Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Nathan Nothman - November 30, 1982

Being a Jew in Poland

Mm-hm.

They came into Kraków, you know, and they couldn't succeed in Kraków, but they could succeed in small town. In the small town the population--the Jewish were not--they were not aggressive like we were. Because when they come to Kraków, Jews didn't stood and watch...

Mm-hm.

...when they get hit, they hit back. And we hit back. But they could not go. We--they could not go the middle of the city. If the middle of that Kazimierz-- Kazimierz is a Jewish neighborhood. That was uh, really where the Jews live, they had a quarantine. So they couldn't come in and just start war because they would be way, way--they supposed to run way back and there was not, not escape. That means from all direction they were Jewish. So they probably come out, outside of that Kazimierz and the Jews living in--they couldn't do nothing, I mean very little...

Mm-hm.

...very little. Because we were--we didn't uh, we were not silent. We hit back with anything we had. There's a lot, lot of Jewish people who are really strong--they didn't say--they wouldn't, they wouldn't take one cheek and hit the other one. Before they got hit, they hit back.

Mm-hm.

That's--we--there were some pogrom, but well. I remember uh, 193...uh, '3...'34, '35 very little.


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