Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Nathan Nothman - November 30, 1982

I went once to a church--I want to find out if that's true, so I went in. But I didn't kneel, because I--to me, when I go to the church doesn't mean nothing that I, that I uh, have respe...not respect for my Judaism. I want to find out what's going on for myself. I don't want to be blind, I don't want to go just close my eyes and say, "Follow somebody, believe somebody." I want to see it. I want to go and see it myself. So I saw--I--so I heard from the priest. I mean, it's--let's, let's put it--there is no Pole--all Poles, even the good one--fractions, I mean fractions, who like us. They didn't like us. Why didn't like us? They think that we own the whole country, that we own everything. But we were poor. A lot of people were poor. Most of them were poor. Seventy-five percent working Jews day by day to make living. They only see the rich. But they didn't see the rich, rich non-Jewish where they have a lot of money--business. They didn't allow Jew to the government--they didn't allow Jew to high position, just, uh, there couldn't be a Jew policeman. Even a mail...a mailman. So to me it's uh, like I would say that, we have a--we had a comfortable life. And I remember I worked with my father as a plumber later on. And I remember he told me, "Remember it is a good trade." There were houses, they had bathrooms and toilets and this and this and this, and it's a good trade. So I went to work, you know, and I learned. That's what basically what's in Poland just go and learn. Didn't have enough education because late in 1938, '39 it was already...

Mm-hm.

...we couldn't go out because some Poles would go, "You a Jew," you know. They would say, "Are you a Jew?" you know. "Are you a dirty Pole?" You know, something like this. Are you this and this. But uh, if I was strong enough I stood and fight. I was wicked, I remember. If I had friends with me, we stood and fight. But there is no anti-Semitism, I mean riot I would say--somebody spoke, "Let's kill the Jews," I remember.