Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Martin Koby - April 20, 1999

Parents Warned

All right. So they told--someone, someone warned your parents...

Or, or someone...

...or did they decide on them...

...warned the Jews of the village that they are scheduled for liquidation.

But you don't know who it was?

What do you mean?

Who, who...

Who warned us?

...gave the warning?

The, the, the represent...he was the principal of the school. He was a Polish man.

Okay. He...

...that was a representative to--in the county seat. You know, the county is a big county.

Yeah. You think he was with the under...with the underground--partisans?

No, I, I don't think so.

He just decided he want...

He just happened to be a functionary. The Ukrainians elected him to be--he was an independent, right, because--well, I don't know why. But he was, was an educated man. He understood things. And he was selected to go there.

Let me, let me ask you something about that. Um, the Jews were, were warned virtually everywhere. I mean, in, in Hungry they were warned. They were warned in, in Bulgaria. They were warned in...

By who?

Well, some...sometimes uh, by their neighbors.

Yeah.

But they never believed anybody. They never--so they never left. But in this case, everybody seemed to believe this one man.

D...d...gone everybody believed him, because they had--you know, I mean, you think now you--you finally learned something in your life. Why would they contact the man that goes there every Friday for about a year--a year and a half, June to October, okay? Why would they contact a man and tell him such a thing? You see, I found out that from my mother here in Oak Park.

You mean, the Ger...the Germans, why would the Germans...

No, no. The Jews contacted the representative of the village that used to go to the county seat and all the proceedings...


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