Tag #116058 - Interview #91352 (Chasia Spanerflig)

It was the second half of June. There was a military airport not far from our settlement. Early Sunday morning I walked out on the balcony and saw the smoke coming from both sides of the airport. It was on fire. The Great Patriotic War had started. My husband went to the city. There was panic. Many people, mostly Komsomol members [18] and Communists were trying to leave the city. On 22nd June in the evening the last train left the Vilnius train station. My husband and I didn’t bring up the issue of escaping from the town. First, we weren’t connected with the Soviet regime, and secondly, at that time I didn’t know that Fascists exterminated Jews. Besides, our small baby and my illness made it impossible for us to leave.