Maurice Chandler - October 3, 1993
Being Separated from Brother
Anyway uh, so we spent that whole summer there in the village and towards the uh, fall they told us, you know, we heard all summer that Mrs. Berman, you know, Myra Berman--her maiden name was Rothstein, you know, she was the daughter--she sort of--she knew my brother. She was his age and she took a fancy to him, you know, so they took an extra interest in both of us, you know, It was--I could understand it. I was young, and so on but, she liked him very much. So, they looked after us because she had parents. She had a brother. Her brother was sort of like a Jewish policeman, you know, from the Judenrat. They had little Judenrats maybe. I don't know how the Judenrat came about. It was--but he was--he had a hat, and with that hat, it gave him privileges, you know, like, he knew uh, what was going to happen and what's coming. You know, he always said that, "If something happens, we will protect you. We'll uh, we'll be with you," and so, anyway...
Was there a railroad there in that town?
No.
No railroad.
There was no railroad.
And how long did the parcels keep going out before you realized they weren't getting there?
Probably a whole summer--the whole summer of 1941.
And then...
I think I lost touch with them early in '42. I lost uh, touch with them.
But, then your mail came back?
Nothing was coming back. So, the whole '41 we were in touch. So, that su...uh, fall of '41, you know, I remember her brother came and he said, "You know, it looks like all Jews are going to have to leave, you know, this village. They're moving everybody out," so, there they moved to another village closer to a city called Vengrov. And my brother--they were going to keep my brother with them--the Rothsteins--and I went on to Grębków and found a job with another farmer.
A new experience.
Yeah. And I remember the winter of '41--I remember one morning--it was like five o'clock in the morning--there was a tremendous frost. That was a very, very terrible winter, you know, that famous winter where everybody froze--the German army froze in, in uh, Russia?
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