Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Albert Fein - February 19, 2005

Escaping Kamenetz-Podolsk

And this was started already getting dark, and he says to us, "You eat how much you can. If you want, take it with you, and here is the road, go there. There are barracks where Russian military used to stay. Go there and, and stay overnight, and in the morning you can report to the commando, ??? commando." Uh, so we all went there. In the morning there was not too many left--especially those from Bukovina. They had disappeared overnight. So where they went, we don't know. Anyway, there was left about eighteen people. They was all from Hungary and they was all Jewish and they all said, "We are not Jewish," and they went to the Hungarian commando. And the Hungarian commandant, he had a family--a Jewish family. This mean a wife with two sons. Her husband was a, a wrestler champion in Budapest. This was his friend--the general's. He was not a general, he was a colonel. So, he says, "Okay, I, I know you are Christians and I'll make out everybody--I make for you papers," and he made papers. Only the problem was why he made those papers? He want those--this lady with the two sons to send out in a group. So he made out the paper only we couldn't get to the Dniester by the border from Galicia to the UK. You can't get through if the Germans does not permit us. So we have to make sure that the Germans put stamp on it, you know? Not stamped--and he did it. First my mom--she spoke German, so she's the one who, who knew the whole business and they went to the commandant too, and the commandant says, "I can't give you now the thing because tomorrow morning, will be here a doctor and he will check all the mens--make sure that all the mens came here--we will, uh..."

They're not Jewish.

Yeah.


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