to it, then prepare to die."

Several days later, I was given permission to go back into the city to buy all kinds of products. I still had the 4000 rubles that I took when leaving Bodsanov. This money came in handy. My father was so certain that we would be returning to Bodsanov. We never saw that money again.

The winter finally passed, and spring came, and life became more bearable with the days being longer. Spring was very short; winter was the longest season. It was around 11pm and everybody was asleep when a friend of mine woke me up and told me that he saw a new manager come in. It took me about five minutes to get dressed and to go to the commandant's office. The kerosene light was still burning as I came in and a man was sitting there with the manager. The man must have been from the head office checking up on the manager. As soon as the manager saw us, he approached us and begged us not to say anything bad about him or the camp. Another manager pleaded the same thing. After hearing this, I figured that the stranger was probably from the government.

The fellow gave me a polite hello, and with that I told him everything that was going on inside the camps. I spoke about the horrible food situation, lack of supplies and medicine and the treatment of the salesman from the store that cheated that woman out of 200 grams of bread. The man wrote every little bit of detail down. He then asked the managers if I was a good worker. Right away they told him that I was one of the best workers. I continued to tell him how we suffered from malnutrition, with my brother almost going blind due to lack of vitamins and me with my teeth falling out. God knows how many of us were sick because of their poor management, lack of food and no doctor. Also the fact that when the storekeeper actually did open up shop, he was usually late and drunk. He then asked the manager if this was all true, and he confirmed it. I was given a letter to sign and did so. I was then told, not to worry and go back to sleep.

The next day the shopkeeper was no longer there. Apparently he was arrested. Someone very nice replaced him. We then had enough bread to eat, as much as we wanted. In fact it was funny because I thought how funny food could be. "When you don't have, you want it; but when you have enough, you don't feel it." Just knowing that bread was available took so much pressure off of us.

Soon after, a restaurant opened up and started serving soup. Although you couldn't find one bloody lokshen in one of those soups! The man whom they got to work in the store was a Ukrainian. We spoke and he told me that he was with 12 other Russian students from Germany. "Six, defected to Germany, and the other six including myself came back to Russia, got arrested, and they sent us here to Siberia for punishment," he said while serving me.

Anyways, we ended up making another chess board since we had so much bread. With this the long dark nights would go by quicker.

There were different camps in our area that all specialized in different products, including matches and cigarettes. For us it was salt. So really, none of us had much of anything. If you had cigarettes, you didn't have matches; if you had matches you didn't have cigarettes. It was this way all over! And the cigarettes! They weren't cigarettes like we know them now! You had to roll them! To roll them you needed paper! We didn't even have paper for the toilets! In case you were wondering, we used leaves. For cigarettes, we would take leaves from the forest, dry them out and smoked with that.

In case you were wondering why we couldn't just leave the camp, it was because we were under the rifle. The Russian government wanted us to take an oath of citizenship and we didn't want to become part of a communist society. We just wanted to go back home to Poland. So they kept us like prisoners.

Most of us by now had lost the spirit to live and the hope ever to return home, but some of us still believed that we would be saved and that the war would end. I was then reminded of the German soldier I saw in Bodsanov who told me "Hitler is going to run until he breaks his head."

By now we must have cut down thousands upon thousands of trees, which were now lying by the water. We had to wait for the weather to warm to float the trees down the river. It was April but it was still very cold. I heard that two people in the camp died. I don't remember their names though. I do know that if we had had a doctor there, they surely would have been saved.

So now since the incident of me ratting on the salesman occurred, I was given the hardest job working in the forest because not only was the salesman fired but the two managers who were in charge of him were now getting back at me because they apparently got into big trouble as well with the headquarters. I saw him and he told me. "Just wait till headquarters comes again; I'll send you right to prison!" "Who told you to do this to me? I'm going to go to Vitestroy and complain against you." All I was thinking about now was that they know what it's like to work. I put 100% effort into my work.

