Tag #151800 - Interview #84041 (Yacob Hollander)

In 1947 I was recruited to the army to serve my mandatory term. All recruits were taken to Svaliava [50 km from Uzhgorod, 625 km from Kiev] where we boarded a train. The railcars were very much like the ones in which we were taken to Auschwitz. The recruits got into railcars and the doors were locked from the outside. I feared that they were taking us to a camp. Then our commanding officer came. He said we were going to Moscow, our point of destination. Our trip lasted several days. There was an iron cast stove in the train. We got coals and took turns to stoke it. In Moscow we were sent to a division that arrived from Germany. They had many trophy vehicles. I took a 3-month driving course. Then they invited me to the headquarters of the division and asked me whether I spoke German. I had a good conduct of German. Besides, I spoke Ukrainian and understood Russian. It was rare for Subcarpathia since the majority of its residents spoke Hungarian and Czech. I and another Subcarpathian Jew Miklos Farkas were sent to NKVD troops [9]. The regiment where I was sent worked in a camp for German prisoners-of-war where there were 40 thousand of them. They needed German interpreters. I had a driving license and besides working as an interpreter I also drove an NKVD colonel. I was responsible for 3 vehicles: 2 BMWs and a Mercedes. I was accommodated in a small room at the logistic department. There was a phone in the room so that my chief could call me at any time. He usually called at night telling me at what time I had to be in the garage. When I came to the garage he called again to tell me what vehicle I was to drive. He never told me the route in advance. All vehicles were armored and passengers’ seats were separated from the driver with thick glass. There was a telephone on the back seat and I had a receiver. When he got into a car he told me where to drive. 2 months later I was promoted to the rank of private first class, though I didn’t have secondary military education. Privates first class wore the same uniform as soldiers, but I received an officer’s uniform and officer’s boots of soft leather. I had meals in the officer’s canteen. At first I couldn’t understand why soldiers and officers became watchful in my presence. They stopped talking when I came in and there was tension in the air. I didn’t know that in the USSR NKVD had such enormous authority that it was hard to imagine it. Since I was an NKVD employee people avoided me. I didn’t face any anti-Semitism, probably for the same reason. The only person feeling friendly toward me was Miklos Farkas who came to NKVD with me.