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"And we were traveling criss-cross Poland looking for surviving Jews." | |||
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Leah Hammerstein Silverstein Born 1924 Praga, Poland 
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Soon we started to organize ourselves and I was assigned, we were, we did, I mean, again our, uh, commanding people, I mean the people at the top of the group, like Yitzhak Zuckerman and others--I mention his name more often than others because almost all the leading people of Ha-Shomer ha-Tsa'ir died in the war, except maybe for Haika Grosman. And, well, we started to organize not only to, to have a, a gathering point for Jews to come to, but also to send out people to look for liberated Jews, you know. Because when people were liberated by the Soviet army, the first impulse of people was going back to their places. That was the natural instinct, to see if somebody survived, if the house survived, if something can be rescued. So I was assigned to, to do that with another girl. Her name was Krysia Biderman. Actually her real name was Sara Biderman, Krysia was her pseudonym during the war. And we were traveling criss-cross Poland looking for surviving Jews, and we found them. And sometimes these meetings were so packed with emotion that I, I lack the words to describe it, you know. Because the idea that we are really survivors couldn't sink in yet. You were full of apprehensions that maybe it will change again, you know. For, for, for years you were, lived like a hunted animal. It, it gets into your psyche. It's very difficult to get rid of that feeling that you are not in danger anymore. All these self-defense mechanisms are still with you, you know, and in many cases people were reluctant to admit that they are Jews. In many places, places they didn't want to talk to us. They didn't know who we are. But there were also cases when we came and we got such a warm welcome. I remember, I don't even remember which place, what was the name of the place, but we came to a small place and there was a Jewish family there and we got a very warm welcome. We were tired, you know, traveling constantly on the ways and, and she gave us a good supper and she put us into bed and we could wash and, it was real Jewish hospitality that was known before the war, which was absent during the war and again, you know, it was like slowly coming back to life. | ||
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Murray Pantirer Born 1925 Krakow, Poland 
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I came to Krakow, and I walked in, in mine apartment, and I told the woman immediately, "I absolutely don't want nothing from this apartment." All...everything that was in that apartment belonged to us. I didn't care for it. "I only want to write down a little note. If anybody from my family, by a miracle somebody survived, I am the second son of Leyzer Pantirer--I survive. And I'm registering myself in the Jewish community of Krakow. Where I'm gonna be, I don't know, but I...." So she said, "Sit down, have a cup of tea." She sent her son to the militia. The militia came up and said, "Why did you come here to make troubles?" I said, "What kind of troubles did I make? I just want to put down on my address, my apartment, I want to put down my name." And then we, as I have told you, we got some material, so we start selling it on the street, so either they will say "My nie kupujemu u zydov! -- we don't buy stuff from a Jew," or they will say, "Look, they said they killed them. Look how many they are." So I was--among thousands, there were two Jewish boys or three Jewish boys trying to exchange...uh...for livelihood for stuff that they needed. They didn't want us. And in my ear they're constantly saying, "Zydy do Palestuny -- Jew, go to Palestine." | ||
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Gerda Haas Born 1922 Ansbach, Germany 
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Let's see, he left in '39, and I saw him again in '40..., '46...in April of '46, and it was very strange. I came by boat, and I arrived, um, I think it was during the Passover, during the Pesach holidays. And my father also remained very religious. And he came to Boston to pick me up. I arrived at the Boston Harbor, and he, he couldn't travel to the boat to pick me up. He sent somebody else, and that somebody took me then to an apartment where he stayed and I saw him again. And I thought that I would see an old man because I had gone through so much. I had lived six lifetimes, you see, that to me it was like a hundred years. And I thought there would be this old, broken man full of grief, and full of sorrow and remorse. But it wasn't. There was a young, beautiful, dark haired, straight, upright man in his prime, 50 years old, who greeted me. And that, that was...I had to adjust my inner vision and my outer, and what I saw in reality. That took a little bit. And, um, it took a while for us to become comfortable with each other. I, I will have to admit that. I will have to admit that. | ||
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