Don Felson - Leaving the Ghetto

Описание: Complete transcript:

So, Stan got tied in with the partisans, he came, asked them to have them take him with them to the partisans. He says, "Well, you don't have no firearm, so I cannot take you." Anyway, he finally persuaded them to go, to take him along, you know? So, anyway, then he got out. He claims, he told me that I went with him at that time to the fence. Nobody in the house, there was four families living in the house, didn't know about it. So, but nobody seemed to miss him either, you know? They were somehow, on the QT, he got out... And we kept quiet, you see? The ghetto didn't know about it, the Judenrat didn't know about it. We didn't hear from him a thing. You know, he got out, and that was the end of him too. ...'till It was already May of '43. I'm still working in that hospital. I went on another errand, and I come from an errand, the two girls working there tell me, "You know, there was a guy looking for you here, looked a little a little bit... like he was mixed up somewhat, and was dressed like a farmer." They call it 'lapchies', they used to wear like moccasins. Farmers didn't have shoes, they used to, poor farmers, they had like a leather kinda sole, and wrapped your rags around it, and you put the leather and tie it up with something like a moccasin, like they have in Alaska, you know? But anyway, "He's out there looking for you, said they'll be back, you know." Here he is right in the hospital, in a basement. A few minutes later, oh he says, here's...they're coming to you, I see a guy coming up, who turned out ...my brother was out there. You know, he came, imagine, he was hidden around town for a whole week, in a farmhouse that's friends of our family that used to know us. He was hiding out there. He tried to make contact with some Christian families that lived there, to see if they could contact us, to tell them that he is at the farm, and maybe we could meet up with him somewhere. Anyway, he couldn't. He went in to one family, and they were scared stiff of him, you know, and some people just wouldn't risk their lives making contact, you know, especially here is a partisan, and he didn't identify himself partisan, but he had a grenade with him there, and he had a rifle. The rifle was hidden up in the farmhouse. It was nice of the farmer, even to let him stay there. He didn't stay in the house, he stayed outside in a back of the house, they have a little, like a bathhouse, you know. Anyway, he decided to come in and see me. Imagine, in the daytime, if the Germans would've only stopped him, asked him for ID, that was the end of him and the end of our family, and everything else. But he figured before he goes back to his outfit, he'll make another attempt to get us out. So, as I saw him, I couldn't get over the way he looked like. You know, he kinda had a beard,...didn't have a beard, but he says, "Look, I'm gonna wait 'til Sunday," that was maybe about maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday, "I'll wait 'til Sunday in this n' this farmhouse. "I want you and the family to come and meet me there by Sunday. If you don't come by Sunday, I'm gonna go back." At first, I said that we're not gonna go. We're gonna ...we're safe, we have housing, at least we have something to eat, and I had a good job. You know, he says, "You're crazy if you're gonna stay around," but as I was, you know look at it, where are you gonna go? The forest. And he couldn't give me much information either. You know, because he himself was in danger there. Here, talking to me, and here's all the Germans military and everything else around us. As I got home, I had to be quiet too, and I told my mother and father that Stan is out there, is waiting in the farmhouse, it's about 12 kilometers from our hometown. And by Sunday, if we don't get over there, he's not gonna wait 'til past Sunday. So, we decided we're gonna make an attempt and get out.

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