Tag #157299 - Interview #78187 (Waclaw Iglicki)

People used to really help out. I have to say that objectively: when it came to bread or something else, they shared. But finding a place to sleep was a problem. People were afraid [because there was a penalty for helping Jews] 17. They wouldn't really agree to have us over for a night, or for a longer stay. That was understandable, because if you consider that in every village, in every community, there was a sign saying that for hiding, for any help given to a Jew, there was the death penalty, it's hard to be surprised that people didn't want to have Jews over and so on. They could tell by my clothes that I was a Jew. Because I looked poor, obviously. Ragged, dirty. Wandered around, as they say, aimlessly, didn't know where to go. Today we would say: homeless. That was obvious - who was homeless then - only those who had to hide. Because of that, many knew immediately they were dealing with a person of Jewish origin. They couldn't really tell by the language, there weren't any big discussions. What to talk about? But if someone asked where you were from, who your father was, then it came out you were a Jew. So that's what I did: at night, when everyone was asleep, I sneaked into some place, a barn, a cowshed, and stayed in there somehow. So that the owner wouldn't find out. Or maybe they knew, but pretended not to, possible. And that process lasted for about a month, maybe three weeks. I was usually in the Lukow and Garwolin forests, in those areas. I was alone then.