Isaac Engel - June 16 & 25, 1992
Memories of Germans
So the Germans were occupying the town.
Oh yes.
So do you remember any of the Germans? Did you ever...
Yes.
...have anything to do with them?
To do with them?
Talk to them?
You didn't want to have nothing to do with them because you were scared like de...to death. You lived constantly with fear. If he just pass by you and he didn't do nothing to you, it was a miracle.
When you said people remembered from the First World War. What did they remember from the First World War?
They remembered different Germans. They were friendly.
They weren't friendly this time.
No. No. Some of 'em, they were just army, the Wehrmacht. They cared less. But, they were, they did whatever they told 'em to do. But then they came in the, the SA came in. Like, they burned down--the synagogue was not burned. Everything, all the small synagogues maybe. The big synagogue was not burned. And the synagogues they said was three hundred--as long as the city is old, about three hundred years it was. It was a beautiful synagogue. And they couldn't, they had no place where to start a fire over there. They were using explosive, except on the top, there were just wood. Everything else was bricks and metal. So finally they were using hand grenades and, and they burned the city, and the, the synagogue. There was an ??? Kippur. The night before Yom Kippur. Don't forget, never forget. They burned down the synagogue. The SA came in. They're the, the ones who did that job.
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