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Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998

Home? Your family?

The people that you know.

Yeah.

So I cross that area and there were no Jews, but there was agroup of farmers. They were organized. They had their horses and their buggies.They had their uh, uh, f. . . fur coats—I mean skin. . . sheepskin coats.They had hay. They had their pillows. They had, they had their food, driedfood, nevertheless food. And, and they were probably about, I would say, tenfamilies, with their children, with everybody. So I decided I'm going to tellthe truth. So they said, "Okay, listen, don't worry about it.You come." Theygave me something to eat. "And whatever will happen to us will happen to you."So I said, "Okay." They were uh, very nicely organized. They knew the area.They were the, they were the, they were the Polish swamp, swamps. They knewthe area, that if they'll go in into the thick of the swamps, the, the Germanswill not dare to get there. So they had scouts in all four directions. Andthey were watching in which directions the arm. . . the German army is going.Okay. So the next day, they started beating me up. They started beating meup. They started cursing me. They started telling me that I'm a spy, thatbecause of the Jews the war started. And, and I said to them, "You know what?If you want to kill me, I'm in your hands. But I'm not leaving this area.I'm staying with you." But we stayed ten days, no fire. They couldn't makea fire because, you know, smoke you can, you can feel from far or, or in the—duringthe night, you can see the fire. So I was sleeping on the—by the, bythe buggies. When I got up, I had so much snow on me that my feet froze completely.I couldn't stand up my legs. And after ten days, somehow the shooting started.While we were hiding, while we were sitting, the shooting was going on allover.

Were these partisans?

No, these were local people.

They were local.

Local population. So they decided, now that the shooting stopped,they're going to look into—they're going to see what's happening in theirhomes, you know. So they, they, they went to see. They found their homes burnedout. But in that village, they, the, the, uh, they had taken in a group ofpeople into the church. They gave them some candy, they should come into thechurch and then they took them outside and they lined them up and they shotthem. So they found a line of people lying dead. Among these dead were twowounded women that were not completely—that didn't uh, uh, that werenot completely killed. So they took the—these two women and they broughtthem into that forest. And they said to me, "You know what? Since you're notwell, why don't we put you in a, in a, in a hut, in some sort of a hut inthe forest and you'll take care—you'll be with these women and we'llbring you some food.And that's, that's how, that's how you'll be able to exist.We don't know what's going to happen." So I said, "Okay, fine." At that point,I couldn't walk anymore. So they brought me with these two women. One wasvery, was very heavily wounded. And that first night, she died. So they came,they came, they took her. They came to find out what's happening and theyfound out that she died, so they took her away. And they brought me some—alittle bit of soup. And I remained with the other woman. The other woman wasonly wounded in her leg. And she also thought that they—the Russiansare coming again to occupy there. So she said to me, "You know, my nephewwill find out where I am. And that—this is when I'll take you to my houseand you'll stay with me. You'll help me up—out in the farm, the farm."Fine. Maybe two days we stayed together. And her nephew came. The minute hestuck his head in she says, "Look at the dirty Jew. I don't need her." Rightaway, off the bat. He said, "Mom or Aunt," or whatever he called her. Yousaid to her—she says, "I don't want no part of her. It's because of themthat we're suffering like this."

Let me ask you a question. You said the other woman died.

Yes.

What did you feel when she died?

I was happy, because I, I thought maybe I'll inherit her, herblanket. But they wouldn't give it to me, either. I was surround. . . I wassurrounded with death. How did I feel? She was out of her misery. Do you know,at that point, I was hoping that I wouldn't get up the next morning, becauseI had terrible leg pains. I was praying to God, Why did you forsake me? Idon't want to live. I was hoping that—I was—I knew stories thatthey used to say some people froze in the woods. And I didn't freeze. I thoughtmaybe I'll freeze during the night.

You're still with this other woman, though.

Yes, I'm with her. Okay. He came and he claimed and he took heraway.

So now what, now you're alone?

Now I'm alone, yes. Okay. And I, I, I had uh, I stole some flourfrom the, from the caravan of people with whom I was and I put it in my pocket.I had matches. So I made myself a fire that was a, a little um, they dug alittle hole and there was some water. And the water was brown like coffee.But I, I uh, I found a broken little pot around there. So I took the coldwater and I mixed the flour and I, and I ate it. And and I was sitting therea day or so. And all of a sudden, a farmer passed by. And he looked in andhe and he said, "Oh, my God, you're here alone." He said, "You know, not farfrom you, from here, there are Jews that are hiding." I said, "Oh, my God,maybe you should tell them they should come and get me. I would be so happy.I, I, I don't want to be here but. . . " he said, "Okay, I'll do that. Butmeanwhile, not far from here there are burned out homes. Why don't you go?They come out and they, they take the potatoes and the vegetables from thecellar. You come out, try to come out to that house." I was practically crawlingon all my four and I crawled out to that house.

Your feet were still frozen.

Yes, my feet were still frozen. And uh, uh, I came out to thathouse. And the house was uh, burned. There was a cellar. There were potatoes,there were some beets there. And I uh, found two—a chicken—two chickens.They uh, drowned in the um, what do you call where they um, where they dig,where they dig water out in the, in the well. They, they drowned. They drownedin the well. I took them and I took a uh, uh schmata that I found, a pieceof rag and I put some potatoes under both chickens. And I found a pot. AndI crawled back to my bunker. And I came back and I, I uh, uh, cut up the chickens.And I had a pot and I cooked myself chicken soup. And I thought, well, itcan't be any—well, anyway, uh. . .

Did he bring the other—the Jews back?

The—anyways, he a. . . a. . . a. . . about—I wouldsay about a week passed by, nobody came. Finally, he uh, one time—atone point, he brought them. He brought them to my—to the bunker. Andthey were—they, they took me with them. They were about seven males,a father and two sons and another father and two sons, so six and anotherand another two. There were nine and I was the tenth one. So I stayed. I—thatwas already March. It started getting warmer outside. And there were an awfullot of cows and horses lying dead in the forest. So we used to go and cutpieces of meat and bring it into the hut. And uh, um, and, and. . .

Horsemeat too?

Horsemeat and cow meat and uh, potatoes. We, we got potatoesfrom the cellars from the burned out houses. And um, it started getting warmer.The, the farmers came back to their homes. And uh, uh, so when—in Apriland May, they started working in, in their fields. So we hired ourselves outjust for food. We used to go—that area was already uh, German-free. TheGermans wouldn't come into that area, although it was still under the Germanoccupation.