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We reached a forest, another forest. It was dark, empty, you couldn’t see anything. We didn’t have any matches. ‘OK boys, money’ – the textile people said. ‘Mister, but I told you the entire story. We don’t have anything, not even something to eat. When we go to this address [in Bialystok] I will pay you’ – I told them. They wouldn’t listen to me. ‘Kikes, give me money.’ It was dark, they couldn’t see me, I couldn’t see them. Everything was dark. They started swearing, getting angry, walking around [between the trees]. I thought, it was bad, so I whispered to my friends in Yiddish: ‘Don’t say a word.’ I grabbed one’s hand, he grabbed the other’s and we ran. And at night, in the forest, you couldn’t see anything. ‘Where are the kikes, where are the Jews?’ They kept looking, feeling for us with their hands, walking, but they were getting farther away from us, instead of closer, while we were quietly sitting under a tree.
When we couldn’t hear them anymore, we walked away from those trees and entered the forest. We didn’t have a compass, so we just kept walking, more or less forward. We heard a horse-drawn wagon in the morning: the wheels were creaking, they probably hadn’t been oiled. I thought to myself that there had to be a road there. And it was a town called Koscielne Zareby [80 km from Bialystok], on the way to Bialystok. I recalled that there on the border zone they [Jews] were saying that the Russians catch Jews in Koscielne Zareby and return them to the Germans. So I said this was bad and we had to bypass this city, walk around it. We walked all night. I was cold, freezing, my pants were wet, but we walked around the city. We left Koscielne Zareby behind us. We reached Czyzew [63 km from Bialystok]. And there was a train there, lots of Jews, a megaphone was playing, you could hear singing in Russian. I bought the first loaf of bread there. It was hot, warm, a large loaf of bread. I scarfed it down, pardon my language, without butter, just tore it apart. You couldn’t get on the train later, because it was so packed. People were sitting on the steps, on the roof. And it was wintertime, the wind was blowing, it was cold. I finally somehow made it to Bialystok.
When we couldn’t hear them anymore, we walked away from those trees and entered the forest. We didn’t have a compass, so we just kept walking, more or less forward. We heard a horse-drawn wagon in the morning: the wheels were creaking, they probably hadn’t been oiled. I thought to myself that there had to be a road there. And it was a town called Koscielne Zareby [80 km from Bialystok], on the way to Bialystok. I recalled that there on the border zone they [Jews] were saying that the Russians catch Jews in Koscielne Zareby and return them to the Germans. So I said this was bad and we had to bypass this city, walk around it. We walked all night. I was cold, freezing, my pants were wet, but we walked around the city. We left Koscielne Zareby behind us. We reached Czyzew [63 km from Bialystok]. And there was a train there, lots of Jews, a megaphone was playing, you could hear singing in Russian. I bought the first loaf of bread there. It was hot, warm, a large loaf of bread. I scarfed it down, pardon my language, without butter, just tore it apart. You couldn’t get on the train later, because it was so packed. People were sitting on the steps, on the roof. And it was wintertime, the wind was blowing, it was cold. I finally somehow made it to Bialystok.
Period
Interview
Jakub Bromberg
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