Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Abraham Asner - October 10, 1982

Ambushes

In one time, I think it was in 1943, in 1943, it was in the woods and it was a little town by the name of Zabalogi. Was uh, the Germans made, made a center to pick up some eggs and like uh, dairy, and uh, milk. And they used to make butter from there. We decided to go blast it, the whole thing, you know. And it was down there uh, uh, how do you call it? A bunker. And it was standing a machine gun with some Germans. And at night we decided to go to, to blast that, that, destroy the whole thing because it's taking away from the people eggs and butter and everything. Uh, to go the first down there was one fellow from that little town by the name of Yossel Ivetsky. And I was by my... uh, myself. We got wounded first. And one girl, a White Russian girl, was uh, ??? Which we going first and we both come into that uh, dairy. And the rest of them was a little bit farther. And we put a piece of dynamite and blow out the door, the whole door, everything. When we blow out the door, then they start to shoot the Germans and us and started uh, rackets. It was uh, one uh, what uh, she's there, the machine gun, a hand machine gun by the name of uh, Yitzchak Mansky. And he start to shoot in them with that machine gun. Anyway we took the, we took away everything what we can. The rest we threw it out. We uh, spilled this, the cream on everything on the floor. And we was going back with a, took a horse and buggy and was going back. And then it was uh, going first a patrol. And they let through the patrol, our patrol. And I was go... and the patrol come to me and he said to me, "You going are not on patrol, you go sit down on the wagon." I sit on the wagon and the patrol went through. All of a sudden, some kind of shooting and I hear that it was carrying some uh, uh... And that Mansky was with me too on, on the wagon. They shot the horse right away and we jump from the wagon and I feel like I get hit with something, you know. And Mansky start to uh, scream I got shot. And one fellow by the name of ??? uh, ??? he got the machine from me. And they was chasing us, they was running, and I said, "Fellows don't run fast because I'm hurt in uh, in my leg. I'm wounded. I don't know. Maybe the blood's going to come down then I'll get weak." And anyway, they we went through maybe about a couple kilometers in another place. Another ambush on us. And then we went through, make another six or seven kilometers to, we got to cut through a highway, a third ambush on, on us. Finally we went all around far away, I don't know. When we come in we cut through the highway, maybe it was about fifty kilometers from that place.


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