Sonia Nothman - January 4, 1983
Conditions in Ghetto
Do you recall, was there a Judenrat in the, in the ghetto? Was there a...
Oh by us? Yeah, yeah. Of course, of course.
How did they operate? Do you...
Oh it was uh, I have a nephew, he's in Toronto. He was hiding by Poles. Very few, very few. So he was already fifteen times ??? and he was young then, and he with his brother. They, they force you. What could you do? You have to go. With, with uh, dogs. You didn't want to go, they bite you. So you went and they took you there and that's all. I wasn't 'til the last minute, I wasn't. They took me ???.
Did you mention an underground movement or a ...
By us, yeah, Skarżysko, no. I had a friend in Skarżysko. She came from Łódź. From the big cities when they formed the ghetto, lots of people came to the small towns. They thought the Germans wouldn't go there. So I met her there by us. She was a wonderful girl. Oh. She worked, I mean she, we slept in one barrack by ammunition. ??? So she used to steal ammunition and nobody knew. Nobody knew. I knew two guys, they were policemen. They belonged to the underground there. Because the factories there in Skarżysko were in the forest, forest. So she smuggled ammunition out. ??? We didn't know. Nobody from us knew. One day she didn't come home from work. ??? used to sit and sing all night Polish songs, German song. They caught her stealing and they shot her. ??? That was the underground. She's dead, I found out that was the underground.
Was there much smuggling in the ghetto to get food in or was there...
Oh yeah. The Poles who worked there smuggled in and they sold. Who got...People who have money, people who came from the same town, Skarżysko. There's the town and this was out of the town, the factories. So, they could take everything, 'cause they came before us. But they--us--they took, without nothing. So we came in. For us it was very poor there, this camp, very poor camp. Oh many people, many--the first time when they shoot us, the second day I remember a few guys, young guys, they went with me to school. There were several of them. They ran away. They brought them the following day back and they shoot them. All seven. Well, you didn't have a--where to go.
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