Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Joseph Rotbaum Ribo - July 5, 2005

Did you wear a star, armband, anything like that?

Yes, at the latest date, not at the beginning.

Not in the beginning?

Not in the beginning. And uh, from, after certain period in that place, we were moved into the Kozienice ghetto, into the ghetto. It was already I think the end of, at the beginning of 1941.

And how were you moved?

Uh, we were put--they brought eh, they eh, collected from the Polish villages carts with horses and everyone had eh, one or two families--to put their belongings, and brought to Kozienice, to the ghetto.

Do you know why they moved you to Kozienice?

Why?

Why.

Because at that time, they were all the--they were putting all the Jews into ghettos.

So why not have a ghetto in...

'Cause it was very small. That's why they also moved them out from Głowaczów. There weren't enough, to put them in the ghetto, and encircle them with barbed wire or fences.

Was there a train in Głowaczów?

No.

Was there in Kozienice?

Uh, yes. There was in Kozienice. In Głowaczów there was only a part that was coming from uh, Warsaw, from Warsaw through Głowaczów to Radom.

Do you think they wanted to put you in a place where there were trains?

Could be, could be, you know. Could very well be, that that was the reason.

What was running through your mind--and you're now eight years old--and you're moving from one place to another, what did you think? This was the way it was?

I relied on my parents, and...

And your father was home, right?

My father was already home at that time and eh, of course it was frightening, we all facing unknown. We didn't know what's going to happen. They took us to Kozienice. We didn't know where we were going to live there. And then, the Jewish eh, committee in Kozienice put us into a very--in a flat--in a room--in a flat of two...

Do you remember those people?

No, personally I don't remember them. I know their--I read their names, but I personally don't remember.

You don't remember. So what did people think, think about the members of the Judenrat, the Jewish police?

The Jewish police? It depends. Some of them were very favorable, and others were very harsh, of course, otherwise they would get eh, reprimanded, you know? And eh, they tried, I think, their best to do--to keep the place alive and eh, to supply the people some food the best they could.