Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Abraham Mondry - June 15, 22, 29 & July 13, 1992

Did you ever think to go back to Mlawa?

No, no interest. I had opportunity to go lots of times. And I wouldn't go, not to Poland, not to Germany. I wouldn't spend a dime. You see, what happened to me one time, I went out the ghetto, in Warsaw, in the ghetto. That was 19... In 1941, I think. It was December. You see, and I had to take the station, the train. It was about a quarter of a mile away right from the ghetto.

[interruption in interview]

In the Warsaw ghetto.

Yeah. And I have to, see. It was... They call it ???.

Tell me again.

The street was called ???.

Uh-huh.

See, in the, in the station, the, the station, the train...

???

It was like, like, there you're straight for a quarter of a mile. I had, like, a pack on me, you know. I had these three, these three young, young Polish bastards, you know. And they start to holler, "Juda, Juda, Juda!" It's all Germans around there, you know. That's not what I need. Finally, some Polish girl comes down and says, what, what you want from them. I give 'em money too. I feel I have a gun, I'd kill 'em. And they followed me into the station and it was all German by the station, I had to hide myself, my face to get a ticket, you know. So, I don't know. It was a miracle. But this Polish girl, she was in the twenties, young, and she holler. She, she turned 'em away, she said, "I'm going to call the police on you." She bought me a ticket, you know.

So, she saved your life. She saved your life.

Well, no, but help, you know. I was a little afraid, you know. You know, sometime the way you act, they can tell you, you're, you're suspicious, you know.

So, she bought you a ticket for the train. Where were you going?

I was going back to Mlawa. But I had to go to about sixty kilometers where the, where the point is, you know. Part, part Poland, another part Germany. They annexed it. It was the last train, you know, I had to go. Now I wouldn't have to stay night, you know. And she went there too. She smuggled through.

The Polish woman.

Yeah, young girl. She took me home after...

To her house. And how old were you then?

I was eighteen. Seventeen, eighteen.

But it never occurred to you that you might find somebody who survived in Mlawa after the war?

No, I didn't even think anybody survived. How could they survive, they come out with me?