Cyla Wiener - July 13, 1992
Starting the Ghetto
Tell me about the ghetto first. How did they start the ghetto?
How?
Is this March 1941?
From this what?
The ghetto?
The ghetto start '43, I think, 1943. No, ghetto start '42, but the Płaszów, concentration camp, '43, we went up to them. Płaszów, this was near Kraków, you know.
Tell me a little about the ghetto first.
Ghetto?
Yeah, what was it like in the ghetto?
It was a terrible thing. Really, it was.
You had to move?
We had to move from my place too, and we got a small, a apartment, one bedroom apartment, my parents went with me, in one of, this apartment.
How many just the three, four, of you?
Yeah. And, an...downstairs, my brother got apartment, with the two boys, Fred, and his father, you know. It was just terrible. It was...life was so hard. You know, we didn't have the money and everything to make a living, it was very hard for us. Struggle, it was terrible. We were afraid to go out and it was just terrible.
To get food, you would stand in lines?
In lines, that's right.
And what kind of food would you...
Food? Oh, we got bread. This was the most important, a little milk, you know. It was hard, hard. Everything was a, you know, a book, a book, you have to go and then...you had money, you could buy, you know. Some people were out, had a special permission to go out of ghetto. They used to bring some things. Somebody, a lot of went out to work, you know, still had permission to go to work, you know. Sewing and this...sewing uniforms for the German, you know. No, had permission, I was, in the beginning, I was going out too.
To do what?
Yeah, ???, I, you know. I tried to bring always something, you know. It was very hard.
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