Tag #153868 - Interview #94293 (Nikolai Mesko Salamonovic)

In October 1943 they called up all Jewish boys born in 1922 for forced labor. During the whole time of forced labor God always stood by me. Up until the end. They took us to he Russian front. We did heavy physical labor. We dug deep anti-tank trenches. Even there luck was with me. In what respect? Together with the other soldiers we got to the Russian front. They went with us right from Mukachevo. We slept in houses guarded by soldiers. There were two officers among these soldiers. One young captain and an older first lieutenant. I don’t remember his name, but in civilian life he was an actor and came from Budapest. The first lieutenant had a soldier that worked as his assistant. Somehow he took a liking to me. He looked us over, and because I didn’t look like a Jew, he asked me whether I could speak Hungarian. I answered:
“I know Hungarian well!”
“You know Hungarian well. And do you know Russian?”
“I also know Russian.”
“Wow, so come over here then.” I became his assistant, despite his already having one official one. Because I could speak Russian, he used me for finding him Russian women. He said that I was going to be his interpreter. That I was to find him women, as after all, I was still young. I was to translate for him at the table. I said to him: “I’ll be at the table, but what about in bed?” He answered: “In bed I don’t need a translator!”. So I didn’t have to dig trenches, it was luck. So this is what my forced labor consisted of.