Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Martin Koby - April 20, 1999

Who did they go to?

To two, to two Ukrainians who she suspected were the, the, the, the power behind the throne.

Yeah.

One man was Mr. Danillo...Daniel--Danillo.

Uh-huh.

But the other one, I don't know. These were known German sympathizers and known supporters of independent Ukraine, which is not a crime. The only thing that--the crime was they was German sympathizers. As far as I can see that, okay.

Of course, they were trying to kill the Jews as well.

Right. But that's a normal thing. So when mother and Hava went over there and they came back about a couple hours later--I don't know, some--they came back later in the afternoon. And she said to me, you go and tell your--go to the chute over there but be careful. She don't know what she and tell your father that everything is okay. What does it mean? Oh, why do man--why all this time, there were three teams of horses you know, two, two, two, with three wagons and they were going to take us to Rovno to the ghetto.

Oh.

You go to the ghettos your ???, you--you don't come back. So they--the two, the two sisters went and in the evening after sun down, I don't know, nine--ten o'clock, I don't--I remember that my father came home all bloodied up you know, puffed up over the face, "Go to bed." that to--go the other room. Because we had--there were beds in this room and in that room. This is a--and I had to go to bed you know, after an exciting day like that, went to sleep. We never went to the ghetto. And this why twenty-four people survived.

You got out?

No, we stayed in the village. They led the men out that night. Because my father came home, right. Everybody else was led out too, all the Jewish men. We never went to the ghetto. But the deal was that the Jews will work on the estate of the Polish--estate--there was a big Polish estate you know, big, big farm...