Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Education After the War
Because you were fourteen already?
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
So I went to school. And uh, oh, that summer I was busy. Aron Wolfovitch Krejanik. Aron Wolf, Aron Wolf Krejanik, that was his name. Was a short little man--Jewish man with Coca Cola glasses, a self-educated intellectual. And uh, he came back, he came home, because he thought it was going to be Poland like it was before--the way that Poland, you know this--all this--there was a change in...
Yeah.
Polish territory. And uh, he told my father that I should go to school as soon as school opens up and should prepare me for it.
Well--okay. Go ahead.
So he taught--you know, he came and he taught me how--a little bit of math, a little bit of geography, a little bit of uh, uh, reading literature, reading and writing and spelling, because I was behind. I didn't go to school under the German occupation.
And chemistry, did he teach you...
No, no chemistry. A little bit of physics you know, just to get me going. So when I had to go to school, I should not be left you know, in the third, fourth or fifth grade. I should get up in maybe seven, eight. But uh, so I spent all summer with Aron Wolfovitch Krejanik, who worked, who worked for the food that he got.
And what was happening in the schools say, in the, in the city? You didn't go to school then?
No we didn't stay in the--when?
Well, he was your tutor.
Yeah, this was in '44, after liberation, after the Russians came back.
So things weren't quite back to normal yet, is that what...
Oh, no, no. The city was bombed every day. The Germans used to bomb the city every day.
Especially in...
So they used to hit Zdolbunov, Rovno and Sarny. The other place I don't know. But I know that every night they used to bomb. And uh, it was big movement of troops, tremendous. I learned about Studebakers and Dodgers were going day and night.
Studebakers and Dodgers?
Yeah.
Huh.
Studebakers you know, with those...
Yeah, yeah.
...slanted hoods--green, you know. And the--they were so soft and quiet.
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