Tag #108569 - Interview #88474 (Jakub Bromberg)

We found out there was a prayer house in Bialystok, opposite the Orthodox church, on Sosnowa Street and that’s where Jews were staying. It was such a destitute place. They served free food there, soup three times a day. We entered, rested, and had our first soup. We slept on the floor. Sometimes it was raining, sometimes snowing, but we fought for the place on the floor. Women and men slept together. Bugs started showing up. I later learned there was a second synagogue on 32 Sienkiewicza and that the conditions there were better. I went there. The Russians were riding on horseback on the streets, playing the harmonica ‘Shiroka strana moya rodnaya’ and so on. A different life. I could feel this freedom, that I had finally made it to paradise.

I went to the synagogue and that’s where I found my sister-in-law’s sister, Lola.