May arrived and we got some white bread because of Yontif (Jewish holiday). Work became easier because we were now able to throw all the trees into the river. Sometimes the logs would get jammed so we would have to take long sticks and push them apart.

One day, there was a woman who ran away into the forest trying to escape. They called all of us to go search for her. Bears or other animals could eat her. We were ourselves afraid to go deep into the forest. They organized us into groups of 20, and to split up. This was on a Sunday, and we couldn't find her. When we returned we started to collect little red berries we called malines that we made into jam. There were so many malines, that when we stood up you couldn't see anything. So many branches and berries! I found my friend and the two of us tried to find our way back. I was under the assumption that my friend knew his way back to camp, and he thought that I knew where we were. By this time it was dusk and we were both scared. Suddenly I found footprints and realized which direction to go. We finally found ourselves in familiar territory and saw the lights to our barracks. All I kept thinking was thank God I found the footsteps or we would still have been lost!

It was now a month past May, and the days got longer and warmer. Our work became routine again for the next three months, as now it was daytime for 23 hours. The horses were working just at night because of the flies again. We were still wearing our winter gear yet the black flies and mosquitoes would still bite us through our clothing. Going to the bathroom wasn't fun either because as you exposed your bottom the flies would have a field day biting your exposed bottom! We had to swat them away with branches. In fact I contracted malaria from being bitten by a mosquito.

I received a letter from home saying that the Germans took my sister Goldie and brother to the Ghetto, and then to the crematorium. So now most of us here were just lone survivors. The world kept quiet while millions of Jews were being massacred. A war broke out, and Germany attacked Russia. This was the 21st of June around 4:00 pm, 1941. Hitler continued to conquer the whole world. The whole army surrendered to Hitler, and a big panic started. The radio was announcing propaganda, saying that the Russians will beat the Germans and not to start a panic. Here in camp I knew that Hitler didn't declare war, he just attacked Russia without warning after promising that he wouldn't. America and England asked the Russians for help and to let out all their Polish citizens who were working in the camps. They told us that we should be ready and packed to be moved to another camp about six km away. This new camp was closer to the city. So we packed up the few things that we had prepared for the move.

Before leaving we were given citizenship documents again and coupons for food. We didn't know what all this was for or where we were going so I decided to ask someone in charge. I asked the Ukrainian student whom I met earlier on in the year and he said that we were free to travel wherever we wished, as long as it was within 1000km radius. So I asked him, "Where is the best place to go?" He responded. "The best place is KavKas." This is where the Black Sea is. Another option was Derbent, in the Province of Dagestan where there are a lot of grapes; it's warm and had a thriving Jewish population near the city of Baku and Makhachkala. So we all signed up to go there.

Next day we were all on our way to Vitestroy, and I being alone at that moment encountered three men but I wasn't afraid of them. They wanted to pick a fight, but no one wanted to fight. I managed to avoid the situation, and arrived at the place to register. We had to register to go and were afraid that we were never going to be free. People kept telling us that we were going to die there. We were in a line like soldiers and on the way we took some rests. We asked people for water, and they gave us some. Some gave us food. We met good-hearted people. We finally got to the city and we had tickets so I left my father to mind the packages. This was near a boat. Menacher and I went into the city and waited in line for a store. Everybody was pushing his or her way, so I started to push my way in until I found myself in the store. All the pushing was for green tomatoes. I thought they were apples. I got some tomatoes and went back out and met some Polish soldiers. I asked one of them where he was going and where we could find tickets for the boat. He told us to go to the Rysbokolm. I again asked where that was, and he gave me directions.

With directions in hand, I ran back to Menacher and my father and all three of us walked the short distance to get our tickets. We were asked if we were prisoners and we said yes. I had my Polish papers with me which I showed them. With that he issued our tickets. We were so happy that we ran, not walked, to the boat. We were afraid that we would miss the boat. We gave the captain the tickets and then met a woman who asked us where our baggage was. I answered looking at my brother and father. "They are my baggage!" We got on the boat and realized that all the people were women and children because all the husbands were in the army at the front. I went to the other people from the camp and asked them their address and then told them how to get the tickets as we did. "Tell them that you are prisoners. If you don't bring the tickets then you are going to miss the boat." I knew there was another boat leaving the next day, so I told them that if they miss this boat they'd be another one the next day.

