Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Demonstrators Arrested
In...inside the ???...
That's the only place you...
...in the back of the truck?
Yeah. And you...
So they were...
You had to go inside, to the...
In fact, they were just herding people...
Herding...
...like the round-up of the...
...and the...
...of the...
...the cattle, right.
???--yeah.
Or the ???. And they--and I watched that. And once they got into that street, they saw they cannot go back because all this secret agents were behind them.
Yeah. Were any guns visible?
No, no guns visible. And they are there--right away they knew that they have to get into the trucks. If they don't get into the trucks they're going to be shot, right? And people start screaming...
Hm.
...and hollering. And I turned on my speed and I ran the other way.
Uh-huh.
I found a gate that was open. I got into the backyard and through the backyard into the other side. Ran like hell.
And do you know what the demonstration was about, do you have any idea?
No, I don't know what the--this demonstration was...
Uh, but all these people were arrested?
I don't know. They--I'm sure that--I'm positive they were never let go.
You're probably right. So this was the--this was Stalinist heyday? This was...
Yeah.
...the height of this...
This was--well, it's, uh...
Now, you--do--you went home and you told your, your family this, I take it?
Ah! I was chastised. I was screamed at. I was threatened.
Because you were in--with--outside by yourself?
"You, you don't go to places like that. You're going to end up in Siberia for the rest of your life! What is--what got into you? Don't you know any better?" All...
Was there more discussion besides just feeling that you were, you were, you were to be uh, chastised for this? I mean, was there more about...
No, not after that. That one chastisement was plenty. I still remember...
Okay.
...it like today.
So did anybody talk about what...
Politics?
???
No, no.
What, what it meant? That...
No.
Well, you were--there were already plans to get out.
Oh, yeah. The plans were already on the way to get out. It was very...
Well...
...very difficult for...
When was the, the demonstration was what year, do you know?
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