Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Alex Miller Survivor #2


Ester Fiszgop was born on January 14, 1929 and raised in Brest, Poland, where most of her family lived too. Their family was traditional Jews who spent a lot of time together. In 1931 the Germans came into Ester's town with bombs and guns, and started taking over. Her town was eventually split and given to the Russians. She explains that one day she went to visit her grandmother in a neighboring town. This was the last time she would ever see her parents or her little brother again. She was caught along with her grandmother and cousins when the Germans took over again. She and a lot of other Jews were put in a ghetto covered with barb wire fence and it was about the length of a city block she states. Ester and her grandmother were getting sick. She explains that her and her cousins could her soldiers talk about Treblinka and liquidation. They knew they had to get out. She goes on to tell the story how late one night her grandmother, cousins and her escaped, and went to a house in the forest where they knew they could hide. The ghetto was beginning to be liquidated and the Germans were everywhere. She stared that she remembers falling asleep holding her grandmother. When she woke up her grandmother was gone. After that is was just her and her three cousins. For six months they hid in a hole in the ground just barely big enough for the four of them to set with their knees against their chest. She tells about when she was 12 she split up with her cousins. She had to sleep on the ground and steal dinner from animals, and wash herself when it rained. She did this for around 3 years. One day she saw a woman riding around on a horse. She had finally been liberated be a Russian woman. She was taken to Italy for 3 years waiting to come to the U.S.

                “I turned from a little girl to a Jesus killer”

                “it was great wondering around not being shot at”

                “Why are you crying?” “I want chocolate!”

 

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