Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Germans Leave
Uh, and this is in August you think, later in the summer?
Sometimes later in the summer, yeah.
And the, the, the village was still occupied by, by the Wehrmacht?
No, the Wehrmacht...
Was there still...
We had no occupation--the Wehrmacht moved on.
Moved on...
Yeah, but they went--the Wehrmacht was, was gone. I mean, we could see the Wehrmacht going on the--we were close by a highway that was from Lvov to Kiev. Going, going from Lvov to southeast--southwest from us, if Kiev is northeast from us. So you know, like from south to north, but at an angle. Now, we could stand this(?)--there you know, on my--our porch or the neighbor's porch. On that whole street you could--there was a part where you could see the highway and you could see all that movement. We used to walk to the highway to see the Germans on the move.
The trucks and the motorcycles.
The German army on the move, during the day, it was mostly. You got to have your sleep--dark. And then things began to change. Every so often, sometimes two--three times a day, a truck used to get out--get off the highway of the free--you know, of the highway and come into the village to rob. Uh.
To rob?
Yeah. Well, I call it rob. Maybe they just foraging, you know. They wanted chickens, they wanted apples, they wanted fruits you know, all kinds--whatever they could get for--like banditos you know, you see in the movies.
Yeah.
You know, the, the banditos come and they take everything out of the house, whatever.
They, they were...
That's exactly what was happening.
There weren't taking people?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No people, no catching--no, no nothing. The problem with the chickens you know, you have to--the chickens are running around. They--they're not cooped up. They're free to roam the yard over there. And they couldn't catch them. "Ach, verfluchte Jude!" you know, they take the gun and "boom" kill the chicken.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn