Cyla Wiener - July 13, 1992
After the Germans Arrived
Your husband's name?
My husband, yeah. My husband's?
His name?
My husband passed away 18 years ago, you know.
What was his name?
Sam.
Sam Wiener?
Sam. His name was Sam, you know.
He survived the war too?
Yeah. He was nice and he was good. We laughed. We got married, you know. He has a mother and a sister too, living, no father. He was brought up without a father. His father passed away when he was six months old, you know. But he was, he had education, everything. It was okay.
Tell me, after the Germans came, so you were with your mother?
Yeah, I lived, no, I mostly was staying with my mother. You know, everybody, where ever they lived, they used to come to doubling up. You wouldn't believe, we had more 30, 40 people always in the apartment. The whole family used to come up to the, to my parents apartment. Unbelievable, really. But, after a few days, when they start coming in the German, more and more, everybody got scared and afraid and the men, you know. And everybody say, the woman can stay, but for the man, is very bad for. Better go and do something and leave and they were thinking about to leave for, to go to Russia, you know. To Russia.
So did they do that?
Yeah, and they did...
Your brothers and your father?
My brothers, not everyone of them, some of them has children, they didn't want to leave the wife and the children. But some of them did. They were so scared, but they were hearing, seeing what the Germans are doing. We were afraid too. Said maybe you go away for awhile, then you will come back. Nobody was thinking about things that something like this could happen, yet. So my husband, my three, four brothers went, you know. And my cousins, they all together went to, to Russia, you know, to Lemberg, to Russia, you know, to Russia. It was not Russia later and Russia took over, at first it were belonging to the Germans, you know, the Germans. Then later Russia took over, you know.
Did your father go with them?
I was, I was alone, you know. But I, I took in my sister-in-law, one of my brother's wife, Fred's mother, and Fred, and, uh, his brother, younger brother, took over to me. They were staying with me, you know, in my apartment.
Fred was just a baby?
Fred was 10 years, or 11 years, something like that. His brother was younger, a couple years, something like this. They were staying with me in my apartment. I lived a little farther. You had to cross the bridge over this place was called Podgorska, you know.
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