Suddenly the boat started to move on the Vela Morski Canal and we moved towards the Volga. We came to Rybinsk and the boat went into a lock because the Volga was lower. Once through the lock the view of the Volga was beautiful. We saw cities and countryside. Food was plenty on the boat. There were a few people from the camp who jumped over the fence and came on the boat. I realized then that I could have brought over about nine more people with the amount of room and food that was on the boat. In passing we would hear bad news from the front line that didn't make us feel good.

We came to Saratov, which was not far from Moscow, then to Angurus. We continued with the boat and came to Stalingrad, and a soldier came up to us and approached my brother. He demanded his sleeping quarters since he was a soldier and deserved a good place to sleep. I heard what was going on and approached the soldier and basically told him that we were just on our way to enter the army and we had just as many rights to have our own sleeping quarters, but we were willing to compromise and share the bed. I kept thinking to myself, "What is this soldier doing here?" He wasn't at the front or anywhere else? He must be a German spy. So I went to the office to tell them about the solder just to be on the safe side. I noticed there were Russian women sitting in the office. I told them that there were some Jews back there who didn't want to give a Russian soldier a place to sleep. The women told me that they knew that he was a German spy since he couldn't produce Russian documents and when they reach Stalingrad he would be arrested.

We got to the port, and the soldier disappeared. We looked everywhere and couldn't find him. Later we came to Astrakhan, and all the passengers were ordered to get out. We didn't know where to go. So we ended up sleeping outside in the streets. To catch another boat we had to wait three days. But the next boat was to be an ocean liner. Not the heap we were on. With this boat we went to Makhachkala.

In the meantime I was working with my brother at the port unloading the flour and other goods to make some money. Every bag was 50 kilos. My father was left behind to watch our stuff. At that time he made friends with a very nice man who was a Jew, and they spoke for a while. My father gave him something to eat. After some time, my father had to go to the bathroom so he asked his new friend to mind his things, but when he returned the man and all our belongings were gone. I had ten kilograms of bread and $20 American dollars. We never found him or the stuff. Anyways, the boat finally arrived and we left within three days, then we came to Makhachkala.

When we got to Makhachkala, I found my two best friends around the port. They gave me their address where they lived because I didn't have time to see them now. The train that we had to catch to Derbent was to leave soon. We had to take a train there because Derbent didn't have a port. Makhachkala had a port, so the train went to Baku, since it had a port. It was called in Russian DŠgustŠnskeya Republica, the Dagestan Republic. We all arrived in Derbent, about 400 Jews, and we were asked what kind of skills we had so we could find work. I told them that I was a tailor, and immediately I already had work. I was to make army hats. There were about ten other people working in this establishment and they were mostly Polish Jews. When I started to work on the hats (we called them Pilotkas), I realized that the cut wasn't good. When the hats were sewn together it created a horrible crease in the front. So I called the manager and explained the problem that the cut was too long, and it caused pleats. I decided to re-cut it myself and sew it, and the result was perfect. No pleats. The manager saw what I had done and was very happy, and in turn made me a "Braker." The cut and organization going into the hats was organized so poorly that only a few hats were being produced a day. With the new cut, hundreds could be made. In addition I reorganized the staff so that each did a certain job, to make production quicker and more efficient. I then divided the team into sections, so that one person didn't have the brunt of the job. Then once everybody had done his or her job, the finisher could put everything together. We needed a presser but nobody wanted the job, so I had to go to the manager to inform him that I would volunteer for the job. It was a heavy job, but it didn't bother me. I was young and strong, not like today, weak with Parkinson's. My job now entailed to press and to make packages. Sometimes though I noticed while packing the items that some of them did not come out nice. Some yes, and some no. So I started to fix them and in return got 400 rubles! I normally received pay for each piece I worked on which came out to 20 Russian kopeks and I pressed 200 pieces a day. I made 1400 rubles a month. Eventually, the production expanded. This went on for four weeks, until the job with the hats was done. The manager then called us. We were now going to make undergarments for the army. This wasn't for me though. I couldn't make money from this. It was a woman's work. We had so much free time doing nothing.

