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Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998

So the partisans took care of you when you had typhus?

We took care of ourselves. Because if, if we would have had tobe transported to another village, I don't know if we could make it or theywould have—I don't know if they would even have transportation for us.You know the, the, the value of a person was nil. So one would go, there willbe one less person. But you, you know, I uh, uh, I was doing my private thingsright under me because I was sick. I couldn't get up. They through me outof the house. And I was lying in the snow for probably f. . . ten, fifteenminutes. And I, I could hardly get up. So who cared? They hardly bring me—broughtme a glass of water. It was my luck that my resilience was so strong. I madeit. I made through—some people died. And not old people, they were allyoung people. They died.

S. . . s. . . so they threw you out of the—was. . .

And then, then I came, by myself I came back into the house.Okay. And then, when my fever broke—oh, at a. . . about that time, myfather got—learned about that I am, that I am sick. So he came to seeme. He came with my sister. And he was standing there and he, he was crying.And I sort of like through a, a, a, daze and I started crying and I said,"Why did you abandon me? Look what's happening to me. I am dying here." Hesaid, "Yes, I know, but I'm helpless. I, I, I, I can only be here a few minutesand, and I had a good leader and he, he let me go for a few minutes. I toldhim that you were sick." So he stayed and looked at me and I looked at him.And he, he didn't even give me a kiss. I wouldn't kiss him because he wasafraid to catch the disease. And he left. And soon after, my fever broke andas my fever broke, uh, this was the time when they were still having—whenthey still had airplanes coming into the, to that uh, village. And uh, um,they, they took me to a house. And I, I came across a boy from my city, Irecognized his father. And his father told me that he's waiting, he's nextto be transported in a airplane to, to Russia because he froze his feet whilethey were, while they were in the, in the forest. So I said, "Oh, my God,maybe they'll take me too?" But who listened? Who, who? There was nobody totalk to. So they shaved my head and they sort of dis. . . disinfected my clothing.And they put me in a house. And uh, I stayed there maybe a day or so. Oh,my father came again to visit me with my sister. I never saw my brother anymore.And he said—so then I was already—my fever was gone. So we wentto this um, um, uh, officer and he begged him that he should, he should takecare of me and if I'll get better, he should tra. . . transfer me to his battalion.And he promised him. So he went, they went back with the hope that I'm gettingbetter and when everything will—I mean, when, when I'll get, when I'llrecuperate a little bit more, so they'll take me to their battalion. Anyway,that um, a, a day later they came—two soldiers came with rifles and theysaid to me, "You come. Come with us." And I said, "Where?" At that point,I already lost my working papers, so that I couldn't work. And I couldn't,I couldn't hear very well. So they said to me, "You know, this is war andyou're in the partisans. And we cannot afford to have sick people. You arealready immune to the sickness, so you have to go back and take care of somebodyelse." So they brought me to another house. And they brought a woman thatwas very sick. She was burning up with fever. And they had assigned a horseand buggy with a, with a driver, because she was a mistress of one of thebig officers. And in that house I stayed probably a week. Now, I uh, theyused to bring her food, but she couldn't eat. So I ate all the food that theybrought. And I, I, I, I could eat for five because I was, I was so weak. Butthat, that week, stay. . . staying in that house and I get caught up a littlebit. But I—still, I was sick. I was very sick. One night they knockedon the window and they said that we are being chased by the um, the, the Germans.The German Army caught up with us and we have to move. We have to go. So hestarted yelling, "Come on, let's get—let's dress the sick woman," hesaid. I said, "I can't." I couldn't move. My, my legs were hurting, I couldn'thear. I couldn't move. I was in terrible pain. So he started, he dressed herand he put her on the buggy and he ran to the main uh, um, doctor to complainthat I don't want to do anything and I don't want—and I said "I'm notgoing any where." I was terribly cold. So the, the leader from the battalioncame and everybody. And they said, "You know what you're—what's. What'sgoing to happen to you if you're going to stay? The Germans will catch youand they'll kill you." I said, "Okay, I"—at that point, my, my brainwasn't working anymore. Because if I—if it would have been working, Iwould have understood the circumstances, that here I am stay. . . here I am,I am remaining here by myself and the Germans were coming and I'm a Jewishgirl. They'll kill me for sure, if not them, then the population will killme. So they left. The group left. And I stayed. And I was left in the houseuh, in that area there was a local group and there was a girl from my hometownand she had seen me. So she, she found out that uh, one, one partisan girlwas left. They left her and they didn't take her with. The fact that I didn'twant to go, she didn't know. So she—they sent me a—another guy,a driver with a horse and buggy. And he came and he said, "Come on, we'regoing to chase, chase the group." It wasn't—there was only night, sothey could have gone maybe ten, fifteen kilometers. He had another girl withhim. And he took me on—in the buggy. And I don't know, he, he wantedto get rid of me. So he said, "Are you cold?" I said, "Oh, I am shivering."I was extremely cold. He said, "Okay, I'll tell you what, I'm going to letyou off in a, in a farmer's house and, and you stay there and you'll get warmand tomorrow or maybe later I'll come and get you." So he knocked on the doorand he said to the guy, Listen, I have a, a girl here, she's not well. Couldwe leave her here for a while? And please take care of her. But remember,she's a partisan and don't, don't, don't do anything bad to her, because we're—I'mgoing to come to claim her." Well, a day went by, two days went by and nobody'sthere. I found out later that after he left the village, uh, he, he droveabout five kilometers, the Germans caught up with him and they killed him,this guy with the girl, the one that uh, was supposed to. . .