Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Irene Sobel - September 8, 1998

Negative Interaction with the Natives of the Soviet Union

Yes, my father. But for us as children, no. The only uh, I remember in that uh, commu...in that uh, Kolkhoz ???, my fear of interacting with these people--I remember we lived in that building, we had a room in the long, like a long courtyard. And on the other end was a farmer. And the only thing that I knew of him from a distance, every time I would come out, the man would expose himself. I was too young and unsophisticated about sex, but this whole thing sounded just scary and I would run in. So I didn't want to get out of the house. Yeah, but very little interaction. Uh, we did have some--my mother was a lit...was afraid that if they see us swooping up the grains of their fields after harvest that they might beat us up. So whatever interaction there was apparently was not a friendly one as a rule, yeah.


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