Tag #110383 - Interview #79258 (Leopold Sokolowski)

My father's brother also lived in Czerwony Pradnik, so we went to that brother, stayed the night and the next morning we went back to Niepolomice - my father, my mother, my sister and I - on foot, for we could no longer afford a cart. We left all of our things behind, in that room. We disappeared in the evening without saying a word to the owner. Everything was left behind. Those were shoddy things, but still they were our household goods: sheets, a pot, a pan, a pillowcase, a blanket-case, towels. In Niepolomice, we rented an even smaller room, or actually a half a room. One-fifth of it was taken up by the stove, not a tile stove, of course, but a clay stove, with bundles of straw thrown over it. We were left without anything. When it was cold we slept under our coats. No wonder that in these conditions we immediately had lice.

Winter 1940/1941 was rich in snow, so the occupation authorities required that every Jew still in Cracow - already with an armband [23], of course - should work 12 days a month shuffling snow or cleaning sidewalks. One got an ‘Ausweiss' [German: a document confirming identity and employment], which was stamped at work. One needed 12 stamps every month. I took a risk. I took off the armband and walked on foot the twenty-something kilometers from Niepolomice to Cracow, to Mr. and Mrs. Tenenbaum, at 2 Powisle Street, where they lived on the first floor. The Akiba had its rooms on the second floor, and that's how I knew Idek Tenenbaum. Idek was not their oldest son, but the second or third. He was my group leader. I don't know how we got together, but he said, ‘Take a train,' or rather walk - for the Jews were not allowed on trains - ‘over to our house.' I went to their house with an armband - I took it off only for the trip. For we, the Jews, were not allowed to move from place to place.