Joseph Rotbaum Ribo - July 5, 2005
Introduction
The following is an interview with Mr. Joseph Rotbaum Ribo at the home of his aunt in Franklin, Michigan on July 11, 2005. The interviewer is Sidney Bolkosky.
Tell me your name, please, and where you are from.
My name is Joseph Ribo, formerly Rotbaum. I am from Israel, since 1948. I'm born in Poland, in a small town called Głowaczów, in the Radom region of Poland.
Um, tell me something about your memories from Głowaczów before the war.
Okay. Well, what I remember quite well eh, was seven-and-a-half-years-old when the war broke out. Eh, my family consisted, of course, my parents, two, two eh, sisters, and eh, one brother at that time, another was born later. And eh, the-most of the--my parents' families on both sides--brother--my fathers' brothers, and sisters, they--most of them lived in Głowaczów. Głowaczów was...
What were their names--your parents' names?
My father's name was Israel. My mother's name was Regina, or Rikle in Yiddish.
And your brother?
My elder brother was Nahman, and my sister Rivka, and the youngest sister eh, Kraindle, and the youngest uh, brother was born within, during the war years, in the beginning of the war, was Beryl.
And how large was the extended family--aunts, uncles, first cousins?
Well uh, we had in Głowaczów itself, there were my mother's brother, and uh, two sisters, lived in Głowaczów. Eh, one other sister lived in Warsaw. And my father's brother eh, lived in Głowaczów, and one sister of his lived in eh, Kozienice, which was also about an hour's drive. But then you drove, usually on a cart and horse, not on a, in a car.
Kozienice was the capital of the region?
No, but it was the biggest city. Later on, when they moved us out from Głowaczów into the ghetto, was the ghetto of Kozienice.
So then all your aunts and uncles were married?
Yes.
They had children?
They were all married, all children.
How large would you estimate the family was?
Well uh, I would say average of five eh, children for each family. Five, maybe six eh, children for each one of the families.
Thirty people?
At least. At least.
And how many survived?
Two. My uncle, Moshe Dorfman, and his son, Henry Dorfman--the only two that survived in addition to me.
So no one from your immediate family?
No. No. They were all exterminated in the Treblinka con...eh, extermination camp.
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