Luba Elbaum - January 20, 1982
Life Under Russian Occupation
Okay, let's, let's come back to that in just a second.
Yeah.
Uh, where you were living in Lublin, was it, was it a Jewish area--a ghetto?
Yeah, yeah. Jewish ghetto.
Do you, uh....
Not exactly the Jewish, because we were living on ??? was Polish hospital. It was, I mean, mixed--like a mix. Was a mix.
Uh, was there anybody in charge there of the Jewish section...
No, was not like ??? nobody was in charge. Everybody was make do for themselves. Then start to be charge.
Okay, so what happened, then the Germans came in...
The Germans came in. The, the Ger...the Russians came in maybe for one night and a lot of, a lot of the youngsters left.
Now when you say the Russians came in, the Russian soldiers came in?
Yeah, yeah.
They chased the Germans out for one night?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, and then when the Russians left they took a lot of people with them, right. A lot of people went with them.
Went with them, then they took--they went with them. So right away my husband went with them too--my husband left. The more--like they came in, and you know, everybody was dissatisfied because you had for three months already the German. But for one day, I was not the smartest. I was around, some youngsters who were older than me--maybe younger than me--they were organized and right away they went with them.
All right. Now you say your husband, you weren't married yet.
No, no...
No, no, no.
...my husband was, you know, we were just know because he was working with my bro...with my uncle.
Oh okay.
We were know for a little while. And like in the morning, in the morning was a Shabbos. A Shabbos, you know. My uncle went to the, you know, to the shul.
Mm-hm.
And now see my husband, my husband's name is Gedaliah. He came in, and he have somethi...something in the study. He took that and he said to me he's leaving. He don't think so he's going to come tomorrow for work. He's leaving. I was in the house, and he said that the uncle is going to come to tell him he's leaving the house--he's leaving.
When the Russians came in was there a lot of fighting to get the Germans out or did they just leave?
No, no, no. They just probably, they just, they just probably, I mean, they agree to stay here. They're supposed to stay in to Lublin then follow the Russian. And then they left. I remember it was a lot of army, it was small but I remember they came in and a lot, a lot, a lot left.
Where were the Germans at this time?
They were probably have, have Lublin. They have, they have, like I mean, whoosh--they came in and they left.
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