Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Fred Kendal - May 25, 1983

Now, when we got into the forest--into the wood uh, we were successful in hiding out, again, due to my grandfather and my uncles uh, knowledge of the land and knowledge of the people that lived in the area and the people knowing my grandfather and respecting him for their honesty. Good Jew, you know, he was a good Jew. And uh, and uh, we--the way we would get food many times was by begging, going to the barns--the good ones and beg and many times simply by stealing--by going through their barns and stealing, and you know. Summertime came and in the fall it was much easier because then we were able get into the fields and just dig up potatoes and dig up vegetables and stuff like that. We were constantly traveling. Also, many of the Jews went away eventually through word of mouth some of them uh, got bonded together--two over here and two over there and uh, they sort of met together and they'd somehow find our group because uh, we more or less--I don't know how to word got out, but we sort of like, I mean there wasn't any group then but I don't know. ??? Uh, again, uh, there were many searches going on by the Germans and the Ukraines uh, police. I think the Ukraine police were even worse than the Germans because the Germans were afraid to get into the woo...forest--in the woods. Uh, the Ukraines uh, because, you know, because the heavy equipment couldn't go in there, but the Ukraine's would go and then they put prices on the heads where they brought somebody in dead or alive um, so that it was very--almost impossible to get out. There were prices, you know, where you would get one-hundred pounds of salt or, or um, or sugar, or, you know, stuff of that nature.