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250 LUBOML
After our four months' hiding in the Polish
gentile's apartment, a dark day came to us. On
July 29, 1943, my father and my sister, Avrom and
Sorel Sobel, were inside the house rather then in
our outside hiding place, when suddenly German
gendarmes and Ukrainian police appeared,
made a thorough search, and found my father and
sister. I looked on with a stony heart from my
place of hiding as my father was being beaten to
force him to tell where the other members of his
family were hidden. My father accepted the beatings
so as not to betray us. They later took my
father and sister outside of town and killed them
there. Suffering greatly, we stayed on in our
hiding place: my mother, I and my two brothers.
At night we somehow escaped and ran into the
villages again.
A month later, new difficulties arose; the Poles
and the Ukrainians were killing each other. As we
were hiding in a Polish village, the Ukrainians
attacked the Poles, set fire to the village, and began
to butcher them with knives, saws, axes, scythes,
etc. As we were fleeing from the fire, we were
followed by bullets. At that time several members
of the Laks family were shot to death. From then
on we would see many villages burn; and the
shooting went on ceaselessly. We would hide in
numerous places.
After some time, we came upon another
group of eight wandering, hiding Jews. Working
together, we dug out a big underground hiding
place, where we hid for some time. The front
was approaching, nearer and nearer. It was by
then already 1944 and we were hoping that the
Russians might liberate us. During this time, in a
neighboring Polish village, there were still about
100 Jews, all members of a partisan band. It was
not long before the armed Poles murdered all the
Jewish partisans in battle and we became aware
that they were now looking for us.
One night in January, 1944, these armed Polish
Home Army fighters found our hiding place
and ordered us to come out. The ground was
covered with a fresh blanket of snow. There was
no question of disobeying them, for we were
surrounded by about 15 young Poles holding
loaded guns and hand grenades. They took us
into a lonely hut not far from our hiding place.
When they were not looking, I quickly climbed
up into the attic. When my mother tried to do the
same, the murderers caught her. They ordered our
Jews to give up their few valuables, and another
Pole told them to lie down on the floor of the hut.
A great wail arose as the Jews, my family, huddled
in one cornera little pile of Jews from whom
unnatural cries and screams were heard. Each one
buried his head into the pile of human beings. A
burst of shots from an automatic machine gun
were heard, a few sighs, and then all was still . . .
quiet . . .
I remained in the attic, witnessing everything
while looking down. I became as if paralyzed,
not knowing what had happened or
what to do. Suddenly a command rang out in
Polish, breaking the silence: "Scatter the murdered
bodies, around the room and set fire to
the house, so that not a sign of what happened
here is left!" But before obeying, they counted
bodies, and finding only 11, they began to look
for the missing twelfth oneme!
At once an inner order came to mehide! I
had no sooner dug myself into the straw when the
murderers were already in the attic. I felt the
murderer's boots treading on my body. I did not
move and they did not notice me. Soon I heard a
holler; "Yanek, Romek, prendzey, palee sye"
(Hurry up Yanek, Romek, the house is burning),
and they quickly jumped down.
I remained as if unconscious. Suddenly,
light . . . I see flames, my clothes are burningbut
I cannot move. When the hot flames reach my
body, with a wild leap I reach the other side of the
attic. The murderers were still outside, waiting
for the person to try to escape. But after they saw
that the whole house was engulfed inflames, they
started leaving.
At about that moment I leaped down from
the attic into the room below. I broke a window
and jumped outside. The murderers heard the
breaking of the glass and returned. I ran back into
the thick smoke that was pouring out of the
house. After a couple of minutes, when I felt they
were gone, I ran out of the "crematorium."
I ran with unusual speed until I reached our
former hiding place and jumped into it. I lay there
in a semiconscious state for a long time. "Yester-