Stefa (Sarah) Sprecher Kupfer - July 24, 1987
Polish Farmer
This is a non-Jewish?
A non-Jewish man, who used to shop in Momma's store. Blond hair, blue eyed to the big broad smile, with a flat nose, turned up, Polish, Polish farmer came carried, brought food, brought vodka, brought butter and bread and some flour and stuff and waited until this woman came home and he was introduced as Momma's brother.
What was his name?
His name was Wierzbicki. And he talked to her about keeping us that you know, they are looking for Momma, they want to send her to Germany, and his wife is not about to take on two more children to take care of and surely this nice lady is going to let us stay here until the Germans, or until the war is over and we can come home. She said sure, she is going to keep us. She is going to keep us as long as necessary. She is convinced, he gave her a little drink, put her in a good mood and everybody was very jolly and he left and she was convinced that it's okay.
Were you paying her rent?
We paid rent. Yes. He even said that he is going to send us money for the rent because how would the single woman with two children have money, but...
How did you have money?
We had our own money, my mother must have been a very, very smart lady. Because the minute the war started, maybe my father told her what to do, I don't know, she started to buy, I just told my husband about it, he also didn't know, she started to buy dollars, twenty dollar bills and she had it sewn into her clothing, and every time she would take it out and Mrs. Orlewska's brother would change it for us and this is how we lived. After the money ran out, which it ran out, we still had a little jewelry which he sold for us, also some clothing, Momma had very beautiful clothes and she brought it with her when she came. Nina and I had no clothes to wear at all, because our suitcase went with the woman when she disappeared, but Momma still had beautiful clothes that she brought with her and it was worth a lot of money. Every time she sold a dress we lived on it for a month. So, this is how we lived, but he told her he is going to send us rent money, so not to worry about we are not going to be a burden to her.
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