| Len's cousin
A mean foreman gets his due
As a matter of fact, we had also a foreman that was a real bad fellow, you know. He used to [do it] on purpose.. You see, what they used to do in the morning, like, we worked on the river. We were loggers on the river, but there were a lot of elderly people, my father was included, who worked the river in the spring expands from the melting of the snow. And then, as the summer comes along, the river shrinks. Now these rivers were full of timber, you know, from a whole winter when people used to cut in the bushes. And every day that the river shrinks, timber remains on the shore, and this timber has to be rolled in, into the river, you see. You keep on getting them to float. So whole brigades used to go every day, and that master, that foreman, used to come and he used to give them an order, it was called.
Like, he used to say, "This is 25 meters, and this brigade has to clean up this section. This is the order for today." But that guy, you know, instead of writing... He used to give you 50 meters, but he used to write on the order 25 meters. In other words, he gave you double the quota with half the pay. And these fellows could never make their quota.
Sonia: [inaudible]
M: No, no. So what we used to do, we were a bunch of young boys, you see. I was then 17-18 years old, but I was a younger one. But all of us, even the older ones were in their twenties. So, what we used to do, we used to go out in the morning and we used to, before we used to go on the river, we used to go around on the shore, and see whoever has got too big of a chunk to do, we used to do it for them. Two hours, it meant nothing, you know. Two hours, it used to take us a few minutes, we used to do it, while the elderly people, they couldn't do it.
So, we used to do it for them, and that master caught us once, that foreman. He caught us doing the work for them. And we also, what we used to do, there were some Chassidic Jews. There weren't too many, but there were some. And they kept together in one brigade, and they refused to work Saturday. They had to go out. I mean, you couldn't help it. You had to march out to work Saturday, but they refused to work. So, what we used to do, the same thing. We used to do for them the work, Saturday, and then we use to go and do our work.
But, they got caught, too, once. And as a matter of fact, they went to court. And, as a matter of fact, this is how I've seen once a Russian court, how it operates. It was 10 kilometers from our camp, was the court, and the reason I was there was because me and another boy, we took them by... They gave us... You see, for taking a person to court, there is a boat. For the logging, we didn't have any boats. But when you need someone to take to court, there is a boat, you know.
So, they gave us a boat, and we took them. There were three, yes, three boys. Three men. They were Jewish people. Of course, they were with beards. They were real religious Jews. And they took them to court, and a secretary came in, and he announced the names of the people who are supposed to report to the court today. Maybe a hundred names, you know. Half an hour later, a judge came in, and he had the same list of the names. He didn't ask them whether they are guilty or not. He didn't ask them what they did, what they plead, but he announced the sentences for everyone. You know. He asked nothing. He just came out, "Jack, six months, jail. So-and-so, three months jail. So-and-so..."
And most of the time, they used to give you... You see, for the first time... This is called "progulag" [phonetic]. This means that you are...
Len: Probation?
M: Not probation. Progulag means that you are playing around at work. In other words, you refuse to work. You are playing around, you are not working, you are not doing your share. So, the first time, they give you 20%, I believe, out of your wages for six months. They take away 20%. If it happens the second time, they take away 40%. The third time, they give you a jail sentence already, you see.
So, he had it all written down, and he had a record of how many times they were in court. And he just kept on giving them the sentences. Never asked one fellow "Are you pleading guilty? What happened? How did it happen?" It's a corderai [phonetic] you know. Nothing. Anyway, that's the way I was in a Russian court.
But that foreman that I am telling you, was giving out these people bigger orders, and they couldn't do it. We got cut. And the same master came in, and we told him, (the same fellow who told the people to write down, the girls...) and we told him what had happened, that he is giving the guys out too big of an order for their size, you know. And he writes down in the order it's a smaller amount, so they get less pay. And he said, "Don't say a word. Just do everything you did. I'll fix it up."
And one morning, he didn't know nothing, and he came in and gave an order to these fellows, the same story. He gave them 50 meters, wrote down 25 meters, and told them to do it. And as soon as he wrote down the order, that master came, and went to the foreman and said, "Let me see the order."
"Oh," he said, "I gave them the order."
And he said, "Let me see it." And he took a look, and he said, "That's fine." He told the old people to go and work somewhere else, to another foreman, who will give them some work, and he put them down, and he said, "Here, you do it. We'll see how you do it. You told these old people," -- they were mostly elderly people, you know, "You told these elderly people to take 50 meters, and clean up. And here, you've got a whole day. I want to see how you do it."
He says, "What do you mean?"
I [sic] said, "That's what I mean. You showed them. You told them. You do it."
You know what? They demoted him, and in Russia to demote you is just about tantamount to jail. It's a very big punishment. So, they demoted him, and the end was that no brigade wanted to work with him. You see, since he became an ordinary worker, so he had to join another brigade, to work. You know, the work is divided in brigades there. And no brigade wanted to accept him. Eventually he had to leave. They had to put him in another place.
But I don't think that guy will ever be a foreman again because he has a very bad record now. But that took care of him.
Len: Why was he doing it? Just to be mean?
M: He was mean. He was a mean fellow. As the other guy was a real nice, decent fellow.
Len: He wasn't profiting from it, was he?
M: No, no, no. That was just sheer meanness. Maybe he was an anti-Semite, too. He knew it was all elderly Jews, and he thought, "Why not take advantage of them?" But he was just plain mean. But, you see, there you couldn't know whether they were anti-Semites or not, because for one reason, they hated the Poles just as much as they hated the Jews. You see, the Russians hated Poles just as much, you know. So, most of the time, they used to call us "Polaki," like in other words, we were Poles. And to be a Pole is bad enough for them. So, you really couldn't know exactly. Some used to express it openly, but sometimes, you really couldn't know.
Len: You mean you couldn't know whether they didn't like you because you were Polish...
M: It's all because we were Jewish, a lot of times. A lot of times, they brought it out in the open.
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