Simon Goldman - June 6, 2003
Life in a new town
And when you got there, was there a place to live?
Well, they, we, he had, we had the brothers, the distant relatives, cousins and stuff like that. And I don't remember the immediate family. And they had a place there that they stored rags, you know, they were in the rag business. And uh, they kept rags in there. We're--I think we rented the place first stayed in, and then that became vacant. Well, we rented a place and then this house was there with full of rags because they stored stuff like that. Then my, my aunt, my aunt came there and her children. So we--my father decided to throw all the rags out of that house and we all moved in, they took that one.
This was your father's sister?
Yeah. Uh, my father's--yeah, our father's sister.
So how many were in this house at this point?
At that point we were, well, there was five kids of us, father, and then what? They had one, two, four? Yeah, my aunt and four children. So we were, uh...
Eleven people.
...yeah, we had uh, ten, six, and eleven people.
How big was the house? Was it a house?
No, ??? A small house.
Crowded?
Oh definitely.
And what did you do for food?
For food, uh, well my father was still doing a little work with, you know, moving and stuff like that. And it wasn't easy, but...
Was there a black market there?
Well yes, he started uh, because he a, a wagon and a horse in a little town and he built a double bottom deck and he was smuggling the challa.
Challa.
Challa. Yeah, they were still doing it.
Was there rationing at that time?
I don't remember rationing.
How about school? You didn't go to school.
No, no, no.
And do you remember, was there any violence from the Germans at this point?
In ???, yes, oh yes, there was al...always, shootings and violence and, because they had more religious people within ???, in that neighborhood than, than what I was accustomed to in Łódź. So there was, more, more so.
So you mean from the Poles there was violence.
No, no, I'm talking about the Jews.
Oh Jewish.
They were beaten up by Germans.
So there's a larger Jewish religious community.
Not a larger population, but a more religious population at the time.
Did you make any friends?
Well, not too much. We were too occupied to, to make a living, to, to, to get food and stuff like that.
So the children went to work too?
Yes. My, my older brothers--not old, the oldest, next to me, the older--he, eh went to work, he went to work in a bakery. And we were working in the bakery, hauling water into the bakery, you know, from the well and chopping wood, whatever, for the oven, you know, and stuff like that.
How long were you there?
I was there, well, we got there in 1940, which it was, I don't remember, it was January, February whatever it is and I was there right, almost right...I mean in the neighborhood there, it was right through the war, but uh, we were there 'til uh, 1942. I, I was, at least I was there in, in town. Because we used to go out and get, we lived near the bakery and uh, anyway--look, I'm jumping the gun.
Yeah, okay.
When we got to ??? after, after awhile, my sister, she had a boyfriend from Łódź yet and he was from Radom. And he came to ???. And they got married in the ???. That's it. And that's the last time I ever saw her. And uh, I can't even, today, I can't recall the name of, of, the name, I mean, his name.
His name.
Yeah.
And he took her back to Radom?
He took her back to Radom, that's uh, that's the last time I saw her. In '41 I'd say.
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