Bread or Death: Memories of My Childhood During and After the Holocaust by Kleinberg Milton Mendel

Author:Kleinberg, Milton Mendel [Kleinberg, Milton Mendel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fifth Generation Books
Published: 2014-08-12T21:00:00+00:00

A Shot in the Dark

Pioter’s uncle fought with a Polish unit at the battle of Kiev and was killed; however, his family didn’t get a letter acknowledging his death until March 1944. Pioter didn’t know much about his uncle but was concerned about his father, who was in the same unit.

Of course I had no idea what happened to my father, so Pioter tried to make me feel good by speculating that maybe both of our fathers were in the Polish Army fighting side by side against the Nazis. Then Pioter started laughing out loud, “Won’t they be surprised to learn how we spent the war together in this place!”

It was a game we played when we listened to the radio as the Red Army was taking town by town. We pretended our fathers were involved in every battle and would come back as heroes.

I was interviewed to be taken to Iran with other Jewish orphans, but was rejected because I was not a full orphan. Besides, Mother would not consider it, and I didn’t want to go. However, some of the children from our children’s home were evacuated.

During the 1944 growing season, the Uzbeks in the orchard eased up a little. Apparently a new management team took over because the old team got caught stealing. To our surprise the new foreman from the orchard came over to talk to David. He told David they were not heartless people and they understood that the children were driven to steal by hunger, “But the fruit we grow is earmarked for the war effort, so we can’t permit anyone, including our employees, to take what they want unhindered.”

Although he agreed not to beat children caught stealing, he said they would hand them over to the police, who were no angels either. He did allow, though, for children to continue fishing in the stream for uruk and to pick up the fruit next to the fence.

He went on, “For your protection you must do it in the stream in front of the children’s home where you can be seen because there are a lot of bandits roaming the Black Road.”

David called us into his office where we found a room full of kids who had been known to raid the orchard. David started by telling us about the bandits and the kidnapping rings operating on the Black Road. Then he laid down new rules about behavior on the playground and the orchard. He told us that since the property had no fence, that even on the playgrounds we should stay in groups and not cross the Black Road alone. David further made it very clear that any child caught inside the orchard would be automatically expelled and assigned to a different children’s home.

We played by the rules throughout the summer of 1944. Mother was doing well in her tobacco business, which meant she came more often to see me with her buttermilk and other food. Mother had put on some weight and purchased for herself a new fufaika (a sheepskin leather coat of rough brown hide with fur cuffs and collar).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.