Tag #120776 - Interview #100343 (Meer Kuyavskis)

The first days of war were rather calm. The denizens got outside and looked at German planes in the sky. Fortunately, Lodz was not bombed as a lot of Germans were living there. In about a week German fascist occupied the city. Every there were some orders by the commanders, resulting in execution if they someone failed to fulfill them. There was a curfew. There were more restrictions for Jewish population than for the rest, the Jews were allowed to go outside from 7am to 5pm. There actions against Jews, but they were not systematic. It was impossible to predict behavior of fascist barbarians. The Jews were allowed to walk only on the roadway as they were forbidden to step on the sidewalk. We were not permitted to go to all the stores. There were specials ones for Jews. Most of the Jewish stores were closed. Plunder impoverished even well-off merchants. The worst thing is that people started disappearing. The whole families vanished. Mostly it referred to rich families. Something like that happened with the family of my uncle Shmuel Kuyakovskiy. In early October my father went to see him and found a huge lock on his door. His store was closed at the beginning of occupation. I remember that father came back in low spirits as he saw neither Shmuel nor his family. We still do not know what happened to them. Either they became victims of fascists or of those people who wanted to have their property. There is another option though. During the first days of occupation Poles took Jews to the forest, hid them there helping them to survive, and it cost a lot of money. I think that Shmuel and his family must have perished as their names have not been mentioned any more. They vanished into a thin air.