Ludvipol: A Modern Shtetl
Our Two-Year Reprieve
The system was that everybody worked for the Russians, and everyone got paid at subsistence level. There was some job securi- ty, and there were some social benefits, such as daily food rations. Each department ran its own affairs and had its own store because food and produce were difficult to obtain. Soap, sugar, oil, and many other items were impossible to find. Rations were distributed, but they were insufficient. However, if someone worked for a govern - ment agency, they were better off because each agency took care of its workers. My father had a few hundred workers in his department, and horses and wagons. They had a big store which sold to the work- ers. My father was directly in charge of everything, so we had more than enough. Of course, we had ration cards and got what everyone else was getting, but on top of that were the provisions from his organization. When the restrictions on us were removed, I was immediately called into school and notified that I could participate in all the ac - tivities. Everything returned to normal, although we did not get our house back because a clinic had already been established there. We remained in the little house, but we got used to it. The house was far from the school, but it was a nice walk. Nobody owned anything, but our life had improved consider- ably. We were no longer afraid to fall sleep at night. This was the last year before the Germans came in. We felt lucky for having escaped deportation. Ironically, had we been deported to Siberia, perhaps our entire family would have survived the Holocaust, but that is in hindsight. By then, we had heard many stories — the German atrocities were no longer a secret — from the refugees who came and settled in our town. We knew things were very bad and hoped that the agreement between the Russians and the Nazis would hold. But the Germans gained military strength and declared war on Russia, and it became obvious that the Russians would soon withdraw. The Russians encouraged the Jews to leave with them. Many people believed that things would be better for them in Russia, asleep
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