Salvatore and Lili Katan - August 18, 1981
Nearly Getting in Trouble with Russians
SK: So sure enough, when she start to cry, ask her, "Uh, you, you love him?" She says, "Yes." And they ask me, "Are you sure she loves you?" I say, "I think so, she loves me." So he says, "You know what, you're Jew? You're Greek?" I say, "Yeah." "Okay," he says.
LK: That's your luck.
SK: "This is your luck," says, "because I'm ??? too, I'm Jewish too." He says, "Go in the corner and stay there and don't come out when the train starts moving. Then you can go around a little bit because I'm in charge of the transport." I can tell him the rest?
LK: You can tell the rest ???
SK: So...
LK: But he had someone who is above him.
SK: There was some...
LK: Not him...
SK: Not him...
LK: ...not him. He was above him.
SK: He was above him, above him and so...
LK: He wasn't Jewish.
SK: The other one.
LK: The other one.
SK: The other one. There was--he want some money.
LK: And soon the train start to go...
SK: ???
LK: Everybody had a blanket, a Russian blanket. That's all our belongings.
SK: So...
Can I interrupt you? They, they gave you clothes and, and...
LK: They gave us--we had a Russian uniform and we had one blanket, each person. So the next stop, when the train stopped...
SK: During the first stop, we were going to stop in Romania. In Romania I say is a big Jewish...
LK: No, but before that, after we sold the blanket...
SK: Yeah, we sold the blanket and we make a twenty-five rubles, I don't know how much.
LK: ???
SK: Exactly, and we give it to him. And after that he comes, he says, "The guy who's above me, wants..."
LK: Wants more money.
SK: And I said, "Well we don't have money. Put me down, and that's it." I say, "I'm going to be stranger in paradise." I said the only thing I could say, the train is stopped in Romania...
[interruption in interview]
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn