Tag #146245 - Interview #100173 (Rosa Linger)

We took very few things with us. I had a small suitcase with the swaddling clothes and undershirts for my son, sister had another suitcase where she put a little bit of rice, soap and underwear for each of us. We left with the clothes we had on and that was it. The rest was left at home. The truck took us to the train station in Liepaja. Father and Hinda went to see us off and we took the train heading for Russia. We reached Riga safe. We got off in Riga and stayed with the family of mother’s brother Nohum. Then Germans started bombing Riga and at nights we could hear air-raid alarms. We had to leave again. I managed to get on the truck to take my family to the train station and get on the train. It was next to impossible for us to live, but we left by chance. God’s will is in everything! I believe in fate, that God leads everybody’s lot. It seems to me that our torah and the whole Jewish history prove that all thoughts we have and actions we take are predetermined by God. Not much depended on us, it was God’s will to let us survive. Pskov was the first stop after Riga. Then we came to Staraya Russa. We had been traveling in the middle of bombings. There we got off the train. One Jewish family let us stay in their place overnight. Staraya Russa was bombed at night. Mother said that we could not stay there and returned to train station. One goods train was about to start and we got on that and just went in the unknown direction. We were taken out of Moscow, Yaroslask oblast. There were thousands of carts to take the evacuees to the villages, to kolkhozes [22].