Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Sylvia Feld - July 28, 1982

SF: He, he was in the army. And my younger brother and like two sisters we sent them to my grandmother to Szadek its S-z-a-d-e-k then she went,--they went there. In the meantime we lived there for awhile and start a ghetto in Zduńska Wola. Then uh, we had a very public apartment, two tiny little rooms on a attic, you know? And uh, and we, we, we had to, start to, to uh, to work for survival to have what to eat. Then uh, mein brother came back from the army.

Which army?

NF: Polish.

SF: From the Polish army. My brother was in the Polish army. And then uh, they all got uh, from uh, his uh, patrol, then the most of them they got killed and he survived so when he came back and I was almost from the older sister because I had one older sister then she start getting sick and she couldn't do anything for help. Then I went out from the ghetto--days, and brought in a little bit of food that we had and my brother he start selling a few things then we could survive and have what to eat. And my father since that time when he was uh, traveling they shaved off his beard and um, being you know like two weeks away traveling then he got sick and he had trouble with...

NF: Diarrhea.

SF: With dia... with diarrhea and uh, he developed a sickness with it. Then uh, he couldn't help us anymore you know like feeding the children and we still had young kids. My younger sister at that time was, uh...

NF: ???

SF: I don't remember exactly, five, and another one was seven. And like every child by us was a... apart like two year and I had another sister, Goldie one uh, the first one was Naomi; the second one was Madel...

NF: You mean from the youngest.

SF: From the youngest. The third from the youngest was Goldie the fourth one was uh, Nadja and we had to send her to my grandmother because we couldn't feed them anymore so then I was the fifth one and I tried to help it out. We were in the ghetto not long. It was very hot, very struggling then later on they announced then uh, they gonna send the Jews to, to uh, to Łódź for working shift. They put us all together in like in a city hall, in a big place where they in, in uh, they called this in Europe they called it Rathaus, city hall; it means the same, you know? And they try all of them to put them together for uh, for um, immigration to the ghetto. But the day before they immigrate us they start threatening people in, in the city, in, in, in catching them and, and sending them out to concentration camps but we didn't know where this everything went. Then uh, they uh, caught my father and they put him in a special place there and that for twenty-four hours they hold him and they beat him to death. The... then when, and when he got out, before we got out from the ghetto he was beaten up, sick and, and uh, and, and his, his power and everything, he didn't have any willpower anymore of living. Then later on when they segregate then they took him from, from uh, one side of the party and they took uh, two parties they make like some people from one side and another people from another side. We didn't know what's happening, we didn't know what they did and standing there they took out ten people and there was in the middle of the city um, I don't know how you call this like for hanging you know like uh, you see like ten people to hang.

Like a guillotine?

NF: Guillotine.

SF: Yes, like a guillotine. And they put up those...

She drew a picture of a um, with the two posts with ten hangings on it across the top. It was like two posts on the side, a line across the top and she shows ten lines down for hanging. Okay. I'm just describing it for--because they can't see what you've done.

SF: It's very hard for me to say this because I saw it with my own eyes. Then uh, they, they just uh, called out ten men and they didn't know what they want from them--innocent people and the most there was uh, religious people that still carry on having the beards and, and they pulled up the strings and two minutes later they were all hanging in front of us. Everybody was participated and everybody was crying and people just didn't care anymore what's happening with us because we knew we were gonna to be the next. So after that they segregate and they put my parents, mein father separate and it happened that I was with my mother and my sister Goldie was standing next to me and she said that life is now to an end and doesn't matter but kids I always said to you when I was alive then I would like to die with dad together and now as the time came and please don't hold me I don't want to stay with you here I love you very much but I have to go and be with him. And, and...

NF: And then...

SF: She left me and she start running to the other side then a policeman came uh, an SS man came and knocked her over the head with his big rifle gun. She picked herself up from the floor and didn't want to go back and ran to my father and from far away I saw she was hold onto him, to his arm, and this is what she wanted. So then I was, I was uh, sended to the ghetto from Zduńska Wola. And I didn't know who was with me I didn't see nobody because with so many thousands of people and everybody was destroyed on different places. When I came--then they send us with a, with a train and this train was a cattle train. They put us in, in this cattle train...

NF: Was with you?

SF: I don't remember with whom I was in the train because we were standing in this train and, and it was probably place like for twenty people it was fifty, sixty people packed like cattles one to each other. The screaming in this train was unbearable; I still remember like with me now. And people were uh, screaming and biting each other because was like for three days this train was going back and forth, back and forth. They wouldn't,--didn't gave us no food and no water and we didn't have any air they didn't open the doors to have a little bit of air. And people screamed--the starving and the dying. And somehow, I don't know I survive and they opened the doors and this was already in Łódź. And when they opened the doors then I saw from the other side my older sister. She was standing in another corner and I didn't even know she was there. And, and I looked at her and looked to me then she's dying and I screamed and I called her, "Rifka, Rifka don't do it, please live!" And uh, she came and her husband came to the ghetto and was left. My brother-in-law from my other sister, I had two sisters married and they both had two children. My older sister had a daughter and a son and my other sister had two baby, two children and they had, it was two sons but she was taken to the crematorium and her son and her husband was taking to the ghetto. And later I found my younger sister Nancy but I don't know where she--which uh, which side of, of the train she was. My parents was already sended to the crematorium and I didn't see nobody anymore from the rest of my family. We came to the larger ghetto that tried to put us up and s... and, and, and spaces were to be like housing and, and, and they, they make like uh, standing in lines for a little bit of survival for food they gave us like a slice of bread and a few potatoes. And we lived there quite a time like...

