Esther Feldman Icikson - October 23 & 29, November 5 & 12, 2001
Hunger
...realize how the days go away, because there are so um, almost all the same. You're hungry, there's nothing to eat, you're cold there's nothing to eat, you go to sleep hungry, you get up. So you don't realize how times goes by, you know. It's like all the days are the same. And so I really don't remember days going by and I don't remember how much time. But I do remember that my mom was very sick. But by then, when they had this meeting, my mom was walking on crutches already. So it had to be a few weeks.
Was hunger the worst thing?
I think so, yeah. Hunger and cold. It was very cold there. And so my dad and my uncle went to that meeting and all the Jews--all the men went to that meeting, and...
Had you heard at this point from Chelm, anybody in Chelm?
No. We were not in touch. Not until later when my mom wrote a letter to my uncle to Germany.
To your uncle in Leipzig.
In Leipzig. Much later.
So he was still, he was still there?
He was still in Leipzig.
Not in Belgium.
Not Belgium yet. I think he went to Belgium [pause] after Kristallnacht. After... Months later because he did not... Once he left his home he didn't go back. He stayed with his in-laws for awhile. But his wife was you know, she was supposed to be not Jewish, though she had the freedom of moving around. But I know that my mother wrote a letter to my uncle. I'm trying to think, she might have written a letter to my grandfather because I think that we received a package one time.
From Ger...
From, from Poland I think, I'm not sure.
From your grandfather.
Must have been from my grandfather, yeah.
When did you stop corresponding with your grandfather do you think? When did your mother stop?
I'd say maybe 1941.
'41.
Yeah, maybe.
And then it just stopped?
Yeah, I think we didn't, we didn't have any, any news.
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