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her two children, another of his cousins with her
husband, his mother, his brother with his wife
and child, and some of our neighbors. There were
many of us. One of the cousins refused to hide and
remained standing at the table, ready to be taken.
Two more womena mother and her daughterlikewise
refused to hide.
The Germans came into the house, immediately
grabbed the three women, and took them
away without looking any further. In the middle
of the night we heard Ukrainians coming into our
house looking for gold, leather, and other valuables.
It was truly a miracle they did not find us.
We sat there behind the wall for three whole
days and nights. When we felt we could not take
anymore, we ran one by one at night to the stable.
As we ran we felt we were treading on dead
bodies. The stable that stood near the road was
made of thin, loosely-nailed boards, so the space
between the boards was two fingers wide. We
could see through these spaces everyone who
had been taken by the Germans. Fifteen hundred
people were first put in prison and then led to the
outskirts of town to the brick factory. We stayed in
the stable and saw all of this. We saw our neighbor,
Hershl Lifshitz, who was walking like a
madman without his cap. He and hundreds of
other Jews were being driven by the Ukrainian
police and German gendarmes who had huge
dogs. Soon we heard shots, for the place was not
far away. Then we heard the gendarmes and
police coming back to town, singing. Coming
after them, peasants were driving wagons filled
with the victims' clothing; before the execution,
the Jews were ordered to strip naked and their
things were collected by the Nazis in special
storehouses.
A couple of days later, several hundred additional
Jews were again taken, and still later, all
those Jews who were found hiding in attics,
houses, or bunkers were also taken away little by
little.
We stayed in the stable for ten days. Later,
my father and I went to a Pole by the name of
Kelus. We had known him for a long time, and my
father had known his father for a long time before
that.
It was Friday evening when father and I de-
THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 281
cided to go to the Pole. It was dark and raining as
we sneaked into his stable. When his wife went to
the stable to feed the pigs, we called out to her in
a whisper. She was scared and ran to tell her
husband, who came to us and told us to be quiet.
Three days later, my brother-in-law joined us;
and a day later, my sister appeared.
The next night I went back to our stable,
wanting to take my mother to the Pole, but she
had no strength to go with me. She told me, "Let
it be tomorrow." There were still 18 people left in
our stable. But the next morning, the Pole came
into his stable and told us the Germans had
caught all 18 and taken them to prison. Later we
were told my brother-in-law's mother had been
too weak to walk and they had shot her in the road.
We stayed on in the Pole's stable. He kept
begging us to leave, because he was afraid. A few
times father and sister went to other gentiles
asking them to hide us; but they all refused.
We stayed on in that stable till April 20,
1944two winters and one summer, He treated
us very well. But our condition was bad. There
were four people there, but he knew about only
three of us, and the food he brought for three was
only enough for one. We had to share it among the
four of us. Once a week he would bring us hot
water so we could wash.
On New Year's Day, when the peasant and
his wife went to church, there was a bitter frost.
Fearing we would freeze to death, the man brought
us hot water to warm our hands.
We spent two Passovers there. My father was
able to figure out when Pesach would fall and
asked the Pole to bring us only potatoes in skins
and a little water for the eight days of the holiday.
My father lay an d prayed and recited the psalms
he knew by heart. Thus we passed the first Pesach
and the second, too.
By April 20, 1944 the war front began to move
from Kovel nearer to us. The fighting in Kovel had
lasted five months. The Germans set up a field
kitchen very near us, and their cooks wanted to
use the stable to kill their sheep in.
The Pole screamed at them: "They took away
half my house for the labor office, and now they
want to take my stable away too. And what will be
left for me? Where will I keep my pig and my