Pauline Kleinberg - October 28, 1982
Family's Reaction to War
Were there any options your family had when the war came? Could they do anything? Leave, stay, go here?
Yeah, they had one option. My father built a wall to hide the furs and the valuables, you know, in case, if we survive, we should--because the store was liquidated, robbed, degree...we should, you know--fur coats there was a very good thing. Took my mother's, his, my sisters and made a double wall and buried it. So you know what happened? One time they, they probably got that trick too. They discovered in basements double walls, they discovered in houses. They said--there, there were announcements, "Everybody has twenty-four hours to deliver all the fur coats and all the valuables," and all this. It was--and after this, "If somebody will have it, we'll find it--will be shot." You know what happened? One time, I was a little girl, my mother put on a coat--a fur coat on me and on top, and on top of--and on top a rope and cut pieces and burned it. My other sister and a brother staying outside to see if somebody doesn't come, because there was not far from us was a little river and when they found furs and they were tracing where it comes from. So this was no good to get rid of it either already. It was so many different tortures, so many different ways to, to, to kill you. So I remember that uh, what happened with, with those furs. But when my father died, after this--when he was beaten--a few weeks later, things began to be worse and worse and worse. My mother said, "Maybe he was a very good man," he had a, a regular burial, because some others--funeral people were coming. Others are not so dear, they didn't--they don't get it. But see, at least we were still together. Mother, my brother and two sisters and, and us.
In the town.
In the town, in the same place.
In your own home.
In the same place, in the same place yes.
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