Simon Maroko - February 19 & 26, 1986
Expropriations
You walked to the German headquarters.
Yes, we had to. My father did not take the risk because he felt that uh, they could have found out in the records uh, I think it happened in '39 or so, that uh, it happened. And he, he wanted to be prepared. So when we came up with the story that it was his aunt's. It was, like uh, his aunt gave him a loan or whatever.
Did you talk on the way to, to the German headquarters?
I don't remember. I do remember that perhaps later on my father did talk to me about it again. And he told me what the true story was.
How were you feeling at this point?
When he talked to me about that?
Well, given the circumstances surrounding it in that particular event.
You get used to so much. We, we were used to this uh, gradual encroachment upon our civil rights. Um, okay. That's our lot. What can we do? And I felt so frustrated when my mother said a very smart thing when she said, "Why don't you boys go and hide." But I felt so frustrated. I had no idea how to go about it. It was only when I was really with my back to the wall that I did whatever I could think of. Besides, we had heard stories about Jews who had gone in hiding and had caught and had gotten extra uh, punitive treatment by the Germans. So it was uh, to some extent a deterrent on top of everything else. Us not knowing a, a lot of Gentiles.
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