The War
The Mass Murders and Our Escape into the Forest
warm. My hands did not freeze because I always held them in my armpits. My nose and ears did not get frostbitten either. The winter was especially severe and we went around begging for food from farmers, who would throw us a few potatoes. We could have survived if we had been left alone and not been at- tacked all the time. My feet were beginning to hurt me badly — I guess they were beginning to get frostbitten, but there was nothing I could do because the people who had the heated hut would not let me stay with them. Gradually, my condition became worse and worse, to the point where I was in such pain that I was no longer able to walk. I have thought about this over the years. The feet are often the first part of the body to get frostbitten. I imagine that in prehistoric times human beings walked on all four limbs and the heart was in a more central position in the body. But when we started to walk upright, perhaps our legs grew bigger and longer, and the heart re- mained where it was, so the legs are now farther from the heart and have less efficient circulation. Another group of about thirty-five Jews was hiding on the other side of the road that cut through the forest. Suddenly, we got word that during the morning hours the Ukrainians had attacked their camp and slaughtered most of the people; one or two escaped. One of the men knew we were hiding deep in the woods, and he came to warn us and to seek shelter. Our group was very concerned that we would be next. Most of the villages on our side of the river were Ukrainian, but across the river, there were some Polish settlements, so people thought the other side of the river would be safer. They had heard rumors that the Jews were better off there and that some of them were armed with rifles. Our group decided to abandon the camp and go to the other side of the river. But because I could not walk anymore, they decided to leave me behind. However, their attitude toward me seemed to improve and they started to treat me better. They picked me up and put me into the hut
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