KavKas was such a beautiful city, as it is by the Caspian Sea. There were mountains that overlooked the sea. The best fruits and vegetables grew there. We were there in August, just in time for grape season. We went to a grape plantation. In this kolchoz, there were many Jews that lived there, especially in the hills, on the other sides, where the Russian Turks lived. They also worked in this kolchoz. There were about 18,000 Georgian Jews, they had their own shoichet and synagogue. I was amazed to find so many books inside the shul; books from Warsaw, Vienna. They were very good people and they had their own language, although it was hard to understand what they were saying. It was like an archaic form of Hebrew. They didn't speak Russian either. They were like the Turks, they bought their wives even before she is born. The buyer has to pay the father, like a dowry. The boy is 13 years old when he buys the wife. When the girl reaches 13 years of age, and the boy is 26, they then marry.

I can remember praying to God, begging to emigrate to Israel and when we get there we are going to kiss the earth. If we were allowed to leave, we would even walk to Israel if we had to. We would run.

When we arrived at the kolchoz, we were told that everything belongs to the government and we were workers. They asked us what kind of Jews we are. We told them Ashkenazi. So they let us in and they showed us how to make wine. They used their feet! They stepped on the grapes with their bare feet and let the juices come out. There were plenty of grapes and enough people to work them. The government put most of the young people into the army. So a lot of grapes were stolen. Workers were allowed to eat as many grapes as they wanted. There was wine, pita bread and herring. In one week we gained three kilos!

September 1941

We left the kolchoz and returned to the train station where we were supposed to report to work. The same day I got myself a job. I was going to work in a restaurant, and Menacher in a bakery. These were the best job to have, working in the food industry. You have what to eat. We also found a house to live in. I was hired to mince meat; I found out later that the job I was given was actually maintained by two women who couldn't handle it. It wasn't like today where the machines are electric. I had to churn the handle myself which was very hard to do. It would take me hours.

We kept hearing stories about the Germans' whereabouts, and this time we heard that they were moving further out, further out into Russia, and they weren't far from Moscow and Leningrad. I remembered that soldier that I encountered back in Bodsanov who told me to get the hell out of there, and that Hitler would not stop until he breaks his neck. I now believe that soldier whole-heartedly. All the Russian radios announced that the Germans are moving ahead and that the war was going to be on our side. The Russians prepared a defense strategy against the Germans not to allow them into Moscow in case of a counter attack. It has never been told in history books that anyone has conquered Moscow. Even Napoleon was chased out! At the same time General Anders mobilized a Polish Army in which he made trouble for Jewish soldiers. The general was an anti-Semite. I wanted to enlist in this army, but now that I heard that he was an anti-Semite, making trouble for the Jewish soldiers, I had second thoughts.

In the meantime, I continued working; I had a place to sleep and enough food to live by. I saw a lot of people who didn't have any of these things.

Now, where I was working there was a very good-looking girl. She wasn't Jewish, in fact she looked Ukrainian. I took her home everyday, and then politely said good-by. One day I noticed that she made a special dinner for me, of course all my favourite foods. She insisted that I call my father to come and join us to eat. My father came with a pouch and she put in so much food that we had food for two weeks. My walking her home continued for two weeks until one day she said to me "Abracha, you take me home every time to my door, are you afraid to come inside?" So I said to her, that I was not afraid. With that, when we got to her front door I entered into what had to be the smallest house I have every seen. Once we were inside, she prepared a small table with the best foods that would be enough for eight people. There was caviar, and the best fish, even wine. It was understandable that I was hungry, so I sat down and started eating and drinking. While we were drinking, we started joking about Hitler wishing that he would drop dead, and that the war should be on the Russian side. We just kept drinking and eating until 11:00 pm. I became very tired, and without notice, the girl started kissing me, and pulled me into bed with her. She then told me that since the first day she met me, she fell in love with me. I stayed the night with her until seven am. When I got home my father was worried about me and asked why I didn't come home. It wasn't like today where I could have just called him up by telephone. Most people didn't have phones back then. I told my father not to worry, and not to expect me home the next night as well!

