Lily Fenster - November 8 & 10, 1994
Anti-Semitism A:...listen
You were going to tell me what Latke said?
Oh Latke--oh you want to see that ??? I don't want to say that in Polish, I got to tell you in Jewish, in English, "What in the hell you need those Jews?" I said, "What are you talking about, what you mean Jews." I pretend I didn't know what Jewish is. Do you believe it? So, I wanted to get rid of him in the worse way, because I was afraid of her, she was the biggest anti-Semite you could find. You know what they use to say? The Jews make sausage and they put in rats. I say "??? are you crazy or something? What can you say something like that, who would eat the rats?" Because I told her I'm from the Third Reich, there wasn't too many Jews, there was just you know, when the Germans came in, they took out, for me a German and they put them in the middle of Poland, you know? The ???, those guys in the Third Reich as you know, things that I cannot even say in the right way, but I hope you understand what I mean. You do? So I say, "I have to get rid of her." So, I say, "Latke, you go home, I see you later," we both shared the room in the hospital. She was an orphan and I was an orphan. She was very good to me. She helped me braid my hair. Just a friend and I, I you know, it doesn't take long from the hospital to the little town. He was still there looking for food or something and I walked up to him. And I looked at him, said, "Do you remember me?" He looks at me and says, "??? ??? ??? ??? use to work and you gave me bread?" I say, "Yeah." He says, "Are you Jewish?" I says, "Yes I am." He almost fainted. He says, "I live here, you come in and I want to see you." I just didn't know if the Jews exist. I thought there is no Jews. So that was a Friday and I walked into that little house, there was eight or nine families laying, again with the straw, I mean there was no furniture. And like I say, everybody looked yellow because they didn't see daylight for three years. That was in the bunkers there were a whole bunch of peoples there. There was a lady that she choked a baby to survive 30 people. Her name was ??? I'll never forget. In the woods, there was a lot of Jews there, everybody came out, finally when Russian came. And we got introduced and Yitzchak that guy Sosnowic says, "Look at that one, zee iz geven di shikseh that was the shikseh that she gave me bread. And that bread I gave it to you Dave," and then he introduced me to Dave. Six weeks, we got married. But when I walked in it was Friday and I seen candles. I seen they bentshed. The said blessing over the candles and then I start crying, I just couldn't stop. I didn't see that for four years. And all the memory came back. And he was a tall, handsome, he wore a uniform because they want to take him, he was born in 1923 and they took all of them to the army. But he was sort of very good in organizing, so he signed in Pol...Poland and not everyone could write very well, you know neat, he had a beautiful handwriting. So they tell him to stay in the city and take care of, of, food, or products or something. I don't remember exactly what it was. And I seen him he was this handsome guy, tall and the bluest eyes and just a sad face. And we just met and that was it. I mean after six weeks, he said, so he said to, he said to David, "Dovid that is the shikseh that stole that bread, that you ate, she gave that bread. She stole it from the Mr. and Mrs. ??? farm and she gave it to me and I run away with that bread. Remember that night went we met, we ate the bread both together and that was ???" His wife was laying by a farmer two years, maybe a year and a half, I don't know exactly. She was swollen already. And that Sosnowic with my husband, knew there's a Jewish woman about ten kilometers from that place that they were laying in the night in the woods. Took him two days, they took her out. Two days they walked on one side because they only walked at night. Nobody should see him. They took her out on their backs. Brought her into that camp, to that bunker. They were in the woods where they were hiding because they knew there's one Jewish woman starving that the Goy took away everything from her, because she gave him a cow, the father was a wealthy one. And they were neighbors with my husband. They knew each other. They went to school together. She is a little older than Dave, she was Luba. She just lost her husband. Thanks to him, she is alive. I have a picture of her. And, and uh, that's her, that's her. She always said that David is like a brother to her. David and Yitzchak saved her life. She got married to that guy that you know, that made--introduced me to Dave and oh, what stories and then they had, she has two children, two daughters and grandchildren and everything. He passed away on uh, two years ago. When he found David was dead, because Dave was the youngest from them all, she just, she just, just didn't believe it, you know. Because we kept in contact. We were comfortable, we always helped a little bit. He didn't want it, he was a very proud man. But, thanks to him actually, they use to walk at night, you have to be so careful, your ears and your eyes and any move, they know you a Jew and they shoot you. Who's schlepping around at night? Who's walking at night? You know, only the Jews, but that's incidence. Another incident is while we were...
I want to take you back, just a second, you left the ghetto, you walked to Łuków.
Yeah...
...and you found your aunt's house.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn