Tag #143098 - Interview #100229 (Yakov Bunke)

During Pesach in 1939 I also visited my parents. It was alerting time as Poland was occupied, [9], and Klaipeda which was nearby German town Konigsberg [10] in March 1939 was now under jurisdiction of fascist Germany. Fascists were openly walking around in the streets and the youth greeted them in a fascist way. Propaganda against Jews commenced, though I did not know any blatant cases of anti-Semitism. Our landlord, German, openly welcome fascists and her son became the member of organization Gitleryugend [11]. Klaipeda was getting ready to meet Adolf Hitler who was going to pay a visit to the town. My father was perturbed and he could not help expressing his thoughts. In his conversation with the landlord he said that as during the civil war Lithuanian volunteers would get together for rebuffing Hitler. In spite of her fascist views, our landlord helped us out. Probably in a day after that conversation she whispered to my mom : ”Tell your husband to leave Klaipeda immediately. That evening on 19 April father left Klaipeda on food. We all took a cab and left after him. We reached Kretingi and waited for father there. Grandpa Mende sent a cart there to pick us up. I went in Telsiai in heshiva and the rest members of my family moved to grandfather Mende again. Soon we found out that Hitler came to Klaipeda and held a speech. Fortunately, all Jews left Klaipeda. Some of them settled in Plunge.