Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map

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

So you're in a train full of soldiers.

So we are--full of soldiers. Because you couldn't get on a train 'cause...they were the priority of the time. Soldiers were treated special. They had gone through hell. They were wounded. They were maimed. And so they had priority. But my sister and I, we came in into this car, car with soldiers. And they looked at us. You know, my sister was very good looking and I was a little girl. And we were asking can we sit down. You know. They said, "???, come on, sit down." Well let me tell you, they accommodated us. They took us in and we brought in my mom and the whole family moved in, into that particular car. And that's how we travel. Well by the time we got together it was just unreal because. First of all you worry, "Oh my God, where's dad, where is mother? Where is the packages? Where is the luggage?"

Yeah.

But we got together and we traveled it that particular car.

They must have been looking for you on that train?

Yes, we found each other. It wasn't simple. We found each other. And we traveled in that, and we... I'll never forget. We sang day and night. All kind of beautiful Russian songs. Uh, my sister has a beautiful voice so she would be singing you know and, um.

What kinds of songs?

Russian songs.

But--what? Folksongs?

Folksong, love songs about the war you know, how the soldiers go away and say goodbye to their loved ones. All kind of beautiful songs.

And you remember them.

N...I, some of them, just the music maybe. The words I don't remember already. I'll remember a few words, but the rest not you know, it's been a long time.