Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Irene Sobel - September 8, 1998

Location of Labor Camp

Could you describe where, approximately where this place was?

Was--location wise as I mentioned to you--some distance from uh, from uh, Samarkand. But I couldn't tell you exactly how far. My sister said not too far, but none of them uh, neither I nor she knows exactly how far it was.

But when the war reached into the Soviet Union...

It didn't reach there.

It didn't go that far.

No, no, the war didn't go that far.

So you were out of the danger area.

Right. The war didn't go beyond Russia...

Right.

...and uh, and that was not--this was the Soviet Union, but not Russia. Komi is another uh, state in the north, in Siberia, so the war didn't get to us.

Were there Soviet troops that were in charge of this place or...

Yes, there were--we did not see too, in our daily life we did not see too many troops. There was no place to run. You were in the, in the tundra. You couldn't get away so there wasn't a question where would you go to. I have not heard of anyone escaping or even trying to escape.


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