Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Joseph Rotbaum Ribo - July 5, 2005

So there was food rationing?

Oh yes, there was food rationing, of course.

Had that already started in Głowaczów?

Yeah, that already started in Głowaczów.

What, what kind of rationing? Do you...

I don't--the main problem was uh, I think, if I'm not mistaken, eh, eh, product that produce the ???, the, the agriculture products were more available. We could also manage with the Polacks around in the vicinity. Eh, there was a problem of bread. I remember because the Germans uh, took a lot of the eh, corn when the Polish--they took it to Germany, directly from the Polish people.

Farmers?

So there was a lack of eh, corn to make meal.

Was there meat?

There was not much, but eh, there was. Again, 'cause Polish people also restricted to bring in cows for sale like they did in the market in the past.

Sugar? Margarine?

There was sugar. I don't remember about margarine. But eh, eh, there was no margarine, there was eh, eh, butter, which home-produced. I know my mother would eh, beat up milk, when there was and made butter, butter herself.

Even after the Germans came?

Even after the Germans.

And what about in the ghetto? Was it the same?

No, in the ghetto it was much worse, much worse. There were restrictions where you couldn't go out of the ghetto, that's all, officially. And uh, Russian uh, products were much eh, eh, less in quantity and in variety. And that's one of the reasons why my father started eh, running out of the ghetto, and eh, taking eh, all kinds of things to sell in the villages--go to the villages and bring back food.

How did he do that?

First of all he started with our own uh, uh, whatever we could uh, give away, uh, not need. We were living in a two room flat with two families, another woman who had two kids in one room, and we with five kids in another room. So, was very congested and most of the things couldn't--and then he, he took a load from other Jews that wanted eh, to get rid--or get food. He would take, for instance, a jacket from one of the people, and bring him back some potatoes or some uh, meat, or something, or some eggs from the village.

Wasn't that dangerous?

Oh yes. Of course it was dangerous. If he would be caught on the way, he would be shot.