Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Esther Feldman Icikson - October 23 & 29, November 5 & 12, 2001

Can you spell that?

No.

Sibirak.

Sibirak.

They'll figure it out.

Uh, anyhow. So...

You, you got off the train and got on a boat right away?

Um, we, you see, we came to Asino. That was the last stop. And from there they transported us. Evidently they took us from the train to the, to uh, the boat.

Directly.

Directly, Oh yeah absolutely directly.

[interruption in interview]

You were in Asino.

Yeah. So we got there with the train and I don't remember how they transported us. They probably just--the train must have come all the way to the, to the river, to the Chulym or very close to it. I do not remember--I could not tell you how we got to the place that they took us. I just don't remember. It's just like it never happened. I don't know why.

Hm.

Uh, we had to be on that boat awhile because it was not, you know, it, it took us a few days to go down the river.

Do you remember the boat?

No.

Not the boat either.

No. Nothing. It's like it never happened.

Cold, you don't remember the cold?

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing. What I do remember, my first memory of Sibir...when I was already there, was this big room. And my daddy was standing over my mother and crying and praying. This was my first memory of Siberia. I don't remember anything between the train and that particular area. Um, my mom took sick I think from the shock. She took sick. She couldn't get up on her feet. She was completely out of it. Like um, like in a coma. And there was this baby, this tiny little child that cried all the time. And I remember one morning--that, that's my first memory of Siberia--is that my mom was laying on the floor, I was laying next to her, my daddy was standing over her and praying and crying. Um, it was a big room, somehow a different kind of room. Uh, there was a--I think there was a window on the top, kind of like at the top of the room. A, a, at the top of the um, wall was a window, I think. And um, my mom was very sick. And, um...