Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Louis Kaye - May 9, 1983

Post-War Poland 2

How did you know this?

I was there. I hear every day that other people got killed from there.

Did you see it?

Yeah, I saw it.

How would they kill 'em?

They'd be living out of the city, they come at night and kill you. Same people they killed them, the same people who killed the partisans in, in the forest. They name it the Armia Krajowa. The name of the people they killed. This happened '45, '46. See, one thing about the Polish people, they always gots anti-Semitism against the Jews. Every time it was a holiday, or Christmas or anything come out from the church, the priest tell 'em how ??? with Jews and everything, and they hate that time the Jews were trouble. We were afraid to go in the street. There... Say, there was a soccer game and the Jewish win, there was a fight right away.

There was a fight.

Because they won. Anything. This was before the war. And this was 1930s, I mean, 1935, 1930s, they always hated Jews.

And you say it's still that way today.

Still today.

How do you know this?

How I know, I just told you, my friend just come back from Poland three years ago. He was there, he was afraid to go in the city and they told him, you better stay away, they're going to kill you.

He went back to visit...

Yeah.

...or he lives there?

No, it was... I have a friend living in Poland now. In, in Warsaw, he was here by my monument. So, his wife is Polish, because his kids, they would not... If he knew he have his kids here, he would never go back to Poland. He was here a couple of time, my best friend. He's in Russia now. All the kids in Poland where they have five thousand Jews. I, myself, I don't feel sorry for these Polish Jews. They could be here like me, like other people. Pick up their children, come here. Now if any five thousand Jews, I bet you another five, ten years there'll be nothing there because everybody assimilated, if they're Jewish, they're afraid to say they're Jewish.

And that's today.

That's today, the, the good Poland.

Okay, so after you... How long were you, how long did you stay in your, in your town?

I would not stay long, I run away, right away, I stayed there maybe a couple weeks, three weeks, four weeks.

[interruption in interview]


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