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Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998

Why don't you tell me about that.

I'll tell you how we escaped from the ghetto. When, when theday came and they said that we have to report to the cent. . . tomorrow, wehave to report to the center of the city. And when—where I was at workat that bridge, they said to us that you don't have to come to work tomorrow.And that work was being conducted in three shifts. So the shift—we finishedat four o'clock in the afternoon. And the shift after us didn't come in anymore.So we knew it's the end. Now, how do explai... how can you live throughsomething like this, knowing that tomorrow you're going to be killed?

You had no doubt this was going to happen?

Well, I'll tell you, there's always—you know, if you, ifyou face something bad, you're in denial, you try to deny it. What—when,when, when the Germans came in, after they uh, they dismissed the twenty-twohostages that I talked about, they took out the whole population of the, theghetto wasn't established yet, they took them out to the center of the townand they counted the whole population. You know why they did it? They alsodid it to show that they know co. . . that they have a count, that you cannotescape, that you cannot run away, because if you will do that, they will—theywill do harm to the rest. So it's like everybody was, was uh, um. . .

Registered?

Right. Everybody was registered. But I was responsible, thatI was looking for, the responsibility laid on, they laid the responsibility—I'mresponsible for you. If I'll see to it that you shouldn't escape so nothingwill happen to us. That was their philosophy. So the next day when they toldus, it's also, it's denying. They told us that we have to—we don't, wedon't come to work, we have to report to the center of the city. So we thought—Idon't know, maybe our city will su. . . be saved. But of course, at one point,that's—it's—talking about not just scratching the surface, at onepoint they laid um, a—it was—they called it contributzia contribution,that the city of Dombrovitsa should supply the Germans with twenty-seven poundsof gold—the ghetto. Now, how do you get twenty-seven pounds of gold?If you're not going to get it, you're going to be killed. So every Jew was—startedquarreling with another, You give up whatever you have and you give up whateveryou—and they could—my mother gave up her wedding band. What golddid she have? Some people took out their teeth, their gold teeth. So whatgold, how much gold could they collect? You know, they, they—do you knowwhat a chairem is? If somebody—it's a, it's in the Jewish law, if youdo something bad, you'll be thrown into—it's ex-communication, you know,you'll be ex-communicated. They, they told our—the, the, the populationof the ghetto that if we will not—if you will not come up with the amountof gold that the Germans want, we're going to throw a chairem on the wholecity. In other words, if we will not fulfill it, we will perish. That's oursuperstition.

Who said that?

The rabbis.

The rabbis.

The rabbis, the leaders, the leaders of the ghetto.

The Judenrat?

And they—Yeah—not the Judenrat. That was from the rabbis.

The rabbinical.

And they took us—I went to the—and they took us intothe synagogue. They wouldn't let me in. I was too young toum, witness this.It's a, it's a very horrible ceremony. They light black candles. And it's,it's, it's a whole um, um, ritual that they do. So they didn't raise twenty-sevenkilograms of gold. They raised some gold and the rest of it they substitutedwith uh, with money. So when they told us—I'm connecting these two episodestogether, when they told us to report to the, to the center of the city, wethought it's maybe for counting, because actually, our city will probablybe saved. We delivered what the Germans wanted. Isn't it horrible? It's, it'sbeyond, beyond comprehension. It's unbelievable. So that's why the night—uh,yes—so we came home and we didn't live in our house. I was, I was tellingmy father, Maybe in uh, uh, maybe he should have built a shelter, maybe, maybesomewhere, somewhere to, to hide. But it wasn't our house, so we went to sleep.My father told us not to get undressed, to put on a couple of dresses andjust lay in the clothes. And at about midnight, there was a knock on our window.A neighbor came over. And he said to my father, "You know the ghetto is surrounded?And Jews are trying"—our city was uh, situated on one side was closeto the forest and the other side, as I told you before, was the river. Sohe said that everybody who wanted to escape was running into the forest andthere were already casualties, they are shooting. So he said to father, becausemy m. . . father had the knowledge of the villages that surround, "Maybe youhave another plan. Maybe we could run someplace else." So my and so my fathersaid, first let my father and my and my brother go, the males should go. Maybe,maybe they'll, they, they'll want to harm the males. So I decided I'm notgoing. I'm going to—how can I leave my mother with the two little girls?And—but we knew that it's, it's, it's a bad road ahead. But I, I wasstanding and watching and I see my sister is getting ready to go. I said,"You mean to tell me you're going?" She says, "Yes, I'm going." "You meanto tell me you're going to leave mother?" She didn't answer. So I thought,if she's going—she was like a—I looked up to her. She was my oldersister—I'm going too. And we left my mother and the two little girls.And we were going in the different direction to the, to the other side ofthe city where—not far from us where was the, the, the um, the gate andby the gate lived a man who was—he was the real liaison between the Germansand the Judenrat, because he was—he came from deep Poland and he knewthe German language very well. So my father knocked on his window. His namewas Obolski, Obolski. My father knocked on his window and he said to him,"Mr. Obolski, are you aware of it that uh, the ghetto is surrounded?" He said,"Oh, go back home. Don't worry. I'll, I'll, I'll negotiate tomorrow. I'll—tomorrow,I'll do something. I'll negotiate." So my father said, "Okay." We didn't—wewent back to the gate. We came to the gate, there were no guards. Why? Becausethat was in the direction of the river, they knew that nobody will, will dareto go in this direction. How can you cross the river? And the and the riverhad a bridge and the bridge was guarded by Germans. So we were going. Therewere seven of us. Four of us, my sister, my brother and my, my sister, mybrother, my father and I, four and the neighbor with two boys. So there wasseven of us. So we were walking where the street paralleled to the river,all the way going out of town. And we got out of the, the town and we camedown to the, down to the river and we and we spotted a little canoe. And wetook the canoe and in two shifts, we, we crossed the river. And we ran intoa village where my—the, the head of the village was a um, a um, customerof my father's and a good man. A good man, he was really. So my father—wecame and my father told him that the ghetto is surrounded and what's goingon. So he said, "Why don't you, why don't I put you up somewhere, not at myhouse"—because he was the head of the village and Germans were comingthere all the time.

He was a non-Jew?

A non-Jew, yes. This was a village of uh, strictly uh, gentiles.So he said, "Let me send my son to the city"—it was about ten kilometersor twelve kilometers—"and let's take a look what's going on. And if thereis nothing, so you'll go back and if there is something, okay." So he putus up in bushes not far from, from another river. And we were sitting. Towardsthe afternoon, we heard—that was—that village was—was betweenDombrovitsa and Sarny. In Sarny they had prepared already graves. And theybrought in the Jews from five cities, from five neighboring cities and that'swhere they killed them. So the trains were running. They took all the—theytook the um, inhabitants of the ghetto and marched them to the railroad andput them on trains. And the trains were running toward Sarny. So we heardtrains going and a lot of shooting was going on because some people were jumpingfrom the trains and they were shooting at them. So we knew that this is theend.