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338 LUBOML
pits of the Wishniewo brick factory. However,
the owner of the brick factory, Terebucha, had
taken Chayim out of a pit, tied his hands, and
handed him over to the Germans in town.
This is how the first week passed. My wife
began to complain about pains and that she
couldn't stay the whole time lying down. We returned
to our old plan of traveling as Christians.
Yet we did not know what had happened to
Moyshe Gershenberg and if we could proceed. I
told our peasant the whole story and asked him
to visit the village of Pervis, locate the peasant
Panas, and ask about Moyshe. Ivan went and returned
with bitter news that Panas knew nothing
and had not taken any Moyshe. I was of the
opinion that Panas had murdered Moyshe. Still,
we decided to travel there as Christians.
After we pleaded with him and paid him well,
Ivan agreed to take us in the direction of Glusha.
On October 15, 2:30 in the morning, we came
down from the attic, organized ourselves, filled
out the documents, and began our journey. The
peasant knew the roads well, and at dawn we
arrived at the police post in Masheve. The German
guard told us to stop. He checked our documents
and told us to proceed.
Three miles along the way, the road was
sandy and it became difficult for the horses to
pull the load. They refused to budge. Having no
alternative, we said goodbye to the peasant and
thanked him for his good deed. We continued
on our way, hitching rides on passing carriages,
until we reached the village of Buczen (Bicin).
Near the village we met a local peasant and I
attempted to hire him to take us toward Glusha.
He agreed and asked us, in the meantime, to
come into his home and wait until his return.
After waiting a long time, I decided to try to get
a means of transportation from the local village
committee. The representative promised he
would take care of it, and in the meantime I returned
to the home of the peasant.
Suddenly, four Ukrainian policemen arrived
on the scene and demanded to see documents. The
senior officer took all the documents and said:
"What kind of Pole are you, you are a Jew with
whom I worked together before the war." I pretended
not to hear, but he continued to ask: "You
don't remember me?" and started to recall our
working together.
I saw that further denials were out of the
question, so I decided to admit who I was and at
the same time told him: "Nikolai, you remember
how well we got along. And if I succeeded
in escaping from the ghetto, do you have to be
the one to kill us?" He replied that he had made
a mistake saying what he did in front of his
friends. Now he could not help me because they
could report him to the Germans.
He ordered us to come with him and the other
policemen. We walked about a mile from the village,
and when we came to a cluster of bushes,
Nikolai ordered us to enter it. My wife understood
we were about to be shot and she began to
shout, "Shma Yisroel." My heart turned to stone.
I could not utter a word.
Nikolai ordered me to open the packages. He
divided the items among his friends. He told me
to give him my watch and I gave it to him. He
saw two rings on my hand and told me to give
them to him. I also gave him the money as he ordered.
Luckily, they were satisfied with this. They
left us with 10 yards of white linen and a thousand
rubles.
As we walked out to the road, a peasant
passed by and Nikolai told him to take us to the
village of Wilemcza, where the peasant was going.
There we found a peasant who agreed to
take us to the village of Buzaki. In return, we gave
him a dress.
In Buzaki I continued to seek transportation.
However, I was informed that all questions relating
to transport had to be addressed to the elder
of the village. I came before him and introduced
myself as the designated forester in Wielka-
Glusha. I asked him to arrange a carriage to take
me to Glusha.
The elder replied that in order to do this,
he needed permission from the police in a village
3 miles away. However, he agreed to wait
until peasants on the way to Kamien-Koshirsk
passed by, at which time he would order them
to take us to Glusha.
It was getting dark and no carriages were
passing through town. We began to walk in the
direction of Mala-Glusha. On the way, we stopped