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Jack Gun - August 12, 1999

The bunker. What caused, what caused you to...

Okay. To leave the bunker, okay. Uh, this Mr. Yerushka that was our saint, he went hunting one day. And, if I'm not mistaken, he was-there was a German Kommissar that used to come into the villages there. And with this German Kommissar, he went hunting. I don't know, deer or whatever, some kind of a, a... And that German Kommissar noticed something in the field. And he told Yerushka, he says, "What's going-this looks like something that somebody dug or something. And uh, Mr. Yerushka, "Nah," he says, "You're, you're dreaming." He said, "that's nothing." And he took him away from there. And that night, I believe, when we came there to his house, he told us, he says, "Hey guys," he says, "your bunker is no more safe haven." And he told us the story what happened. And he says, "If he noticed it, I don't know if he'll come back or not. But if he noticed it," he says, "somebody else might notice it also." He says, "I don't want you there no more."

Could you hear anything from out?

Nothing.

You couldn't hear anything either.

No, you mean being in a bunker?

Right.

Nothing. Couldn't see nothing, couldn't hear nothing.

Alright, so he's advising you to get out.

He advised us to go out. So this was-I don't know when, maybe February. I really don't-it was still plenty of winter. So uh, so this gentleman that was with us, with the little girl, he had also another band that used to-he used to go to get food that used to be his savior actually. Another Yerushka. But not, not his-didn't have the same nature of a man. But he used to help him out, I guess. He gave him an awful lot of stuff also before the Germans came in. So this gentleman said, "Let me talk to my friend. Maybe he will keep us." And he talked to him and he told him that my brother has a lot of goods and he will pay him. And we told it to Yerushka and Yerushka says, "Yeah, I will take care of him as long as he keeps you." So we went into this farmer and he kept the four of us. In the barn, in the house at time-at night. And we were there for a few month...I don't know, I shouldn't say a few months. Not too long. Now what this gentleman wanted to do. He under...he found out that we have a lot of goods at Yerushka's. So everyday he wanted, "Hey, I want you to go and bring me material for a suit." And so on and so forth, where it got to the point where my brother noticed that he's strictly trying to get everything at what he can. He doesn't want to hold us, he just wants our stuff. So my brother decided one day, he, he told him, he says, "I'm going to get something," or whatever and we left. We didn't say goodbye to him. And abandoned the guy and we came to Yerushka and told him the story. We told him, he says, "Look, this man is strictly, he wants to suck out whatever he can from us."

What was the other man's name, by the way?

Uh?

The man and his daughter.

His name was uh, Berel Polapon. He, I believe he came to Israel after...

He survived?

Yeah.

With his daughter?

Yeah.