Chapter 11 Flashcards
when the soviets arrived in Lithuania
July 1944 the war was over for them. they hid for two more weeks because they did not understand; german soldiers running; soviet soldiers present - again afraid soviet soldiers were not always sympathetic
stayed in loft until they saw
many soviet soldiers coming, then sara decided to take her chances
told a Russian soldier they had been hiding in woods and he was
outraged. thought it was terrible no one had taken care of them
sara decided to walk
back to druysk
when they were near vilna 50-60 km away from druysksara was
afraid that they would be picked up by a Russian convoy
she carried her son
in front and they walked at night
Russian soldiers threw the son what to eat
salami
one of the Russian soldiers gave sara
a jacket
another Russian jew soldier
drove them to druysk
in order to get food sara had to
beg while carrying her son on her shoulder; there was no place to leave him when she was begging
there were 21 druysk survivors but one was
killed after the war
there house was disassembled and carried away for the
timbers were new - lot was empty
when town was evacuated
Lithuanian peasants took whatever; they were sympathetic to germans; every house but one was now occupied by the farmers
which house was empty
uncle’s house
another name for the 21 survivors
she’arit hapleta (the surviving remnant) - stayed there hoping others would remain
Sarah Tsipa
the daughter of our neighbor Michel who later became our sister was sent to Braslav a nearby town; went to study gymnastics for several weeks
Zelda (Michel’s other daughter)
went to local school in Druysk; shortage of paper so wrote on backof photographs - brought home the ones she recognized
mother began to
barter again (ie kerosene for eggs)
once the man sara did business with was killed
they decided druysk was no longer the place to live - killed by Lithuanian partisans
Michel Cypuk
on of the Jews who returned had been our neighbor; was an upper shoe repair man; survived war in hiding; paid in gold coins a Lithuanian non Jew who hid 18 people in a basement and shed on his property; not enough foodl Michel’s wife starved
describe Michel and Sara’s new marriage
a marriage of convenience
one wounded man survived at ponar
crawled out of the hole; Lithuanians so drunk they did not see him and verified that sara’s family had been killed
how old was son when they left druysk
five or six years old went to Braslav seven miles away; found more survivors about 30 now
Russians told us that the polish could go
back to Poland; no identity papers as they had been destroyed but sara spoke excellent polish - convinced them they were polish and let them go to Poland
before they went to Poland
they took a train to Ponar - stench pits full of ashes
mother said a kaddish
a prayer of mourning…recited for her husband, sisters, brothers and other relatives
whose grave did they find in woods
Frumka Malka outside of Vilna. She and her daughters had been murdered by a school friend and buried; Michel marked the grave with an old table. They said Kaddish again. No one knows what happened to her husband.
when do they commemorate these deaths
on the first day of Nissan the month of redemption after Passover when they say kaddish
after ponar, they returned to Braslav and left with the of the group for
Warsaw Poland
there were no trains to warsaw so they
bribed a Russian army driver to take us to Poland; sat in theback and THOUGHT once they got to Warsaw they would be safe
Warsaw
more anti-semitism even though it was a large city really wanted to get to Poland. were told get to American zone in Germany
sara did not want to be
under communist rule
first time they crossed border they were
caught and put in jail for six weeks
got out of jail but needed more money for bribes Michel had
12 gold coins from imperial times of Czar Nicholai II and five rouble coins from 1891-1911
if he was caught with these coins he would have been shot
what did sara do with the coins
covered them with fabric and made buttons out of them and sewed them onto her son’s shirt; she also made soap and put 2 of the coins inside the soap the other three she put into carmelized candy – there were two gold coins left
thirty survivors broke into smaller groups sara’s group had
11
bribed Russian postal workers with
10 coins; put them in sacks like mail and put them in trucks to East Berlin - smuggled them into Soviet zone
soviet one was in chaos
Russians were taking their revenge on the germans; from e berlin they got into w berlin part of the American zone
stayed in west berlin for a couple of months in a
displaced persons camp
did son like school
no had trouble being away from mother would run away every day
moved to Zeigenhain DP camp next
this was in Frankfurt
what were in rations
cigarettes and stockings, bananas (didn’t know to peel them) and peanut butter (threw out) and bubble gum …. meant well but they had never sEen anything like this! GUM IN THEIR HAIR!
could trade what for anything
stockings
another 3 months then sent to Eschwege DP camp
where they stayed for three years; this was a former German air force base near Frankfurt. was also a polish prisoner camp. DPs numbered 3500. Buildings were like dorms. Established a mikvah and took baths on Fridays (dorms only had showers)
Esschwege had 1700 jews when it opened
Kindergarten had 50 kids in April 1947.Religious life was celebrated. Several synagogues. A mizvah. Sports club. Movie theater. At its peak had 3355 jews.
Echwege camp newpaper called
Our Hope
Eschwege closed
April 26, 1949
a betar group at the camp prepared some to go to
Palestine to fight
Zelda and DOn were given uniforms with a
menorah on themand marched them with little wooden guns
Michel was afraid his older daughter Sarah who was sent to another DP camp would go to
the Israeli defense force
Michel wanted to go to
Australia, Argentine, Canada or the United States
Only Israel accepted more Holocost survivors than
Australia (35,000)
Michel’s uncle said make US the last choice because it was
not religious enough
Sarah married
David
older kids at camp had school with
teachers that survived. Little kids did not have regular school but did have Hebrew school where they learned from the Torah
Chaim/Don struggled with
being inside
sara did extra work cleaning for others
would get an apple or a banana
Don remembers 4 yeasrs in DP camps as
boring, hard, hungry , fights with others due to boredom, ot enough clothing, rooms were small, mice crawled on them at night – better than woods but not learning much more than Hebrew
