Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Escape of Cousin
Right there was an Olga.
And uh, Ivan was standing there, I don't know how and I guess he told Manya, "move," and he gave her--because she stood naked there, he gave her some c...took off his coat and his, whatever, his shirt and he told her to run to his house. And his wife was there with the kids. And she was there for a while.
She...
And I don't know where she hid out.
So she just ran away from the di...
Right there from the, from the ditch there.....
...massacre. And she took refuge in Ivan's house.
Ivan's house. I don't know for how long, but she survived the war, okay.
What was Ivan's last name? Do you remember his last name?
No, I do not remember Ivan's last name.
Okay. It doesn't matter.
Uh so, so that was the--but no one--not, most of the people did not go back. And who are--who did they kill? That's the, the, that's what really bothers me. Our Jews in our village were apolitical. They did not partici..not--they did not participate politically and you know, like with the villages of any sort...
Yeah.
They didn't belong here. They didn't belong--although they were accused of ship--shipping gold to the Germans. Nah! And with the Russians, with the--with the Communists you know, you brought on the kolkhoz or something ???.
And then the ???...
And on top of it they keep going, that you killed Jesus Christ and all kind of--whatever--everything was always our fault. It was the middle of a war you know, we--and yet they go and they kill this--my grandma. Ah! She wasn't, she wasn't uh, out from her house. She never left her, her, her little--her little wood house and the yard and the chickens. Dorcha, Dorcha must have been six or seven years old, she--come on!
All in one day they did this?
This is all in one afternoon.
Uh-huh. Uh, I want to just...
[interruption in interview]
I mean, what's the difference? All the children perished just like the adults. I mean, they were part of the population.
Uh-huh.
I mean, well that what...whatever the theory is.
Well, it seems that they were particularly targeting children.
Hm, I don't, uh...
You don't think so?
No, I don't think so. That was a--what's happening in, in uh, what's its name--Kosovo.
Kosovo.
What happened in Bosnia? They didn't target--whatever gets in front of you, you kill.
Yeah.
Ah! I don't know. But you know, Ivan--this was already after the summer of '43.
Oh.
No, no. No, no. This is a different story.
So it's been two years already since the--since the Germans came in.
Now they liquid...yeah, this is--so the liquidation happened in '42, remember?
Uh-huh.
Some places September--October. The weather was not nice, okay? I remember that. Did I keep--why didn't I keep a calendar or a diary?
Where were you when they started to liquidate the ???...
We were, we were on the, on the--we were already in hiding. You mean in particular?
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