Leon Salomon - June 18, 1990
Brother's Death
As a parent?
Yes, the older brother, the oldest child always takes care of the rest of them. And he was the oldest, so that was that.
And you think had he not come back...?
Had he not come back, the fate would have been different all together. He probably would have continued his education, and we would have been forcefully taken out into deep Russia and the fate would have been a different fate all together.
You think possibly you all would have survived?
Possibly all survived.
What happened to your brother?
My brother was one of the first ones who was killed, like I told you before, among fifteen people from this town. His crime was being a teacher in this town. And, of course, being Jewish. Those days nobody else was touched from the Jewish population in the city. Him and another one who was a barber I believe, Jewish people, and the rest were all town people who maybe belonged to the parties, some had a grudge against him, whatever may be the case, but all of that killing was done by the local people, not by the German people.
Under orders of the Germans you mean?
No, the Germans hardly came in. It was a transition period between when the Germans came in and the Russian people, the Russian Army retreated. So, who took over, some were White Russians, some were Poles and they, police, local police, what you want to call them.
And they took your brother out and shot him?
We didn't know that. It took quite a few days before we found out what happened to him.
Where were you when you found out?
We were in this town, Kobylnik.
What did you do?
Well my brother went to one of the guys who was a student of his, and he says, "Where is my brother, what did you do to him?" And they never wanted to tell him that. But after fifteen days, they finally ??? there were fifteen, it was mass grave of fifteen people and I was there to bury my brother on the Jewish cemetery. So I saw him there. I buried him.
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