Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Lily Fenster - November 8 & 10, 1994

Deportation of Mother

So she was out for three weeks, before they...

That's so. I brought her in, it was late, sort of cold and the holiday times, that was the worst time, that time and I had her for a short time and then they--like I say, five minutes, I left the ghetto, I seen big trucks, usually the Nazis came, with a lot of black uniform, Ukrainians, they were the worst and the wore the death hats, the big black hats. When you've seen that, maybe five or six of them controlled fifteen hundred, approximately, I didn't know the numbers, you know. Jude, Jude, Jude and the way those people walked, like to the slaughter. Nobody could do nothing, because if you ran away, the Poles would catch you. Where would you run?

They took them to the train?

Yeah. Yeah, to the train. It's a little far to walk. I didn't know already what they did, I seen, meantime they say go, go, go and I took the two buckets of water and I went out, because my, my boss was waiting for me. She needed the water, you know and I was the maid. She had, I think I told you, a lover, a German on the land, used to pull my braids and I looked at them, I said, again I'm repeating what I told you if I would have poison, he wouldn't live. I would give him tea with poison. I said, I don't care. At least I would have some satisfaction and she had a husband. Now, I was a child. I didn't understand. She had a husband and, "Halinka, Halinka" she says, "take care of my little boy," and she did something with him that I--but I just, I was just dumb. I you know, Europeans, I didn't have sex education. I would be ashamed talking about it.


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