The War
The Mass Murders and Our Escape into the Forest
I just waited there to die. God knows what I was thinking at that time. I was alone there for at least ten days. Then one day, a farmer looking for wood in the forest saw the four or five log cabins, and must have thought they were aban - doned. Dismantling the cabins would be simpler than chopping down trees. I could hear chopping noises from a distance. He must have noticed that smoke was coming out from my cabin, through a little metal chimney, so he came over. There was a small window in the roof for light, and he looked in and saw me lying there. I could see that he was hiding his face so that I would not be able to see him. I suppose he was afraid that if I were to be caught and in- terrogated, I would identify him. People were afraid for their lives — the Germans did terrible things to those who helped Jews stay alive. But he came back the next morning, opened the window and lowered down a bottle of milk for me on a string. Every day he came and brought me food. Meanwhile, the people who left me behind had managed to cross the river and were looking for a place to stay. At this time, no Jews lived in houses; they had to live like animals in the woods. My uncle Usher, however, was a very unusual person, strong and tough. He somehow managed to get weapons and to live in a house in a secluded area, close to the edge of the woods near a swamp. God knows who owned the forest, but the owner had employed a Polish watchman, and this was the watchman’s house. The watch- man was in the army, but his young wife and her daughter lived there. My uncle, my aunt, and my cousin Boris were living with this woman. To say that my uncle, a Jew, lived in a house was like saying a person had gone to the moon because for a Jew to live in a house at that time was incomprehensible. In this house, they baked bread and had food. Other people used to beg for food and would come to my uncle’s house because he was, by those standards, a well-to-do person. My Aunt Chava was a very kind woman, and shared what-
115
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online