Esfir Lupyan - December 17, 2007
Minsk Survivors
There weren't many survivors at Minsk.
Many survivors?
There were not many survivors from Minsk.
People who... People who have uh, possibility to recreate, they very, very successful. They recreate in Siberia, in ??? in east, far east. My mom could not recreate in time because of me. I was in kindergarten and she doesn't want live with, with Gresha, without me. That was probably not good decision.
Did anybody expect they were going to kill everybody?
No, nobody expect what will happen. If, if people expect and know... No, it was not. In... Before war, it was many Jew were, was many Jew, big many Jew in, you know, in big organization, like it was big plant in Minsk uh, we made, made television and uh, bricks, you know. It was my mother's relatives. They want help her, "Bella, let's go. Let's go until we can do that. We have place for you uh, in ??? We will recreate you." But she said, "No, I cannot go until I will get Tira from, from kindergarten." And many people survived because of they, they had possibility to...
There were ways to go.
Yeah, to go.
But they took you by train from, from your home to, to the ghetto. To, to...
Yeah ??? two days. It was uh, it was created ghetto.
But they took you by train?
Uh, from train?
Yeah.
When we came from train? Yeah, in two days. We had, we had a small house, regular small house our own. That, we lost it and they sent us to another house.
How long was it... were you in the train?
In train?
Yeah.
When we were children, from kindergarten to station to, to rail, rail, rail station in Minsk?
From the, from the rail station to the ghetto. You said you went by train? They put you in boxcars. In cattle cars.
It's, it's, it's uh, downtown. It was...
So, it wasn't very long?
No, no, it was not. ??? train station.
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