Mala Weintraub Dorfman - September 15, 2005
Kozienice Deportation
Um, were people deported from Kozienice while you were there?
I... What happened to me was I had a appendix attack. And they took me to the hospital-not in where I was working there, not a hospital, out of the, of the ghetto-and they operated on me. And at night, this was the first day they operated on me, the same night, I heard 'em talk, the Jews are going to be evacuated from the city and whoever's going to be here in the hospital they're going to kill 'em. So, I had a nerve to get out of the hospital, whatever I had on, I had nothing on, just the, the... What do you call that, uh...
Hospital gown.
Hospital gown. And I knew when I walk to the left I'm going to go into the city, so I went to the right and I walked until I saw a big barn and I went in there and I lay down. I couldn't walk anymore and I lay down. The morning they brought the Jews into, for the camp, they took out ??? and they selected. And I went to the right. I couldn't believe it, that they took, took me to the right, not to the left. So, some friends of mine were there and so she gave me something to change right away.
So, you were part of the selection.
Yes, I was, yeah. After, after they evacuated the city. They brought a lot of people there and then they, to the left and right, left and right, and I went to the right. It was just... Why I went to the right, I don't know. I barely could walk.
This is the day after surgery.
That's right. And uh, we start working right away. After they took the... They left all the, everybody was evacuated. They took us to work and I started working in the ditches. Not... It was nothing. We, we were digging holes, that's all we were doing.
Just to work.
Just to work.
Did anybody help you...
Uh, we were not too long there, we were maybe there, I don't know, maybe four, five weeks. Then they took us to Skarzysko.
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