Esther Feldman Icikson - October 23 & 29, November 5 & 12, 2001
Police
Police station?
Police station. Maybe a police station, uh... Maybe like a town hall or something to that effect. And um, when they got there it was surrounded with police, with big dogs. The whole building was surrounded with dogs. And my mom tried to ask one of the men, "What's happening here? Where are the men that came here for the meeting?" And they got very upset and they said, "You go back because otherwise we'll let the dogs look, loose at you." So my mom could see that it's a lot of problems here. Needless to say she couldn't stay there. So she turned around with my aunt and they came home. She was absolutely devastated. She told us right away, she says, we are not going to see daddy for a long time. She was crying and she was hysterical. Here she just got up from the floor on her crutches. And so um, um, we waited and waited and waited. And they did not come back. The next morning my mom went to the office asking what happened to the men? And they said that they're not here, we had to take them away. My mother found out later that uh, there was a brawl there and a fight. And they beat up my dad and my uncle terribly because my uncle uh, I, I think I told you--my uncle started a little bit of a discussion about work and he said, "You cannot leave us as is, the situation is too complicated and too difficult. I have children, we need to feed the children. I'm ready to work, you give us work, you pay us, we can buy bread." And um, one officer told him he better be quiet. He says, "No I want," he says, "If you are going to uh, give me a tough time," he says, "you might as well shoot me right now. I do not want to see my children die from starvation." So they started arguing and then they started fighting. My uncle was very strong and big and he started fighting. Needless to say, there was more of them than my uncle. My dad went to help him and they beat up my father and my uncle. They carried them out. There was a trail of blood from their bodies. They arrested them and sent them away to prison. Now we don't know what happened to my dad or my uncle. They do not tell you.
They didn't tell you.
No! They said they were taken away and that's it. You can't ask questions. If you say anything they say, "Don't ask questions!" That's it. So, at that point...
Your father wouldn't tell you.
No, no, they took away my dad.
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