Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Irene Sobel - September 8, 1998

Then what?

Then the bombers started flying.

Over Warsaw.

Over Warsaw. Uh, we--one night I remember, we moved, we spent, we planned to spend the night with our friends, in that same building across on a lower level. Apparently there was some concern that there was a greater danger for bombing if you are on the fourth level and I think ours was the top then to being on the first floor. So we--the whole family moved to spend the night. Uh, we were there more than a night, a few nights. Then--and I slept in a crib, in a large crib, the family had that. And I remember a firebomb falling into that apartment and blocking off the exit door, the only exit door. It was a long apartment, and at the one end was the exit door and uh, the only door on the other hand, the windows. It was what is called, the level, like a mezzanine would call--not a ground level...

First floor.

First floor. And the only exit was the windows. And the bomb blew out the windows and had a pile of scattered glass on the ground below it. My father jumped first and my mother was, and, was encouraging my sister, my mother was standing, "Jump, jump." The adults wer...some adults were and some children. And I remember jumping down into that pile.

You jumped a whole story?

My father caught me, but he fell with me and I got my knees scraped and we went--I got my arms cut or whatever, and we all jumped through that window. And we ran, my nightgown, whatever I had, and we ran to a shelter. In that shelter was a pile of people, cut up and bruised up, kids crying. And we stayed there for a few hours until the raids subsided.