Tag #155909 - Interview #103947 (Faina Volper Biography)

At night a terrible explosion shook our house. Germans dropped a bomb on onto the oil terminal. On the next day refugees from Lvov came to the town. They told people about the horrors of fascist occupation. But older Jews in Starokonstantinov didn’t believe it. They knew Germans from WWI and were telling us that they were nice people and had nothing against Jews. We stayed home until 2 July 1941. Early in the morning of 2 July Fira’s friend knocked on our window. He told us that people were evacuating from the station in Starokonstantinov. I ran to my aunt Surah-Rivah to tell her to get packed. We packed a small suitcase with a change of underwear and few sandwiches. My mother took wedding rings and 120 rubles – this was all money that we had. This money was stolen on the train later. We didn’t take any clothes. We were overdosed with propaganda and thought that we would be back in 2-3 days or a week at the most. My father didn’t go with us. He was sent to take some cattle to Kharkov region. I went with my mother and sister, aunt Surah-Riva, her older daughter Clara and Clara’s children. Her older daughter Tzylia was 10, Bella was 6 and Leonid was 3 months old. Surah-Riva’s husband refused to go. He thought he was too old and there was nothing for him to be afraid of. My aunt Surah-Riva joined us, but on the way she said that she had left her passport and went back to pick it up. This was the last time we saw her. Her passport was an excuse for her to go back to Aron, her husband.