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In Podhaicy I fell out with my stepfather again, I lived apart from them, and that was why when the NKVD [13] came on 29th June 1940 to arrest me, I was exiled alone [there were mass deportations of the local populations of areas occupied by the USSR way out to the east - the Urals, Siberia, etc. First to go were the intelligentsia, social activists, etc.]. Anyway, my mother and stepfather were also exiled about the same time.
It all happened in a very primitive way. At 4 or 5am two NKVD officers would come round with bayonets and order you to pack. I packed one cardboard case, they loaded me onto a cart, and sent me to the station in Podhaicy. I thought it was all great fun, and I treated it as an adventure. At that age a man is a silly goat. And that is how I ended up in exile in the Urals. It was different from a 'lager' [German for 'camp'] in that they didn't beat us. We were building barracks in the forest under the eye of the NKVD and Russians on conditional release from the camps. And in the end I became a decently qualified carpenter.
In exile with me were Jews from Sosnowiec, Bedzin, but also Jews from Bukovina [14], German Jews, from various different places. They often talked to each other in Yiddish and in that way I refreshed the language. I understood a lot, largely because I'd had German in gymnasium. I remember there was this one, Goldberger, a Jew from Bedzin, 'bedziner yid,' a great joker. He always had this idiotic, grinning face. And when our guard Kazantsev, who persecuted us terribly, came towards us, there was only one thing for it - Goldberger. At the sight of Kazantsev, Goldberger would get up, beaming like Svejk [Hero of the book 'The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War' by the famous Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek (1883- 1923)], give him a big bear hug and pour out all the worst Jewish curses in his face. Kazantsev would ask us what it meant. And we would say to him: 'Ah, that you are such a good, wonderful man.
It all happened in a very primitive way. At 4 or 5am two NKVD officers would come round with bayonets and order you to pack. I packed one cardboard case, they loaded me onto a cart, and sent me to the station in Podhaicy. I thought it was all great fun, and I treated it as an adventure. At that age a man is a silly goat. And that is how I ended up in exile in the Urals. It was different from a 'lager' [German for 'camp'] in that they didn't beat us. We were building barracks in the forest under the eye of the NKVD and Russians on conditional release from the camps. And in the end I became a decently qualified carpenter.
In exile with me were Jews from Sosnowiec, Bedzin, but also Jews from Bukovina [14], German Jews, from various different places. They often talked to each other in Yiddish and in that way I refreshed the language. I understood a lot, largely because I'd had German in gymnasium. I remember there was this one, Goldberger, a Jew from Bedzin, 'bedziner yid,' a great joker. He always had this idiotic, grinning face. And when our guard Kazantsev, who persecuted us terribly, came towards us, there was only one thing for it - Goldberger. At the sight of Kazantsev, Goldberger would get up, beaming like Svejk [Hero of the book 'The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War' by the famous Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek (1883- 1923)], give him a big bear hug and pour out all the worst Jewish curses in his face. Kazantsev would ask us what it meant. And we would say to him: 'Ah, that you are such a good, wonderful man.
Period
Interview
Aleksander Ziemny