Isaac Engel - June 16 & 25, 1992
Impression of Germans
Do you remember when you first saw the Germans? When you saw them...
Oh yeah.
Yeah, what?
Saw 'em when we were on the woods. We went in the woods Wednesday night. We left because--and then, that was true. Thursday they didn't, they, they had a fourth, they went to another city bombing. We saw the airplanes when we were in the woods. See, Poland it was a lotta woods, a lotta forest. The forests were going as far as to the Russian border. Maybe further yet. And uh, two, two miles from the city. So that's when we went and we were there. It was warm that time. And uh, and Thursday they were--they didn't bomb. So some of 'em went back because it was quiet. But we didn't go back. And on Friday they came back, back and they were bombing again. So, and then Friday night they were already in the city. And then at Saturday morning they came into the forest. And they said to everybody to leave. And they searched anybody if anybody had weapons and stuff like that.
Were there only Jews in the forest?
Yes.
No Poles went there?
No, because they lived mostly in, outside in the city bounds. And so they chased us out from the, from the woods. If we went to a village, a big village nearby that time. And we went into the village. And uh, and we went in and they let us in. The, the Poles let us in, and uh, in the barns and stuff like that. Places so we can you know, at least some... They knew already what's happening and... And then later we came back, like a week later we came back to the city. And they were--in our house there was nothing left. Everything was burned down to the ground.
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