Luba Elbaum - January 20, 1982
Outbreak of War
You were living then with your uncle when the war began, yes?
Yeah. I live with my uncle when the war began.
How did you hear about the war?
Huh?
How did you hear of the war?
Already everyday it was on the radio. We had already--we have radios already.
Okay.
There was radios...
Okay.
...and the radios and in the paper. Was everyday a Polish paper, you know, we know how to read Polish. It was a Polish paper. And then one day I remember after--before Yiddish Yontif Holidays--before Rosh Hashanah September start the war. In 1939, we hear big--we went also ???. Also, they call, the Pollakin--they call everybody out on the place.
Who did?
The Polish people.
The police?
Oh, Polish--the police.
Okay.
You know, like the Kommandatura how you call, the--like when they Kommunista to call everybody to come out--like here it would be a Lansing--everybody to come out.
The Governor...
The Governor...
...or the Mayor.
...came out--the Mayor. Everybody came out. The lot, lot came out and they were talking. They're not going to give nothing. The war start, but they're not going to give the Pollakin--they're not going to give nothing. Right away, in the morning, right away we hear right away airplanes coming. The German airplanes coming. Right away was uh, the start, you know, like--they come in with airplanes. It took three days. Three days took for him to came in.
Came in with soldiers.
The soldiers--the German came in. The Polish soldiers were running right away back and didn't have no, no, no food, no water. Because right away they came in and they right away bombed the Poles.
When you heard about the war what were, what were your thoughts?
Nothing, because I was just a little girl and I was not too much, I mean--it's going to be a war, we couldn't do nothing. It's going to be a--they were all writing a lot, you know, writing. We hear it's going to be a war. We couldn't do nothing.
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