Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Martin Koby - April 20, 1999

Were you still in school or did that stop?

No, that--school stopped automatically.

When the Germans came.

Yes.

Uh-huh.

School stopped automatically. Uh...

Both for Jews and for...

For everybody.

For everybody, okay.

The funny part of it is, about sometimes in end of July, maybe sometimes in August, I know it's--it was still summer, there was--everybody you know--there was an announcement that we're going to start school. It's interesting that you mention that. And uh, everybody go to school. I went to school too. I told you this, the public school was in a--on a little on a hill-like you know, an elevation from--away from the river, a little, little hill. And the Russian Orthodox church was there. The, the priest was uh, right next uh, next to the school, had his household. And on the same lot as the school was, the guy that the--the cantor from the church. They call him the ???. And Ukrainian, it's said ??? yeah, okay, like a shamash in a shul, okay.

Yeah, okay.

But he's sort of like--he's a shamash and a cantor.

Together.

Yeah, he, he, he sings the, the liturgy.

Okay. This is Greek Orthodox?

Greek Orthodox--Ru...Russian Orthodox or whatever.

Okay. Good.

And we went to the school. And I went to the school you know, whatever you do, you ran around, you played tag and hide and seek you know, all over the place. Well, somehow everything got organized and they're going to start the pr...the ceremony is going to start. This was the first time that I noticed that the church was participate--very participating in the ceremony of opening the school.

That the--there was a mixture of religion and...

No, no. Not religion. There's only one religion.

Yeah, but, but involved with this school?

But the church was really in the open.

Uh-huh.

Under the Poles, there was like a separation of church...

And state.

...and state.