NF: Marysin.

SF: Like we were uh, sended to a big place and, and they called this Marysin. And we were there like overnight laying on the ground. But eventually you know, they gave us housing and I was with my older sister, her husband, my brother-in-law and my younger sister. It was five people and they put us in one little room. And we asked for work finally they gave us work. We went to work and, and this is, this was some life of living without everybody--young not knowing what tomorrow. Every day we got up early in the morning when it was still dark to ran quick to work because we were frightened if we not gonna to go to work they gonna send us away to, to uh, concentration camps. We were in ghetto--how long?

NF: Two years.

SF: Two years. We were in ghetto two years. Being in ghetto two years I had kind of big obligations kind of my younger sister. Because I felt all the time that you know my sister had a husband, the other brother-in-law was married too and she was younger from me--very weak. I was always afraid that she doesn't eat her legs gave up, she was, she had swollen ankles and cried all the time that she says she feels--she stopped working. And whatever I had, then we were together, we were surviving together. They gave us the portion of food we never, you know felt like mine is separate, yours is separate but we ate together and lived together. And the mercy of my life killed me because I felt like a lot of obligations because I was older. So finally they tried--we, we asked very much them then they could divide us because it was really a little bit not fair to live in this small room. Then finally they gave us another room then I went to live with my sister together and my other ones lived separately. Okay all those times, I, I tried, you know to find, I found once a man what lived in the same city and he was a friend to my father and he gave me like a good job to work in a kitchen. Then uh, I asked my sister to take over this job because I felt other work she's not capable because she was very young and maybe working in this kitchen she might help herself to have a extra piece of food to, to survive. So then she took this job and I was working shuffling potatoes on the market where we present the uh, the uh, the...

??? SF: The bite, the bite for everybody for uh, for every survivor--like a few pounds of potatoes for a whole week. And I was working there and later on I had another job again working with the straw shoes and those straw shoes, was--I don't know to now uh, this was for the army um, uh, this was for...

NF: It was for soldiers who were Russian.

SF: For soldiers who were sended away. It uh, hard needling to put all those straws together and, and, and you worked it up with sewing to, to um, like you make um, like you make a ponytail from those straw to make those pony...

NF: Braids.

SF: Braids, braids those uh, straw.

NF: Straw.

SF: Straw. We braid the straw to make shoes from them. And we saw this and we did. And this, this job I hold it down to that like for two years till send up all us from ghetto. One day was a pogrom then everybody has to leave the ghetto and to, and to go and to register themself they gonna send, they gonna be sended out to a working,--other working place. And this was lies and they send us out to Auschwitz--they want to kill us--to the crematoriums. In the beginning my sister, my younger sister, she uh, she um, met a friend where she worked. And uh, she really didn't want to leave him to go to this uh, to, to Auschwitz and he had still in ghetto a mother. Then uh, I tried not to get away from her then we all were thinking about hiding ourself and not to go to Auschwitz. Then uh, we uh, hide ourself in a roof, on the roof of the house.

NF: In the attic.

SF: In the attic. And um, next to, to the wall and we slept there nights because the, the uh, the, uh...

NF: They were searching the houses.

SF: They were searching the, I the oh, the...

NF: Houses.

SF: The soldiers they were searching the houses and all over or what's left somebody to send it out. Then we took our blankets and we went on the roof and we were hiding there because my sister want to stay with her friend. So finally we found it out one morning then they took away uh, her friend's mother. Then he...

NF: [whispering]

SF: Just a minute. They took away her friend's mother. Then her h... her friend saw then they took her friend's mother, then uh, we register ourself to go together, that we want to go together. Then we went altogether which was a big mistake but this was, this was bashert--we had to go.

Mm-hm. Uh, you were describing to me that you had hidden in that, in the um, ghetto. Can you describe how you hid in the ghetto?

SF: I said in the attic. I, I...

NF: We laid down. We covered ourselves when the soldier came in. [whispering]

SF: Uh, when uh, when um, we hide ourself on the attic the--then it was like two days and we had to live, uh, uh, uh, we had to have food to live on it. Then that we took upstairs on the attic uh, certain food like uh, uh, uh, vegetables or some uh, a few raw potatoes and a few pieces of bread. And uh, we were laying on the attic on the ground and put the blanket on top of us and, and, and put sheets of, of metal and covered us up then nobody should know it and when the soldiers came upstairs they were screaming are somebody there are somebody's--and he had a shepherd dog and this shepherd dog was smelling. Then this was uh, like uh, full of shit was next to, to, to the door and, and, and he was afraid then maybe some kinds of germs gonna be there. But we still didn't wanna go down and, and, and uh, register ourself to, to uh, go there. But we found it out then the moth... they caught the mother of my sister's friend and when they caught her then my sister's friend want to go next to her mother then we had no choice because she wants to be with her friend. Then we all went down and, and went you know to, to uh, register and we went to, to go to uh, to Auschwitz. And when they, when they put us on the train to go to Auschwitz...

NF: [whispering]

SF: Okay. You know, then we left, then uh, when we came there then they put us down on a big pile and it was, um...