Len's cousin

Polish Anti-Semtism and Jewish Partisans

Sonia: [some words inaudible] in Europe. It’s poison from one end to the other, wherever you go. And they recognize you right away, and there’s anti-Semitism from everybody. When Hitler went through, forget it.

M: Especially Eastern Europe.

Sonia: You see, six million people, a third of a nation, and we came from Russia to Poland. So the Polish people said to us, “You’re still alive? So many?” It was too much for them. You know how many [words inaudible] a few thousand people. Even my dad. So, it was too many for therm. Instead to welcome us, after all we were born, we grew up there. It was our country. So they [word inaudible] us. So, whoever, everybody, almost, just a few left. We went to America, to Israel, just about [words inaudible]

M: As a matter of fact, I told you yesterday, actually, the aftermath was worse really than what had happened to me. Because you know, there were partisans in the bushes. There were Jewish partisans. There were whole units of Jewish partisans, and as a matter of fact, the Russian partisans tried to get Jewish partisans in their groups because they knew that the Jews were better fighters, because for the simple reason because for a Jew, there was no escape. There was no captivity. You are going on a certain death if you get captured, you see. They kill you.

So, they had to fight for their life each time they went on a mission, so they were really good fighters. And while the fighting was going on, as long as the Germans were there, they used to get citations, and they used to get all kinds of medals, and bravery medals. Everything was fine, until they got liberated. As soon as the Russians came in, all of a sudden, they forgot about them.

The Jewish partisans used to go to the villages, and they used to know that a villager, for instance, sold a Jew to the Germans. They used to come and burn him, burn the house sometimes, and they used to warn them not to do it because they’ll get killed for it. And they used to do it as long as the Germans were there. As soon as the Russians came in, many partisans told me, when they went and told the Russians that here lives a fellow who deserves to be killed, right away they told them. Now is not the time for it, we’ve still got to fight with Germany. We’ll do it later.

You see, right away they brushed it off. As a matter of fact, the West didn’t say anything. As soon as the war was over, all of a sudden, they forget about Nazis, all of a sudden there were no Nazis, and the known Nazis, they gave them false documents. You know in Canada here, the Americans brought in a fortune [?] of Nazis here in Canada under false documents, falsified documents, and they covered up their tracks. The CIA covered up their tracks. It was awful hard to find them, you know. There are plenty Nazis living right here. The idea of it was right after the war they didn’t want to hear any more about us.

You see, while the war was going on, American Jewish delegations used to Roosevelt and beg him, what they wanted to do is bomb the lines that they got trains going every day with people to the slaughterhouse. Just bomb the lines at least to slow it down. It wouldn’t help, they would kill you anyway, but it would take him a lot longer. They have to fix the line, and if they haven’t got the mass murder machine it takes a lot longer to do it, to organize it.
The excuse was always, “It’s too far,” you know. They could reach.. But Auschwitz, the town where the camp was, was bombed by the Americans a few times, because it [sic] military factories there. But the lines, they wouldn’t do. They list to it. Churchill, was always, he was always considering himself one of the biggest Zionists, he said, in the world. Churchill. But as soon as they talked to him about the killing of the Jews, the slaughter of Jews, he didn’t want to hear about it.

And that’s why the aftermath was a lot worse than what happened. When you come out after such an ordeal, and when you find no sympathy or nothing, it really depresses you. It was terrible.

Sonia: Especially the Polish people. They have a big anti-Semitism. In Holland they were good. They tried to hide people. There were different people. There were Germans, a few, hiding people. And over there, they turned to... Overnight, for 10 cents, if a Jew was hiding somewhere, you know, it doesn’t [?] go to the house and arrested the whole family. You know where you’re going, you know. So, case big boys trying to run away to the bushes, bushes all over the small towns. They tried the basements. You know, to hide.

For ten cents, the Germans used to [give the] Polish ten cents, and they were going to find the Jew for 10 cents, and give them to the Germans.