Tag #116416 - Interview #78774 (Fania Brantsovskaya)

I had a picture for my Polish passport taken in the ghetto, but I never got one. Our group of five had gatherings in the library. On 23rd September it was decided to send a few girls to contact a partisan unit. They decided against Jewish guys with a common Semitic appearance. Kaplan, Vittenberg's deputy, instructed us on where we had to go and who to talk to. I went home to say 'good by' to my parents. Mama gave me all she had: boiled peas, a piece of chocolate, a lipstick and a nice blue shirt. I was to go with Doba Develtof, who had a common Slavic look. We were waiting for a signal. In the evening our contact person told us that a man would let us out through a small gate on Nemetskaya Street. I said 'good by' to my family. My mother and sister were crying. I stayed strong. It never occurred to me that this could be the last time I saw them. Though it was summer, I put on a winter coat with the fur collar torn off, as fur was supposed to be given to Germans, and we left. Grigoriy Yashunskiy, the cultural manager of the ghetto, went with us. He was going to hide away.