Pauline Kleinberg - October 28, 1982
Hiding on a Polish Farm
Jewish, Jewish boy.
Jewish boy. He said he's from our city. And, and um, at one time, I, I think I knew--I didn't know him well, but when he said the name I had some idea who, who they--who he was. A young little kid, must have been fourteen, fifteen or so. And I--and before that, we also bumped into another couple, which we knew really well. They had the same business we did. And my sister said with one of her sisters she was going to school. They were a family. So they, they were already in another barn. Said she doesn't like them people there because she sees some stuff from Jewish--Jewish stuff and the people are not there. Who knows if they were not already shot or, you know, betrayed. So she stayed with us and we shared everything. But one time, this was--well, if I'm going to tell you this story--this, you might think that I'm a total nut, but I have to tell you. This is part of the story. This is, this is very, very, very unusual. They must have been very religious, religious people. We stayed in barn like the cattle, you, you don't see here in the United States a place like this--two cows--she brings them every morning potatoes cooked in, in a pot.
Husband: Even here in a farm you got two cows.
Two cows, raising chicken, and the side was a little river where they raised fish. And we were sitting there with the cows dirty and straw, you know, with, with--and lou...and lousy. And when she brought in potatoes in the morning for--to feed her cows or the chicken, so a few potatoes from this she gave us. She fed us. If not this, we die. So but one day, two Gestapo came in. Wait, what's called a koza, uh? No, no, I have to know this. Koza, koza, koza, koza, uh, I knew it. You know, that animal has the horns?
Bull.
No, not a bull. A smaller than a bull.
Husband: A white one ???.
No, no, no.
Not, not a deer. A goat?
A goat, right, right, a goat. A goat was there too. So one time, it was in the middle of the day a little--a few people here in the dirt. And that goat were here talking German. They came uh, hunting. In this area they came hunting, and they asked questions--the people there across where to go, in German. The people didn't understand--they were Polish--they didn't understand. We, we knew what they were asking, we un...we understood English, uh, German, but they didn't. But they, they, they were not after us. But that goat with his horn opened the door. And they stayed like this. We see their uniforms and we stayed. So the other people--this one man was more religious, said, "You know what, now, it's over. We better say the prayers before you die."
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