Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Understanding Situation
Did, did you have any idea what all this was about?
No. I did not really realize fully. But I was--knew there was this--things were dangerous.
Uh-huh.
Now, we have to also remember that shortly sometimes in A...July or August, all the--remember I told you the story where the--every--all the male Jews were taken into that cellar and beaten the hell up by the, by the, by the gym...gymna...college students?
Yeah.
We--this was being uh, and it was organized--we used to kind of worked already on the Polish estate.
Okay. The Polish estate is a uh, what?
A ???...
A Polish aristocrat?
Polish aristocrat. I never saw him. They used to have somebody--absentee landlord. They had--he had a representative there that used to run the farm. And my uncle Chaim, my brother's...
Uh-huh.
My father's brother lived--was like a neighbor to the estate. This was under the P...under Poland. Remember, with the--in order to avoid--to--I know it was in the summer. In order to avoid being shipped to the city, the Jews made a deal, we'll work on the--because that estate was converted to uh, the kolkhoz under the Soviets. Okay?
Yeah.
So there were cows and horses and pigs and--a big estate.
So the deal you're talking about...
About...
...is with the, with the Russians?
...was that the Jews--no, this was with the Germans. The Ukrainians hated the kolkhoz to start with...
Yeah.
...now, because they took away their independence. And uh, the Jews said they're going to work there on the--on this estate free as long as we are not shipped to ghetto.
Okay. Be--let me stop you for a second. The Jew--you said, the Jews said--who spoke for--on behalf of the Jews?
My mother and Aunt Hava, her sister Hava. You remember, I talked about it the other day?
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