Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Sigmund Rubin - January 12, 1982

Introduction

The following interview with Sigmund Rubin is being held January 12, 1982 at his home in Southfield, Michigan. The interviewer is Arthur Kirsch.

All right, we'll start out with who you are and where you're from.

Ok.

Describe your life before the war. Ok, who you are and where you're from.

Ok. My name is Sigmund Rubin, I am from Łódź, Poland. It was the largest textile city with a population about 150,000 Jews. In 1939 when the Germans occupied Poland, my city was taken by the Germans within one week. We fled to Warsaw in order to avoid some, uh...

To avoid the...

...To avoid the persecution by the Germans. Then we went to Warsaw, my father, a younger brother of mine, a uncle and two cousins. In Warsaw, by the time we arrived to Warsaw the city was surrounded by the Germans and there was no way out. Our intention was to get closer to the Ger...to the Russian border. We were there about three weeks and during the three weeks Warsaw was bombed day and night. We were bombed in, in a couple of uh, houses and uh, miraculously we were, we got out in one piece. After the Germans took over Warsaw we tried to get home, back to Łódź as soon as we could. We arrived to Łódź about five weeks later. At the time my parents had the hotel, before the war of course. And soon the Germans came into, to Łódź they occ...they took over our hotel and forced us to maintain and take care of all the maintenance. We couldn't stand this. Uh, we decided to leave everything and left to my father's hometown, which is Nowy Korczyn, it's near Galicia, in Kielce state. We were there 'til about, until uh, 1942 and we were forced to work. In the summer we worked on the highways and in the winter we worked on the highways also and shoveled the snow and constantly worked by force. In 1942, it was in September I believe, or the beginning of October, our city was surrounded by the Germans one morning and they asked, knocked at the doors and forced everybody out of the houses, of the homes, of the homes.

Do you remember the date on this?

It was uh, as I re... as I recall it was the early, the what, the early part of October. I can't recall exactly the date.

1942.

Nineteen-forty-two, yes.


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