Chapter 11 Flashcards by S Smith

when the soviets arrived in Lithuania

July 1944 the war was over for them. they hid for two more weeks because they did not understand; german soldiers running; soviet soldiers present - again afraid soviet soldiers were not always sympathetic

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stayed in loft until they saw

many soviet soldiers coming, then sara decided to take her chances

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told a Russian soldier they had been hiding in woods and he was

outraged. thought it was terrible no one had taken care of them

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sara decided to walk

back to druysk

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when they were near vilna 50-60 km away from druysksara was

afraid that they would be picked up by a Russian convoy

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she carried her son

in front and they walked at night

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Russian soldiers threw the son what to eat

salami

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one of the Russian soldiers gave sara

a jacket

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another Russian jew soldier

drove them to druysk

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in order to get food sara had to

beg while carrying her son on her shoulder; there was no place to leave him when she was begging

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there were 21 druysk survivors but one was

killed after the war

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there house was disassembled and carried away for the

timbers were new - lot was empty

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when town was evacuated

Lithuanian peasants took whatever; they were sympathetic to germans; every house but one was now occupied by the farmers

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which house was empty

uncle’s house

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another name for the 21 survivors

she’arit hapleta (the surviving remnant) - stayed there hoping others would remain

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Sarah Tsipa

the daughter of our neighbor Michel who later became our sister was sent to Braslav a nearby town; went to study gymnastics for several weeks

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Zelda (Michel’s other daughter)

went to local school in Druysk; shortage of paper so wrote on backof photographs - brought home the ones she recognized

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mother began to

barter again (ie kerosene for eggs)

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once the man sara did business with was killed

they decided druysk was no longer the place to live - killed by Lithuanian partisans

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Michel Cypuk

on of the Jews who returned had been our neighbor; was an upper shoe repair man; survived war in hiding; paid in gold coins a Lithuanian non Jew who hid 18 people in a basement and shed on his property; not enough foodl Michel’s wife starved

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describe Michel and Sara’s new marriage

a marriage of convenience

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one wounded man survived at ponar

crawled out of the hole; Lithuanians so drunk they did not see him and verified that sara’s family had been killed

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how old was son when they left druysk

five or six years old went to Braslav seven miles away; found more survivors about 30 now

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Russians told us that the polish could go

back to Poland; no identity papers as they had been destroyed but sara spoke excellent polish - convinced them they were polish and let them go to Poland

before they went to Poland

they took a train to Ponar - stench pits full of ashes

mother said a kaddish

a prayer of mourning...recited for her husband, sisters, brothers and other relatives

whose grave did they find in woods

Frumka Malka outside of Vilna. She and her daughters had been murdered by a school friend and buried; Michel marked the grave with an old table. They said Kaddish again. No one knows what happened to her husband.

when do they commemorate these deaths

on the first day of Nissan the month of redemption after Passover when they say kaddish

after ponar, they returned to Braslav and left with the of the group for

Warsaw Poland

there were no trains to warsaw so they

bribed a Russian army driver to take us to Poland; sat in theback and THOUGHT once they got to Warsaw they would be safe

Warsaw

more anti-semitism even though it was a large city really wanted to get to Poland. were told get to American zone in Germany

sara did not want to be

under communist rule

first time they crossed border they were

caught and put in jail for six weeks

got out of jail but needed more money for bribes Michel had

12 gold coins from imperial times of Czar Nicholai II and five rouble coins from 1891-1911 if he was caught with these coins he would have been shot

what did sara do with the coins

covered them with fabric and made buttons out of them and sewed them onto her son's shirt; she also made soap and put 2 of the coins inside the soap the other three she put into carmelized candy -- there were two gold coins left

thirty survivors broke into smaller groups sara's group had

bribed Russian postal workers with

10 coins; put them in sacks like mail and put them in trucks to East Berlin - smuggled them into Soviet zone

soviet one was in chaos

Russians were taking their revenge on the germans; from e berlin they got into w berlin part of the American zone

stayed in west berlin for a couple of months in a

displaced persons camp

did son like school

no had trouble being away from mother would run away every day

moved to Zeigenhain DP camp next

this was in Frankfurt

what were in rations

cigarettes and stockings, bananas (didn't know to peel them) and peanut butter (threw out) and bubble gum .... meant well but they had never sEen anything like this! GUM IN THEIR HAIR!

could trade what for anything

stockings

another 3 months then sent to Eschwege DP camp

where they stayed for three years; this was a former German air force base near Frankfurt. was also a polish prisoner camp. DPs numbered 3500. Buildings were like dorms. Established a mikvah and took baths on Fridays (dorms only had showers)

Esschwege had 1700 jews when it opened

Kindergarten had 50 kids in April 1947.Religious life was celebrated. Several synagogues. A mizvah. Sports club. Movie theater. At its peak had 3355 jews.

Echwege camp newpaper called

Our Hope

Eschwege closed

April 26, 1949

a betar group at the camp prepared some to go to

Palestine to fight

Zelda and DOn were given uniforms with a

menorah on themand marched them with little wooden guns

Michel was afraid his older daughter Sarah who was sent to another DP camp would go to

the Israeli defense force

Michel wanted to go to

Australia, Argentine, Canada or the United States

Only Israel accepted more Holocost survivors than

Australia (35,000)

Michel's uncle said make US the last choice because it was

not religious enough

Sarah married

David

older kids at camp had school with

teachers that survived. Little kids did not have regular school but did have Hebrew school where they learned from the Torah

Chaim/Don struggled with

being inside

sara did extra work cleaning for others

would get an apple or a banana

Don remembers 4 yeasrs in DP camps as

boring, hard, hungry , fights with others due to boredom, ot enough clothing, rooms were small, mice crawled on them at night -- better than woods but not learning much more than Hebrew