Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Fred Kendal - May 25, 1983

And when you were taken to the work camp um, what were the conditions like there?

That was um, uh, a barrack, but I remember that. It was a--it was like barracks. Um, I think--now I'm trying to picture of it. Where we lived in those barracks--I know there was barb wire, I know there were gates on one side but the other side where the forest was at, I don't think there was any wire there because it was just wooded area and it was like you couldn't go anywhere, you know. It was like--at least that's what lays in my mind that I don't know if it's--that's the way it was, you know. There's some stuff that isn't there.

Yeah. Do you remember what you felt and what you, uh...

I would say it's so--yeah, it felt like you know. That was really--I think the feeling was--when all of these was going on, it was a very heavy feeling. I don't know how to describe it but it was just like, you know, something that is laying heavy and it was, you know, that kind of a feeling and I think a lot of it was carried over from the adults because as a kid you just feel what, what the atmosphere is around you and that was the feeling at that time. Of course you, you heard that this one was killed and this was taken--this one was taken and shot and that one, you know, it's stuff of that nature. Uh, fear--a lot of fear. A lot of fear. Yeah.

Um, your mother and younger brother, they went to the war camps?

Yeah, yeah. We went--and I don't know why but we went as a family, and don't ask me why, but we went as a family. And I know that there was very few that went in as families but we went as a family my Uncle ??? and his wife and his daughter and there were a few others that went as families and I can't tell you why. Now I know that my other uncles that went there, their wives and children remained in Berezne and grandma would not go with us because she was staying with the women and the kids and that the other--she said "How can I leave them?" And she was going to stay with them and grandpa went with us. See, now--go ahead.

Wife: ???

Oh, okay.