Tag #116412 - Interview #78774 (Fania Brantsovskaya)

The Judenrat organized a theater in the ghetto, but we didn't go there thinking that there was no cause for 'singing in the cemetery'. There were two choirs in the ghetto. Luba Levitskaya, the soloist in one of them, was captured once at the entrance to the ghetto trying to bring in half a kilo of peas. She was beaten badly and taken to the Gestapo. People said she kept singing at the Gestapo and then she was taken to Ponary. Fortunately for me I had many friends and spending time with them made this horrible existence somewhat better. On my birthday a friend of mine brought me two branches of dandelions. She took a tremendous risk of bringing flowers past the guard. These two tiny branches embodied hope and a message from the outside of the ghetto. My friend Honke, who had given us shelter in his home once, brought me a little bottle of perfume that he had kept from the perfumery they had owned.