Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Abraham Asner - October 10, 1982

And some run away from there and they, and a little girl run away and they find her in the woods. And that leader took her and took care of her, that little girl. And that little girl when we brought them two people to our place, she was in our place. She was about ten or eight, ten, I don't know, something like that. She lives in Israel now. And uh, she was playing when they come uh, with them two people she went home to, to them, to that group maybe about a quarter of a kilometer from there. And she said to that leader and to the rest of them as, "Abe and Yankel brought two people, two strange people." She don't know nothing, that little girl. Fine, and we was tired--me and my brother--uh, all night working. And it was bad weather, rain, everything. It was in fall. And my brother was sitting uh, by the fire, was uh, drying up his feet and everything. And I was uh, tired. And I come in, it was uh, like a doghouse made from branches, and I lay down. And that leader comes in, into my brother, he said, "You brought in two people?" And he saw them. And uh, my brother said, "Yes." And he start to give hell my brother. And my brother don't answer him. And I was wondering why. And honest, you know, start to swear things like in Russian, mother and everything, you know. And to me ??? I said--I just laying down--I said to him, "My mother is not a mother, his mother." Anyway, we start to argue, me and that leader. He said, "I'm pretty good in the target." I'll say, "Don't think I'll make any mistakes," to him. It was close. And I was here, got my rifle loaded beside me. And we argued to death. If I would be alone, I was sure he would kill me, not this time, some other time, he would kill me. Or like we was four brothers, could be revenge, you know. And everybody want to leave. Then finally he walk away. He walk away. And he, he was like a communist, he organized a communist party in the, in the woods. Some used to be communists from before, they joined him. I never joined him because I never was a communist. And, and I was always what kind of opinion he have on account of me the way I was arguing with him.

I would say you're taking your life in your hands.

Yeah. I, I was and finally he was with the best of ??? against me, because I said... And I... We prepared some food for the winter, from 1941, '42, and I said, "Who needs you. The hell with you, who needs you. We know better the area than you and we prepared the food. We can take one third--there are four brothers and my wife at that time, it was a girl, I brought her. I'll give you the story after, the, the way that my wife came to, to me--we'll take our, one-third of the food." And said, "Who need you?" And they need us more than they need, they, we need them. Finally, that communist altered that party, they told me to go to apologize to him. I say, "No way. I'm not going to apologize to him. He's nothing. We living under the same rules, we're on the same rights. We are illegal by the Germans and I'm not going to apologize to him for, for nothing because I brought two people because when I know them I can trust them. And they themselves they been in the, in the, the communist party." Them, what they, we brought 'em. I said, "No way I'm going" And they start to encourage me to apologize to him. I said, "No way, the, the only that I can apologize, I can go from, from here. And I need, don't need him."