Kind: captions
Language: en
a father's mission
artisans was obviously to save as many
jus
that were that worried the vilna ghetto
at the time I'm I can't remember the
total numbers that were there at one
time or another but but their purpose
was to get into the ghetto try to
convince the Jews to try to escape from
there he was caught with a couple of
other friends and he was taken to the
prison in Vilna and they were trying to
they didn't know where they going to
wind up as it turned out they were they
worked since they were at that time in
their 20s and 30s they seem to be very
able bodied than the Germans decided
that word used them for work and that
work was being the burning brigade or
the startup of the burning Brigade in
punar the purpose of the burning brigade
was to get rid of the evidence the
Germans forced them to do of burning the
bodies of all the Jews that German said
killed during World War two most of them
came from Vilna and at that time also
devel- their purpose was to burn get rid
of the evidence if they find any
valuables to turn it over to the Germans
to German comment down told him this is
where you're going to live that were
given a ladder to go up and down out of
the bunker and then at night obviously
they removed the ladder and you know you
can they couldn't crawl out of 66 meters
of depth and so that's that was but as
they were living there my father told
his friends that there's no way we're
going to make it alive out of here
because by the time we're done doing
their bidding which would be burning the
bodies is will be next though they'll
kill us and that's going to be it we got
to find a way to get out of here
and the only the only way for them to
get out was to dig some kind of a tunnel
onto the ground and try to escape into
and dig the town the direction away from
the Germans or they could possibly
escape through my father did take a very
major part in digging the town he had
talked to the Germans on behalf of of
the group saying that they really wanted
to set up their living quarters in a way
that would be more livable for them he
had asked the Germans for some lumber to
try to make it a little bit more livable
and one of the things that as they
decided to dig the tunnel one of the
things that they had gotten out of
getting the lumber would they were able
to build walls along the walls of the
bunker leave enough of a separation
between the lumber and the walls of the
bunker to dump the dirt that they would
bring out at the town in the process of
digging the tunnel it did feel very
claustrophobic he said there were two of
them at the time that not digging side
by side but one would dig and another
one would ferry the dirt back into the
bunker and they would use anything that
they could get their hands on they had
some kitchen utensils he said that they
were using not unless there were spoons
and knives whatever they did go back in
told everybody that they succeeded in
digging through he said the euphoria
among the people in the bunker was just
they had to control someone because they
were really getting noisy and it was
they were afraid the German would
realize something is wrong why these
people so happy all of a sudden so they
did manage to control him they managed
to be able to divide into groups that
could get out and as to get out be
useful my father may have been in the
first group they travelled at night the
sec
night that were able to get away far
enough and and then they found the
Russian partisans whatever Jewish life
there was in Vilna before the war was
completely gone he had mentioned to me
that were over 120,000 jews that lived
in the Vilna area before the war and he
said when they had on the High Holidays
to create synagogue of Vilna that people
would be standing outside you know
circling the whole synagogue sending
outside and in praying in unison it was
he said was some sight to behold my
father felt that it was completely lost
he said the German seemed to destroy it
completely my father's leadership
position at the time was was you know
very very revealing to me at the time
considering how withdrawn he became
afterwards after the war so it just when
you put two and two together it's just
one of those things that the atrocities
of war can take somebody and just knock
him down that far I remember when my
father and the few friends that he had
that escaped with him after the war I
remember when I was a child they would
meet on the last day of Passover at
somebody's house sometimes was hours
sometimes it was you know yes labelled
with sound so remote his idols or you
know and they would they would sit there
and I remember I wasn't allowed to the
first two to be in the room with it but
it sit there through all hours of the
night going over and talking what they
had gone through and they would sit
there with bottles of vodka drinking
drinking shots and I think probably the
more maybe that they drank the more they
were able to express their feelings
and and you sit there and you take all
that in and and you wonder what you know
what how did they even after what they
had gone through how could they even
think then there would be some kind of
normalcy left for them to live through
for the rest of their lives
you