Simon Kalmas - May 25, 1982
Life in the Ghetto II
There were a lot of Jews brought into your ghetto?
Into our ghetto?
Yeah.
Well, first of all there was the Jews from our city...
Right. Were they brought in from outside the city also, do you know?
They also--they came in. You know, they smuggle themselves out, wherever they sent them away, they came back and, and uh, came in. But when, when they took us to the other ghetto--so they already had a ghetto in their city. They piled in another two thousand people, you know, into their ghetto. So six families into a room. There would be bunk beds, you know. Every family had a bunk bed.
You, you mentioned the Judenrat. Do, do you remember any names of people in charge?
I remember one name and I believe he is in Israel and he is in charge--either curator or in charge, I don't know. I didn't know when I was in Israel, otherwise I would look for him. His name was Milech Buki. I believe he is in charge of something there in the Yad Vashem. Either he is curator or whatever it is.
Was that the first ghetto or the second ghetto that you lived in?
In the first ghetto. So, he survived. His brother didn't.
So you lived in the ghetto then up until 194...
Nineteen forty-two.
All right, uh...
In '42, in '42 we went to--took us to--first we didn't even know where, then we found out it's Auschwitz.
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