Fred Kendal - May 25, 1983
Life with the Russians II
My grandfather was too old so we move back then ??? When we stopped at ???, the Germans used to come almost every single night and bombed this place and we really um, the parents would go off and, and we would run into the field, so that--oh yes, there was this big mountain that had a tunnel in it. We used it as a bombshell for that but it was later bombed. Ten to fifteen minutes running from the house that we were at and um, I recall that the minute the first siren would go off, everybody would ??? that one shelter. And one time we didn't make it and we got caught in the bombing and we were laying together and bombs were dropping all over the place and they had this searchlights on ???. I turn over and laid on my back and looked up into the sky, watching the search lights and the anti-aircraft fired then and this was going out for some time. And we stayed there for, I think, three months. I don't recall exactly how many. And grandpa got in town and watched me and ??? this flour, bags of flour. My mother used to bake bread and I used to take the bread out to the railroad station and sell it. And of course not sell it for money because they did actually--they didn't have much money but we trade with them for clothes. They give me jackets and boots or whatever--shirt, and then they would sell that to get other things and that's how we survived there. While we're there, we heard rumors that a lot of the Jewish people that survived were going towards Poland and from there, they were--they would be able to head out. These were rumors ??? that we would be able to head out of Russia and go towards--my mother tell the story and I really don't remember exactly how it all came about but somehow, grandpa and mother arranged--and another family--arranged for us to leave ??? and get on a troop train, and we wound up in Łódź, Poland, with this troop train.
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