Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Benjamin Fisk - November 8, 1982

When you were in the ghetto um, were there Ordnungspolizei?

Hmm?

The Ordnungs...the, the, the Jewish police in the ghetto?

Oh yeah, it was the Germans in the camp, in the ghetto. They were all Jews. The Jews, I mean, they got Jews, you know.

How were they regarded?

Well, the Germans came to the Jews. They told them they had to have two thousand, three thousand people, you know, they were rounding the people up. Whoever, whoever they could catch. That's where they were hiding out in the ghetto. You know, I told you I was sleeping up in the attic with my sister. We had ??? over there and everything, you know. The house was bombed out you know there was nobody living in it, there was a basement full of water. And I had an idea, you know, it was a good place to hide, you know. And it was a good place to hide.

Did any of the police help you at all? Did they ever let people get away?

Not too many, not too many. If they caught you, they, you know, you didn't get away, you know. But I , I went by myself, I told you because I went to see my brother, you know. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, um...

My brother had two children, you know, I was under twenty-two years old, twenty one, nineteen, nineteen, twenty years old, you know.

Okay. In the ghetto um, what was the, the food situation like?

Oh really bad, really bad. It was a lot worse than in town because in town we were still with the Polish people, you know, people were coming and going all the time, you know. But in the ghetto it was like livestock, you know. We went to work, you know, you had to go like soldiers, you know. They were marching up the road, you know, and the Germans were already watching us, you know. Every day you know you had to assemble one place, you know, they wanted to take all the people from here... [interruption in interview]

...??? the Germans didn't know. The Germans didn't know, you know. Even the guy, that their hope--the Germans--??? he was a big chief over there, you know, he didn't know. But we were hiding out--they took us extra food and we were hiding in the factory. And later they found out and they were standing there and checking out, you know, everybody's room, you know. You couldn't get away with much. You could get away sometimes but not all the time, you know.