Jack Gun - August 12, 1999
Impression of Germans
What did they look like?
They, they looked like people that were uh, that were not coming in to do anything nice. Uh, very uh, stern looking. Very uh, uh, I don't know what adjectives to use. But anyway like, mean people.
That'll do. Mean. Uniforms. Do you remember what the uniforms...
Yes, looked like main, most of the main soldiers had green uniforms.
Green, so it was Wehrmacht, you think.
Yeah.
Any SS men?
Uh, I think later on there were some SS men. I think the beginning there was only the regular army.
What was the first thing that um, began to change after the Germans occupied the town?
Well, I, I'm sure they weren't there very long, maybe a month or two. They right away uh, made announcements and put out bulletins that on a certain day they want all Jews to meet in the center of town and bring with them whatever they can carry. And uh, we all reported very nicely. My whole family went out of the house on a certain day. Probably must have been by then probably August, I would say. And all the Jews that were left, that didn't--there were many Jews that ran away with the Russians when the Germans came in. But mostly I would say people that had, didn't have big families, single people. Like a cousin--my first cousin that survived.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn