Irving Altus - June 2, 1982
Jewish Refugees
So is that why your city had the German Jews coming there, because you were closer and the closer city.
Yes, could be, I really you know, we weren't too familiar. Because it's, again, they didn't know where to go. Where could they go.
Did they go to relatives or did they...
I don't remember. Maybe the, like the Joint or maybe the Jewish uh, Federation, like you got here. Whatever. Help.
Wife: Families got together to help people.
We used to bring everything anybody could to school. We brought, you know...
Wife: Clothe and food.
Clothes and food and money, whatever anybody had you know, to help the German Jews.
Despite the fact that you yourself...
Didn't have you know, much. But whatever we could.
Getting back to the, the war, when it broke out, how did you first hear about the, the war breaking out?
Uh, they were talking just a few days that something is going on. And we really didn't expect this should be that Friday. November the first?
Wife: September the first.
September the first.
Wife: My birthday.
Yeah, my wife's birthday.
The day before...
We did not expect so soon. But we did expect something.
Wife: We heard uh, airplanes flying over top.
That was Friday morning. We thought this is uh, the Poles...
Wife: It's not the war, it's just...
Our own aeroplanes...
Wife: ...our own or they're just...
...maneuvering.
Wife: Maneuvering, just preparing. We didn't realize that...
That's all. We couldn't realize that it's so fast and, and there is already a war.
You mentioned that no one--you knew what was happening in Germany...
Yes.
...of course. When you say that, you didn't know about any...
...killing.
...um, that they were killing Jews. Did you? No.
No, no, no, no. But you knew obviously from the German Jews who came back.
We knew yes, what was going on, yes.
Well, and then you say, but you couldn't do anything about it. Can you explain why, why you couldn't leave, why...
We were. I mean, from my town?
Let's say yeah, why?
What could we do? I'll tell you, we didn't had any leaders. There was no leadership. I can say that people like my parents and uncles and thing, there were no leaders. You see, the, the, the Jews forty, fifty years ago, when you hit 'em in the face on one cheek, they give you the other one. There was no leaders. We now know better, we realize that we could do better. Like for instance, when the Germans came in and they brought the Jewish uh, Federation or the, the Gemeinder you know, what it is and they were asking if we want to leave, do we want to go to Russia? They would supply trucks, whatever it's necessary. And they wouldn't do nothing, no harm to us, they let us go. Our rabbi...
Who said that?
The, the Germans.
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