Samuel Biegun - February 15, 1983
Life After the War
To Berlin.
Like uh, so one night, they took us on trucks, you know, we went to Berlin and we felt free there.
You felt free in Berlin.
Yeah, because we went to those camps--refugee camps. And then we had American, you know, give us food and everything. So for the first time I couldn't--I had some, some white bread, I was so hungry I couldn't eat it. I had so many food, you know, I couldn't--I lost the appetite. Because when we went to the train from Russia to Poland, so every train--every station used to stop and had some boiled water and a little bit bread, you know. And I want to go about--you asked me about the Russian people. I was scared. The bread was so--it was in wintertime. So they uh, they had a loaf of bread and they cut it for us and they gave us too--shared with us.
When you were ready to leave Russia after the war, you had enough fare to get back--you had to pay a fair.
No, no, not after the war. They, they paid.
The Russian government let you go back.
Yes.
You say that as soon as you got into Poland you felt a difference.
Yes.
You knew that you were back in Poland.
Yes, like I was back in, in Nazi Germany. That's how it feel. They were always looking to kill the Jews.
Where did you, where did you stay then when, when you went back to Poland. You said were there for like six months.
Uh, I stayed--well, the parents were separate--they gave us apartments and the children were separate like a--they call it like a orphanage home--a home for the children. And we had a uh, well they were children, but they had the uh, older children watching us too and then the army had to watch us because there were incident that uh, some Polish uh, people, you know, came in and attacked.
Attacked who?
Well, they tried to, to you know, attack the uh, the homes.
What town was this?
Shchity. That's not--that's one of the town, there was every town like that.
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