Tag #146573 - Interview #78019 (Rita Kazhdan)

On 25th July we were herded into a ghetto. They sealed the territory off with wire. There we settled together with the family of mum's friend. Father got fixed up as an electrician in the printing house where Mayer worked and maintained the family. At that time we had nothing - everything burned with the house. According to the order of the authorities we had to hand in the list of all lodgers of our house. My father, a very respectable person, was elected a house senior man, and he was to carry our lodger's lists to the Judenrat [9]. It was 31st August 1941. Suddenly Gestapo men appeared in helmets, with chains on their chests, with number plates, with sub-machine-guns. They cordoned the district off and began to search everybody, including our house lodgers. This is what a raid is: the Germans cordon some district off and start to catch people. The Gestapo did this, but with the assistance of our policemen. My father wasn't back by the evening. It turned out that when he was going to take the documents to the Judenrat mum asked him to drop in on her sister Fanya, who lived in the next street. But there was also a raid there. Everybody was captured. Only a four-year boy, my cousin Boris, whom they kicked under the bed, was left. Thus he survived, but later perished all the same.