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Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998

Supposed to rescue you.

Yeah, right. So in that village were, were some Jews that werenot affiliated with partisans, that were hiding on their own. So that, that,that farmer knew about them. So he went—he saw that nobody's claiminghim—me. So he went to the Jews and he said, "Listen, I have one of own.Why don't you come and get her? I mean, they threw her into my house. Whatam I going to do with her?" I was lying on the oven and I was singing allkinds of songs. Can you imagine how my brain was working? If I was in sucha danger, how could I sing songs? But my brain wasn't working. I didn't know.I was completely confused.

Do you think you went a little mad?

Pardon?

You think you went a little mad. . .

Yeah, right. Anyway, so, so they said—they came. They didcome, but they didn't walk in the house. Through the window they spoke tome. And they saw that I am—I looked sick. So they said—they askedme questions. I wasn't—I didn't act like a crazy person. I told themthat I have a father and a sister and a brother and we belong to the Kovpaks.But I said—I don't know what happened to me. I, I couldn't—my comprehensionwas completely—I didn't know what's going on. So they said—so theyum, took it that I am—because I wasn't all there. So they said to him,"Listen, you keep her as long as you can and we'll bring you some meat." Sothey did. The next day they brought him some meat. That was very scarce, youknow, you couldn't, you couldn't get any meat. And about a day later, thelittle boy comes running to the house and he says, "Dad, the Germans are inthe village." So the first thing he said, "Get her out of here," you know,because I am Jewish. So he took me and he told him—he told the littleboy to take me to the house where the Jews are. So I came in and they weresitting all dressed up. It's like—and they explained to me, you know,that the Germans are going to enter the village and we have to escape. We'regoing to escape into the forest. Are you going to come along? Are you goingto come with us? I said, "Yes, I will." And that night about—they gaveme something to eat, but they wouldn't come near me. And um, um, they gaveme something to eat and a couple hours later, they were alerted that the Germansare in the village. And they started running and they said, "Come on." I said,"No, I'm not going. I'm cold and I'm not going nowhere." And they left. AndI was uh, I was—again, I was left by myself in a house. And I couldn'tmake out what's going on here. So where are the partisans and where are theGermans? Anyway uh, that night, that night they did an awful lot of puttingmines on the road, the partisans, the local partisans. And uh, and there wasa, a group that had to leave that particular area because they were also indanger of being um, attacked by the Germans. So they came into the house,there was a whole group of them. And I was lying there. And there was a Jewishgirl. She came up to me and she spoke to me in Jewish and she asked me questions.And I just answered them. And I said, "You are partisans, how about takingme along?" So I remember her saying to, to the other people, "She's a verysick person." And that was it. They stayed until about um, um, uh, daybreakand they left. And I am by myself. I stayed in the house by myself. And bythe way, the population of the village also ran away into the forest becausethey were afraid that the Germans will kill them because they were assistingpartisans. They were not assisting partisans out of goodwill. The partisanswere in the area and they had to comply with their orders. So they escapedinto the forest too. It was a very small village, maybe of 200 population.