Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Louis Kaye - May 9, 1983

German Occupation

Let's go back at the beginning when the Germans entered your town.

When, when the German come in, beginning '39, you mean?

When the Germans came into your town.

Right.

What happened? How did things change? How, how were things different?

What happened, first thing they took away everything from everybody. They... Anything, like people who have everything. They, they used to come in the town, they used to, like my father have a beard or other people, they cut the beard and they do all kind of things. They kill people. They close the store. If you don't give 'em what they want, they took you out, kill you like nothing. And they make a ghetto in my town. And this...

On, on what, what reasons would they give for killing people?

What reason what, why they doing this?

Right.

There's no reason.

No reason.

No, they call you Jude, Jew, I mean, Jude, and this. No reason. They come in, in town, this was Hi... Hitler's thing. They destroyed the Jud... Jewish people, they killed the people. So, they took 'em first in the big ghettos, then they took 'em out and the, and if people could not work, they took 'em out and shoot 'em. If the war would be go on for another month, two, maybe I would not talking to you neither.


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