Albert Fein - February 19, 2005
Passing as a Christian
So in 1941 you were still able to have a Bar Mitzvah...
Yes, yes.
...you went to shul....
Yeah, they were still going to the synagogue--they didn't think--you see, Jews I talk to, to like here, here already, people, uh they don't realize even in the city of Uzhorod, they didn't realize this was deport...deportation of so many Jewish people. When I talk here to, to Jewish, they says, "What, you was not in a concentration camp?" And I said, "No, I was in occupation, not in a concentration camp." I was on false papers and I played, you know, the game as, as a Christian to survive, you know? So they was wondering this, "In '41, you were sent?" I says, "Yes, in '41." You was--when we were already was--the Russians was already took over Kolomyia. You were still in Hungary there...
Yeah.
...you were still not touched. They started about six months later because we was in '44 in April the Soviets break through the front and again for...went forward all the way to the Carpathian and they could--couldn't get reserve back... backing, so they went back and they start before Kolomyia. The border was--we was on the route and we could saw--see the planes was flying and bombing.
Russian planes.
The Germans and the Hungarians, yeah.
But that wasn't the first time you went to Kolomyia?
No, we was, we was living there for four years, from 1941...
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