There were still many bunkers
with thousands of Jews
and the Germans searched for them, continued searching for them
in May, June, July and August
and every time they would catch [Jews], but
untill May, it seems
maybe June
they sent the Jews to the East
to death camps
and afterwards
the Jews who were caught were murdered either on the spot
or somewhere else.
At that time, after a bunker was discovered
they didn't yet take the food
they didn't take clothes
so at nights, we could
And they were too scared to enter the ghetto at night.
In May and June the ghetto was still 'ours'
and from the bunkers that the Germans had found, we would remove
the food, clean clothes
and we would hide them in all sorts of places
and thus we could continue living
We started as a group of four, we reached about fifty.
We started to 'live'
in the ruins,
untill one clear day
the Germans came, it seems that an aeroplane saw us.
The engineering corps came.
they blew up
the whole of the outer wall.
Most of us, young people,
managed to leave
because we had prepared passageways
within the burnt walls of the house
and they didn't find us.
Those who were found, they took to the umshlagplatz.
All the houses in the ghetto were burnt,
nothing remained, just the ground
and there was just a hole inside [what had been a house]
So we went down six or seven stairs
and we sealed it from above with bricks
it couldn't be seen when walking past
When a bomb fell
it pulled down additional bricks on top and hermetically sealed us in
At the begining it was maybe one and a half meters wide by one meter twenty high
We couldn't stand.
Then we started to make a place where we would be able to relieve ourselves.
So we started digging with our hands, digging, digging, digging
We got some two meters deep,
so we said, everyone will 'go' there
Where would it end up? No one knew.
the problem was that there were mice
such huge rats
bigger than cats
the deathly fear was that they would eat our food
there would be nothing left to eat.
So we gathered all the food in the middle
and every night someone else would stand gaurd with a large stick
and they would drive the rats away
The army was retreating the whole time
and [their equipment] was heavy for them as they went
so what did they throw away?
They threw their rucksacks, their satchels
but their rifles
they didn't throw
and this was all along the way.
We went and gathered
as much as we could carry
the three of us took meat conserves
liver conserves
rusks and all sorts of things that could be eaten
and we took it and brought it back to the bunker
And I said to my friend
in one cellar I saw a lot of books
I will go alone
here, I cannot force you
it's not food
I will go alone
I will bring a sack of books, for myself, to read
I'm going alone
so my other friend, from the Pawiak Prison, we were like brothers
No, I wont let you go alone
I will go with him and you will stay here
in safety
So we went alone
and we filled two sacks with books
We closed it in from above with leaves
and boards
it was among trees, in the middle
Who hid there? He and I.
And we slept there
And the Polish woman helped you?
No, nobody, it was completely hidden. Nobody knew.
and we would conceal the entrance with branches
if someone had come into that thicket
it was a very big thicket
it was impossible to see that bunker
We were there for a good number of months.
We slept inside.
It was impossible to move
only to lie.
And I will remind you, the water
there was water
we had dug, but the ground in Warsaw is only half a meter deep
We lay in water.
Do you remember how you got out of there?
Dark
wet
Everything was brought to us at specific times when nobody was around.
She would let down food
and we would divide up the food and eat.
We left, I want to tell you
after six or seven straight months in that bunker.
We couldn't walk
because we hadn't walked for seven entire months
we had only lain.
When we left the bunker, we suddenly found that our legs wouldn't carry us.