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312 LUB OML
names and promised to do what she could for us.
The next day we learned that the Germans
had concentrated masses of Jews and demanded
that the Lublin Judenrat provide us
with food. But the Lublin Jews did not have
the means to feed so many thousands of Jews.
To enforce their demands, the Germans selected
600 Jews and on the way from Lublin to
Parts chev shot all of them. This happened on
the night we arrived in Lublin; 600 Jews were
taken from the barrack where we were quartered.
The next morning Jews from Partschev
told us about the terrible massacre.
The Jews of Lublin were shocked when
they heard what had happened to the 600 Jews.
The Lublin Jewish leaders made an agreement
with the Germans that each Lublin Jewish
family would take in two Jews from the camp,
feed them, and be responsible for them. The
woman whom I had mentioned earlier became
guarantor for me and Yakov Melamed. Thanks to
this woman, we were freed from the camp and
were able to walk in freedom in the town of
Lublin. Another Jewish family took on both
Krupodelnik and Kroyt.
The woman who freed us (I have forgotten
her name) was a poor widow who lived in a
cellar; she had a true Jewish heart. We could
not stay long with her, since there wasn't
enough room for us. I recalled that Chane Kroyt
(the sister of Noach Kroyt) lived in Lublin and
I found her. She was happy to see me and
received me like one of the family; I stayed with
them for three weeks. Her husband,
Chvetkovsky, was the only one from his entire
family to remain alive. After the war he came to
visit me in Lodz.
In the three weeks that I was in Lublin, I rested
and regained my strength.
At the beginning of February, 1940, orders
came to Lublin for all Jews to gather in a certain
place, bringing their documents. Anyone who disobeyed
would be shot. I knew from experience
what this meant, although the Jews of Lublin did
not as yet fully understand.
I immediately got together with my Libivne
friends and we decided to run away to Chelm;
then go from Chelm to the Bug River; run across
the German-Russian border; and somehow come
to Luboml. I told this to the family of Chvetkovsky
(Hene Kroyt) and tried to induce them to come
with us, but they did not think much of the plan.
Just the opposite: they tried to dissuade us.
Chelm and Svyerzsh
We rented a horse and wagon and left Lublin at
night. We managed to reach our destination without
trouble, though at that time roads were filled
with danger. When the Germans caught someone
on the road, they would shoot him at once,
especially since we, as war prisoners, had no
papers and no permits to leave the town.
My cousin Miriam, who lived in Chelm, had
two children, Velvele and Chayele. When the
Germans had occupied Chelm, she sent Chayele
to Libivne, where she stayed at our house. Therefore
in Chelm we stayed with my cousin,
Chayele's mother.
The Jews of Chelm were in a desperate mood.
Despondent and hopeless, they sat behind closed
doors and windows and were afraid to go outside,
for only a week before the Nazi murderers
had exterminated thousands of innocent Jews.
The town looked like a living cemetery. According
to a report I received from my townspeople after
the war, my brother Chayim was exterminated in
the Chelm camp.
It became clear to me: the sooner we got out of
there, the better it would be for us.
My cousin Miriam, however, tried to talk us
into staying with her and sharing with everyone
whatever fate awaited us. I, on the other hand,
tried to persuade her and her husband, and if not
them then at least their son, Velvele, to come with
us. They refused to listen.
According to information I picked up, the
best way to cross the border was through
Svyerzsh, a small town on the banks of the Bug
(the Bug River was on the border between Russia
and Germany).
We rented a horse and a sled, and at night we
crossed the river to Svyerzsh.
Before I left, my cousin gave me a pair of
trousers into which she had sewn a $10 bill for her
Chayele in Libivne.