I promised my father that I would not marry her, but a Jewish girl when the time was right. My brother was working in the same cafeteria which was called "Cooprativ Inyamin Bojanavo." Bojanov was a marshal and the cafeteria was named after him. My brother was working one week at night, and one week during the day. From working at the restaurant he learned to make cutlets (hamburgers) Everyday, I was making over a thousand hamburgers. There were lines of people waiting for the hamburgers. I was working very hard in the restaurant, and the people who were eating the hamburgers were eating it like cake. They were cheap and wanted as many as they could get their hands on. If only they knew that I put more bread than meat into the hamburger.

The manager whose name was Courdjyencka was Ukrainian and another anti-Semite. One time I overheard him say in Russian that he was going to throw out all the Jews from his work.

Time went by in Derbent, which we considered to be a haven as not far from us bloodshed was occurring. The Russian army was fighting very hard. The Americans and the British were offering their help to the Russians by sending canned food for the army. This was in the month of November, and Derbent was still warm. We went into the ocean to swim, since the region is warm all year round; the ocean was warm, but very salty since it was near Baku. That's where most of the world gets its salt from. If a little water went into the eye, it burned! You had to be very careful not to allow salt into the eye. The beaches were also filled with many beautiful girls. The cutest girls wore the Arniankas. Arniankas are what Armenian girls from Armenia and Tajikistan wore.

January 1942

It was around this time that we heard on the radio that the Germans were chased away from Moscow and Leningrad and that they were retreating. Russian soldiers hid deep in the forest and made a lot of trouble for the Germans. It was January 1942 and we were having a very hard winter, and once again the Germans were near Stalingrad. A lot of new Russian soldiers came by our town, which was highly unusual. We usually get many different nationalities. We noticed that the clientele was changing, so we reorganized ourselves at the restaurant. We saw that the Turks are going with long kinjals (knives). So the Russians came in and straightened out the city, and they saw that the Turks were going around with knives. In Russia you're not allowed to carry any kind of weapon or ammunition. The Russians didn't even ask the Turks why they were carrying around a knife. They just approached them and took it away from them, without questions.

Once again, the Germans were attempting to take over Stalingrad but the Russians were beating them. They sent the strongest army, and broke through. In Derbent life was going on as normal, and we believed that people in America, England, Canada and Australia, would not allow the Germans to conquer Russia. America started organizing the second front. President Eisenhower was in charge at that time. I was still working at the restaurant and my brother at the bakery, and there was no shortage of food.

One day we heard some very bad news from the Polish Jews. We heard that the Polish Jews were being killed, but we didn't believe it because we had no newspaper or radio, it was just hearsay. It was true that the Poles, the Ukrainians, and Latvians were worse than the Germans. They squealed on us Jews. There were some good people with us, but there were so few that you could count them on one hand.

It was now March and the fishing season. You could always see fisherman in the sea catching lots of fish using nets, so what a lot of people would do is they would walk by the nets and whenever a fish would jump they would take it for themselves. It didn't seem to really matter because of the amount of fish available. The fisherman would then quickly tie the nets to prevent the fish from falling out, and then they would lie in the sand until they became dry. This was on land. There were also boats that would go out and catch fish and they were like floating factories. They would catch the fish, wash them, skin them, even can them. This was easier than to bring them in, and then transport them. All the waste would just go back into the ocean.

