Esfir Lupyan - December 17, 2007
Children in Ghetto
And I remember how we lived, how we played. We come this... I was, I was very smart that time and, you know, boys play and girls play together in hide ‘em game? Hide ‘em seek?
Hide and seek.
Hide and seek, yes. And we were--we children--we were... we uh, try to go under wire and um, on, on street, that is forbidden. And we play until we see a Gestapo or, or somebody uh, from Germans go and everybody, everybody uh, signal, shout, "Hide! Hide! Germans!" So, we go under... We go inside. If inside, we are safe. If it's outside, we killed. We killed right away without question.
They're shooting children?
No ??? They don't...
Did you see them do that?
I see. I see. I saw. I hear, even now. And everything. And one time, my uh, my, my, my, my dress uh, you know--how to say?--it's uh, I could not ??? Somewhere I... Oh, I could not, I could not go under wire because my dress...
Oh, so you didn't want to rip it.
Rip it. Yes, yes. And one boy, one boy come back and he saved me. He, he helped me to go under, under wire. He helped me and luckily I survived first time and he also. He, he was under risk if he didn't come to me. If he didn't have enough time, he also would be killed. So, we, we go... We, we didn't understand that how it was big risk in there, get out and stay, but we want to stay, you know.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn