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Still, it was broad daylight, we couldn’t [walk] on the neutral strip, so we turned, and there, still in the neutral zone, was some cottage, and we went there. We waited until it got dark, and the man that lived there agreed to take us through. We set off in the night, and suddenly we happened upon two Russian border guards, and we heard them ask, ‘Where are you going?’ in Russian.
Aunt Dora took matters in her hands from there and started talking to them. They said the border had been closed, it’s forbidden, they can’t let us through. But because in my pocket I had two wrist-watches that we were supposed to give to someone in Bialystok [a town 190 km north-east from Warsaw], she bribed them with those watches. The Russians were extremely greedy for watches those days. And they took those watches, let us through, and told us, ‘Now, if anyone stops you, tell them we’ve returned you because you wanted to cross to the German side.’ And this way we crossed the border.
Aunt Dora took matters in her hands from there and started talking to them. They said the border had been closed, it’s forbidden, they can’t let us through. But because in my pocket I had two wrist-watches that we were supposed to give to someone in Bialystok [a town 190 km north-east from Warsaw], she bribed them with those watches. The Russians were extremely greedy for watches those days. And they took those watches, let us through, and told us, ‘Now, if anyone stops you, tell them we’ve returned you because you wanted to cross to the German side.’ And this way we crossed the border.
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Interview
Estera Migdalska
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