Around this time, my brother got sick with yellow fever. He was in the hospital for a few days, but he eventually recuperated. My father isn't the type of person who could just sit down and do nothing so in the meantime he would go to the market and sell stuff with the Gorski Jews (Georgians). The Gorski Jews had their own language. It was like a singing language, yet the younger generation spoke a good Russian while the older ones didn't talk much Russian.

The restaurant eventually was turned into an army style cafeteria for the soldiers who were mostly pilots. The restaurant served them the best food. There was one patron who came to eat there who was a commandant from the city, who I found out was part of the KGB. He would eat there everyday. The kitchen would make for them the best foods to eat, the best meats, the best of everything. The caterer would talk with the commandant. He used to tell him what kind of meals to make for the soldiers. You see, the commandant could send a povieska (a draft letter), forcing them into the army. If they refused, then they would be arrested. I was still staying with the Ukrainian woman who took very good care of me like a king, and even loved me. I have to admit, that she was my first. I've been out with many girls, and I've loved quite a few, but I never touched them. I used to joke around with them but I never went to bed with them. I was afraid that if I went to bed with them, they would get pregnant. So I made up my mind that until the war ends, not to get involved or married.

Back at the restaurant, the manager who was in charge of everything was best friends with the commandant. His name was Vesingnynka Vwasia. They sent him three Povieskas. Most of the male workers in the restaurant were already drafted. On that particular day when I got home, I received my own draft papers for working behind the front which means building trenches for soldiers. You see, I wasn't allowed to go into the army directly because we were Polish citizens, and not Russian citizens. So I went to a lawyer and explained that I was a Polish Jew and that I refused to join the army, so the lawyer said that he could do nothing. His name in fact was Dennik Sadofski. There was a another lawyer whose name was Greifenburg who said, referring to me, "There's not going to be a hole in the sky, when Abram Zylbering is going to go into the army."

I decided not to take any help from anyone, but to handle the situation on my own. I marched down to the office where I was supposed to report myself with papers in hand. I had my passport which proved that I was a Polish citizen. The man in the office took my passport and told me to come again tomorrow and they will send me to the second front near Stalingrad. I came the next day, but when I met with the man, the first thing I did was open up my shirt and said, "You'll shoot me and I won't go." I knew if I protested, they couldn't do a thing to me because of the fact that I was a Polish citizen. I then said to them, "If you want to send me, send me to the Polish army; I'll go as a civilian." I continued, "I'm young, and I want to fight, not to dig holes. I want to fight against Hitler, but in Troop Batalon, just old people are going, not the young." I was 22 at this time, and if I go I want to fight like a man, a soldier. I demanded my passport back and then told them I knew who told them to draft me. His name was Karbenkis, and he wanted to throw out all the Jews from this restaurant, that's why he did this.

The Russians had no choice in the draft, but I did. The commandant was sure that I would have done as I was told, and I told him that I wasn't afraid to stand up for myself. While all this was going on some Russians were standing by watching us in amazement as to what would happen with me defying the commandant; at that moment all of them started to draw crosses on themselves copying what I had done. They thought that I would have been shot by the way I was acting, almost threatening to be shot. Once again I demanded from the secretary my passport and papers back, and she did!

Once I got my belongings back, I went to work, but when I got there, all the girls told me that the manager fired me! The Ukrainian girl came up to me and said not to worry about anything. She still works there and will keep giving me food and shelter. Everyone later found out just what I had done, and told me that I had risked my life the way I acted. They were surprised by the fact that they knew me as a quiet man, and the day I decide to stand up for myself is when I break the law.

I told the manager that I would go to the main office in Makhachkala and file a complaint against him and all the anti-Semites in Derbent and in addition how it wasn't right that the manager of the hotel was so buddy buddy with the army commandant.

So I left for Makhachkala and met with someone named Byjonyva at the head office and told him everything. He told me that now was not the time to punish them because of wartime. He said there would come a time when they will have their share. I went back home that same day, and found my father and brother and told them what happened.

