In this town, they didn't announce to come to the square
or that they're going to take us.
One morning they just surrounded it, the whole town.
And that was it.
- Now, when this happened were Esther and your sister Paula still there too?
- No, Paula had already left.
She went to somehow...
she was in correspondence with a friend of hers, a gentile girl,
that she got papers
that she has to go on forced labor to Germany.
So Paula took those papers and she went in her name.
- You mentioned that. So Paula had papers.
Donna and Esther also had papers.
- Yeah. -What about you?
- For men, papers would be no good anyway.
- So you didn't have anything? - No, we had nothing.
Well, I was very small and...
papers would've not...
wouldn't have done any good anyway.
- So now Paula had left. What about Esther?
- Esther was also in the town when they surrounded it
and...
she got away and I got away.
- How did you get away?
- Well, I was...
I was there a few weeks, I knew my way around.
And also we stayed with another family.
Esther's boyfriend, I know they were relatives.
They had this big house just outside, a street not in the center.
So when this happened, I was running for that house
and I somehow made it.
And when I came there, there was nobody there.
So now the shooting was going on, the killing and the...
it was something horrible.
So next door was a gentile family
and there was this little...
it was a cellar, just for potatoes for the winter.
And I ran in there
and I stayed there most of the day.
But maybe two hours later,
the Gestapo was already on the ground
and the shooting was going on continuously.
So I walked back.
There was like a little...
so I press myself against the wall.
And sure enough, as soon as this happened,
the Gestapo opened the door and he looked,
but he couldn't see me, I was right against the wall
and he walked away.
And I was listening to all the things that were going on.
And then,
another Gestapo says, "Here, there's a cellar."
"I'm going to take a look there."
He says, "No, I already looked."
And I stayed until it was night.
And it was dark and I was hesitating to get out now
or wait and wait. I waited and then...
the woman came to to lock the cellar.
Now I couldn't get out, but I was pushing the door.
So she came and opened the door
and I ran out like a bullet.
I don't know if they didn't want to catch me
or I was so fast that they couldn't catch me.
I don't know which.
And I ran towards the mountain
and I was walking along the river.
I was going to go to my sister Donna
and I was going that way.
And then I came to where you have to cross the river,
but there's no bridge. They take you by boat.
So the man was on the other side of the river.
So I say, you know, "Come and get me."
He says, "Are you a Jew?
Because you know, a lot of Jews ran away.
I say, "No, of course not."
And he came, he got me, but I had no money to pay him.
So the only thing I had is a scarf.
I gave him the scarf. So he took me across.