Joseph Rotbaum Ribo - July 5, 2005
Summer Before the War
Um, and in the summer, you went to these two other villages...
Yeah. Must be.
Would you rent a cottage, or something like that?
We had--my father had a--they had a horse and a carriage, and would fill up with our belongings that we needed, and then, some years eh, we succeeded to rent a house in one of the villages. But eh, the last year I remember we lived in--we put up a tent. Father put up a tent because he couldn't find a house, so--it was in the orchard that we were supposed to--where we were picking the fruit, and eh, we lived in a tent. And those times were very, very pleasant for us. The kids would play. There was a river not far away, and eh, even go with the Polish kids to pas...pasture their cows, and outside go into the forest to pick up eh, eh,???- what they call it, eh? No? Grows into the forest, there are red ones, blue ones...
Berries...
Berries, yeah. It was pleasant.
And you, you had pleasant relationship with your siblings--with your brothers...
Oh yes.
...and your sisters, and all that...
Yeah, yes.
Do you remember where you were when the war started?
When the war started, we were in eh, Głowaczów, in Głowaczów. And father--I'm sorry, no, no, we were in the village when the war started. Were still in the village...
Ursynów?
...but we came back. When the war started, we were still in the village. And we went there, the policemen came, and eh, announced every suitable man should go and report into the army. And then we went back to town and eh, we still left. Mother was still there with us--with me, yeah, with us, and father was recruited. And then mother had to finish the sale of the fruit that we had still go to market, and in one of them, in the town of Pionki...
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