Simon Goldman - June 6, 2003
Going back to Łódź
When your brother corresponded with you and sent you clothes and things from Germany, he sent them to the Polish name, right?
Oh yes. He used the same name.
So he was passing off himself.
Yeah, hi...his name was Wade Kovalsky and my name was Mayan. We used, we used the same, same name.
Did you ever see that person again?
No. When I, when I came in to, to Łódź after the war eh, I didn't even go into the--where apartments are used to, always was a circle, you know, in the middle there used to be a well, you know, for water. And I wouldn't even go in there. I just walked by it, but I didn't go in, I was afraid to go in. I don't know why, but I was afraid to go in because in the neighbor--I figured I go in there I might get hurt. So I didn't even go in.
Why did you go back to Łódź?
Well, I went to look for my brother.
I see. And you didn't find him.
No. I looked in every hospital, I looked everywhere. I couldn't find him. But I did find a distant cousin that he was from ???.
Where did you stay in Łódź?
Well, at first I went to the Jewish Committee. Uh, yeah, they had a Jewish Committee formed already. When I came in it was already five months later, you know. And so I walked in. I walked down the street where I used to live and then I--and there was nothing. I was afraid to go in. So I just kept walking. Then I heard somebody with a sewing machine, you know, like a tailor. I figured that might be a, a Jewish person. I knocked on the door they wouldn't open the door, they were afraid. So I finally talked, asked them in Polish, you know, if there was a Jewish, a kind of a committee, you know, a service or whatever. So he gave me an address. So I went down there and, and I stayed in line to register. Everybody that came in from, from no matter where, they used to come and register. And as I was staying in line I was asking questions in Polish. And there was a lot of people from concentration camp that came back already and stuff like that, and they want to fight me because they say, you don't, you stay here you don't talk Polish. And is my Jewish is I spoke before the war. And I just couldn't get Polish out of, out of my mouth. They talked to me in, in Yiddish and I answered in Polish, you know. And they wanted to fight me, said get out of there. But I didn't. But anyway, I finally got through and I got, they find me a place where I can go and sleep and I got some rations. But then I found a cousin, a distant cousin so I moved in with him for a while.
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