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In summer 1942 an epidemic of typhus spread in the camp. Many inmates were dying. Every day dead bodies were loaded on wagons with high side boards, driven outside the camp and buried in long pits. My father fell ill and died a week later. We didn’t even know in which pit he was buried. Relatives were not allowed to come to the burial place. After the war we went to this place every year to at least bow to this common grave. Former inmates of this camp collected money to install a gravestone on the grave. The villagers look after the burial place.
We were kept in the camp for over half year. After my father died mama decided to escape from the camp. The other inmates said it was impossible to escape from Pechora. We met my cousin, my mother sister Lisa’s older daughter Mariam Kritz. She was taken to the camp with her 5-month old baby. Jews were taken to the camp from Tulchin town Vinnitsa region, the first occupied town, from Mogilyov-Podolskiy and other occupied areas. Mariam decided to escape with us. We hardly had any choice: that was to die in Pechora, die on the way from there or try and get home, if we were lucky. Mama and Mariam decided to take the risk. At the last moment a man and a boy joined us. At night, during a relief of guards, we escaped from the camp. Mama had an arrangement with the local village woman, who used to bring food products to the camp that she would help us to find the way in the area. She took us to a village where we were to cross a river. The woman showed us the shallow of the river and went back home. We didn’t know there was a Romanian gendarmerie on the opposite bank of the river. We were captured and taken to the gendarmerie. They beat us mercilessly. Mama was punished with 25 whippings. When they started beating mama I began to scream. A gendarme hit me on my arm with the haft of his whip and I fainted. Mariam was trying to protect her baby, when the gendarme grabbed the baby and threw it aside as if it was some unnecessary thing. Mariam, the man and the boy were also cruelly beaten. When the gendarmes left, Mariam and the man gave our Romanian gendarme the money they had and he let us go away. Mama had our residential permit, which she showed him. She said she and her daughter were looking for some work to do around and he also let us go. I remember how we walked along a road, beaten up, crying, exhausted, when we bumped into an older woman, tall, gray-haired. She didn’t look like a villager. She told us to calm down and follow her. When we came to her home, she cleaned our injuries, gave us hot tea and bread. We slept in her hayloft and then she took us to the road and showed the direction. I don’t know who this woman was. We tried to find her after the war and thank her for rescuing us, but we failed. When we reached Ozarintsy village, the man and his son stayed there, and we went down a hill heading to Mogilyov-Podolskiy.
We were kept in the camp for over half year. After my father died mama decided to escape from the camp. The other inmates said it was impossible to escape from Pechora. We met my cousin, my mother sister Lisa’s older daughter Mariam Kritz. She was taken to the camp with her 5-month old baby. Jews were taken to the camp from Tulchin town Vinnitsa region, the first occupied town, from Mogilyov-Podolskiy and other occupied areas. Mariam decided to escape with us. We hardly had any choice: that was to die in Pechora, die on the way from there or try and get home, if we were lucky. Mama and Mariam decided to take the risk. At the last moment a man and a boy joined us. At night, during a relief of guards, we escaped from the camp. Mama had an arrangement with the local village woman, who used to bring food products to the camp that she would help us to find the way in the area. She took us to a village where we were to cross a river. The woman showed us the shallow of the river and went back home. We didn’t know there was a Romanian gendarmerie on the opposite bank of the river. We were captured and taken to the gendarmerie. They beat us mercilessly. Mama was punished with 25 whippings. When they started beating mama I began to scream. A gendarme hit me on my arm with the haft of his whip and I fainted. Mariam was trying to protect her baby, when the gendarme grabbed the baby and threw it aside as if it was some unnecessary thing. Mariam, the man and the boy were also cruelly beaten. When the gendarmes left, Mariam and the man gave our Romanian gendarme the money they had and he let us go away. Mama had our residential permit, which she showed him. She said she and her daughter were looking for some work to do around and he also let us go. I remember how we walked along a road, beaten up, crying, exhausted, when we bumped into an older woman, tall, gray-haired. She didn’t look like a villager. She told us to calm down and follow her. When we came to her home, she cleaned our injuries, gave us hot tea and bread. We slept in her hayloft and then she took us to the road and showed the direction. I don’t know who this woman was. We tried to find her after the war and thank her for rescuing us, but we failed. When we reached Ozarintsy village, the man and his son stayed there, and we went down a hill heading to Mogilyov-Podolskiy.
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Riva Pizman Biography