Life continued as normal and I decided that I wanted to go back into the tailoring business in the factory where I had worked before. They threw me out also because I was now known to be a traitor. I was still with the Ukrainian girl, and I told her what had happened and how all the jobs are throwing out all the Jews, and she pitied me. She tried to cheer me up by saying things like, "Don't worry, I'll take of you, you'll go to the ocean every day, I'll bring you everything you want at the restaurant." My brother was still working at the bakery, but couldn't get another job. Since she loved me, she would bring food not only for my brother but also my father and me. She really loved the Jewish people. She would pass us our food by the back door, which of course was not allowed.

At the same time at the Stalingrad front, we heard that they were fighting very hard and that all the Polish Jews were told to leave Derbent because it was only 1000 km from the front. Everybody got ready to leave for the train station. We started collecting money to rent passenger cars. We were about 300 Polish Jews. The next day we left for Baku. There were a lot of people waiting to cross the Caspian Sea to go to a city named Krasnovodsk (now named Turkmenbachi). Once again we had to collect money from people to get us on the boat. There were thousands upon thousands of people waiting. They were sleeping outside and everywhere. When the boat arrived, they allowed the woman and children on first, then officers from the navy, then us.

We were on the deck and at night it was very cold to sleep. We covered ourselves with what we had. We were close to the anchor and without warning it just dropped into the ocean! We got scared! We thought maybe a bomb went off! Mud from the ocean splattered all over the deck, which caused a big panic amongst the people because they thought maybe it was sabotage. The ship's captain calmed us down and said that everything was under control. They began to bring up the anchor. Apparently it just fell by accident. In the morning we came to Krosnovodsk, where thousands upon thousands of people were sleeping on the streets or looking for family and friends. All of a sudden I saw two women; one was from Vishegrov, her name was Ita and the second was her cousin, who was sick with malaria. She told me she was going to a landsman. We belonged to the same organization and we were good friends.

Both women looked in very bad shape, and I pitied them so I sat with them in the streets for three days and three nights. I was heading for the same city as them so I stayed with them. We started collecting more money from people so I could buy them two tickets, so we could all travel together. We finally collected the money and we piled into the wagons and everybody had their own seat. I took the two women with me, but when we got on board the train, the conductor didn't want to let the women in because Ita's friend was sick with malaria. She was contagious. So I told the conductor that I was going to give up our seats for the women and I'll sleep on the roof. So that's what we did at the end. My father stayed in the wagon.

We came to the province of Tajikistan, and the city of Samarkand. A lot of people got off at Samarkand. We stayed on as we were continuing on to Kanibadam. We had an address from my father's friend Binam Letterman who was also with Daniel Baumgart, Letterman's brother-in-law Itzik Levy, and a brother of Daniel's because Ita was married to one of the Baumgarts. We got to the station, which was called Astatifskaya Ves Lavaya station and almost immediately we were supposed to leave everything on the train, and to all take a shower to be disinfected. We all had lice. The shower helped get rid of the lice but it didn't help my clothes. Myself along with several others we were wearing leather pants and jackets when we showered, and our clothes began to shrink! My jacket got so small as if for a child and I didn't have other clothes to wear! I had to walk around without pants.

Thank goodness it wasn't cold out; it was summer and nice out. We weren't far from Tashkent, which is in Central Asia. We had a lot of good food with us, and in four hours traveling we came to Kanibadam, and I started running to Yanni's house to tell him the good news that his wife Ita was here. I was greeted with unpleasant news. I found out that he left to Akchtavinsk! He didn't want to see her, and left two days earlier. His brother, who was telling me all this, also said that he told him to say that he got a job, but that wasn't true. I didn't ask him why. When Ita found out, she left immediately with her cousin. They had good friends not far away and a place to stay and possibly work.

We had enough to eat because the Ukrainian woman gave us a huge care package when we left. We had enough for six months. She wanted to come with me, but I told her that I was going to come for her later. Just now it was wartime, and at this time, it was spreading even more like a cancer. We kept hearing that the soldiers were fighting very hard at Stalingrad. We had our biggest loss there.