Abraham Holcman - September 14, 1983
Uncle's Reaction
Did your family uh, change its daily routine or think about trying to leave? What, what, what did your family... How did they respond to these events?
The, the family didn't plan nothing uh, for, for one reason I don't think the finances were there. For another reason uh, I had an uncle, my, my mother's uh, brother, and he knew all about the Germans in '38 when the German Jews came. And he was very active in uh, supplying whatever he could get together for those German Jews. So, so he knew more than my father and the rest of the family. So, he gathered ones, all the family, he talked to them. But that uncle of mine, being the youngest of the whole clan really, so nobody listened.
Were you at that meeting?
No, I wasn't at the meeting. But, uh...
Did you hear what he said at that meeting? I mean, did somebody tell you or did...
Yeah, later on--I wasn't at the meeting--but later on uh, you know, everybody was saying we should have listened to Karol, he knew exactly uh, what the German Jews was telling them and he helped them and he saw and heard, you know, he saw 'em, you know, not just anybody was telling them. He saw them coming and he helped them locate and he helped them whatever you could. And uh, so he knew what uh, you know, all that all about, not uh, what you hear from the radio. He had it first hand. But the, the, the family didn't uh, pay attention.
What did he want the family to do?
To, to leave. To leave for Russia.
Leave for Russia.
Mhm.
Mhm. But nobody did.
No, he left.
He did leave.
Yeah.
Yeah. Did...
He left a wife, two children, and he left by himself. His wife didn't want to go, so he left her behind.
Okay. So, he was the only one in your family that, uh...
He, he was the only one who uh, talked to everybody to...
Okay. Other than him nobody else. There were community people meeting or anything like that?
No, no, as far as I know, uh... My sister, she ran away uh, she ran away and uh, and she was uh, held up at the, at the uh, border between Poland and Russia. And uh, finally they, she got thrown back and, and she died and yeah. She settled in Warsaw and she died in Warsaw.
Mhm.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn