Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Eugene Feldman - July 15, 1991

Do you remember how you found out the war had started?

The war started?

You were twelve when the war started?

When the war started actually I was less than that, because

When the Russians came.

the war started in '39.

So do you remember when the Russian came into your village?

I remember the Russians came in. I was happy they came in. That much I remember. I--why? First of all they... Okay, when the Polocks were there, they could call you Zyd. That's more like a slang for Jews. When the Russians came in, you had to have respect. You couldn't call somebody Zyd. That was a crime. If they would call me in school I would go and tell the principal and they would con...get punished for that. I liked that. They got, they had to call you Yivreh. It's a little more respectful. Number two, they gave you land. They gave my dad a, about two, three, I don't know how many--they gave him some acres of land that he worked for himself. For the--I guess what they did they took estate state land or something, state-owned land and just split up among the farmers, gave 'em extra. Because nobody had anything except the garden. It was such a funny village that I never saw anything growing except the garden. It was a lot of land there, but just like marshing, ju...marsh. Or horse--horses and cows would feed you know, would graze on it.

Do you remember the Russian soldiers? Did soldiers come?

I remember, I think I remember very little that. I remember only the Russian soldiers after you know, in 1944--'45.