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They took me to Siberia from there. Not just me, they took everyone. The Russians didn’t tell us it was Siberia, they told us we were going home. Then we traveled for 24 days by train; those were cattle trains. They didn’t tell us where we were going. Then we started thinking that it can’t be to Warsaw, because it doesn’t take that long to get there. They gave us food: a loaf of bread and that was it.
We arrived in Arkhangelsk, which was already Siberia. There was a place where they divided us into different colonies. Trains with prisoners arrived there. But I was no prisoner, because I had no sentence! I went to the Komi SSR. I was there with some young fellows, many were in the army from Lodz. There was even a general. But this general didn’t want to work, so he died. He’d always say, ‘I won’t ever work for these ‘kacaps’’ [Polish word meaning idiots, cads; in this case, Russians]. So I told him, ‘Mister, you can’t do this, you’ve got to survive somehow!’ But he was maybe 60 years old anyway. Or older. And his son Jozef was with me. We worked together.
We arrived in Arkhangelsk, which was already Siberia. There was a place where they divided us into different colonies. Trains with prisoners arrived there. But I was no prisoner, because I had no sentence! I went to the Komi SSR. I was there with some young fellows, many were in the army from Lodz. There was even a general. But this general didn’t want to work, so he died. He’d always say, ‘I won’t ever work for these ‘kacaps’’ [Polish word meaning idiots, cads; in this case, Russians]. So I told him, ‘Mister, you can’t do this, you’ve got to survive somehow!’ But he was maybe 60 years old anyway. Or older. And his son Jozef was with me. We worked together.
Period
Interview
Chaim Henryk Ejnesman
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