Tag #149020 - Interview #78036 (Mendel Kreimer)

I kept thinking about my parents and sister. I decided to look for them in the Caucasus. I arrived at Krasnovodsk [today Turkmenistan], and wanted to cross the Caspian Sea to get to Makhachkala [today Russia], but I couldn't get a ticket without a pass. Fortunately, I met Polish Jews who had evacuated from former Polish territories [see Annexation of Eastern Poland] [20]. We talked in Yiddish. By the way, I think Yiddish needs to be preserved as a language since it gave the opportunity to American and European Jews to understand each other. These Poles worked as loaders in the dock. They offered me to help me get on a boat illegally, but I didn't want any problems and refused. I told them my story and they offered me to work with them as a loader. Krasnovodsk was a seaport, there was a desert around it, and tankers shipped fresh water from Makhachkala. Dockers and railroad people constituted its main population. They helped me to get a job as a loader and accommodated me in their hostel. I'm still grateful to them for their assistance. I was so happy to have a clean bed. I washed myself and felt human again.