Luba Elbaum - January 20, 1982
Harassment of Jews
Okay, when, when...
And then after a month I remember--I think it was already a month they said that the Russian going to come into Lublin. The Russian supposed to come in--be into Lublin.
What did your uncle do at this time?
He was a shoemaker in the--they let him work, because he was a workman the--they let him work. He was just working. Not so much because he was working. My husband used to work with my uncle. And still not two, three men more. After they let them go home--they were holding them for a week--and they let them go home. He start...
Your uncle? They're holding for a week?
Yeah, yeah. You know, for security. All the men.
Okay.
And when they came home, they start to work a little bit.
Did your, did your life change at all there at the beginning? Did your routine--were you able...
No, I was staying there--I was staying in Lublin because my parents, you know--was no letters, was no trains, you know, we had to go home with the train. They wrote me a letter to stay there because in small town they came in right away, you know, they came in for girls, you know, for--we were right away afraid for them. Enemies. Right away afraid. It was like in the fall, they took out already Jews who used to have a beard--they come and they, they took the scissors and they, they cut off the beard, a little bit.
Whose beard?
The Jew, I mean, the me...the Jews--I mean the frum. I call the frum Jews, they used to have--everybody used to have a beard, yeah.
Yeah, so who cut them off?
The Germans.
The Germans. As a joke, why? Why did they cut off?
They cut off--they were laughing him--they cut off.
They were laughing.
Yeah, they're laughing when they cut off the beard. I was a little girl--not a little--a big girl. They couldn't know if I'm a Jewish if not because I was--I mean uh, blonde.
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