Interview with Aaron Elster

Your book will soon be published in Polish. You've been waiting for this for a few years, and now the inhabitants of the town where you were born, will finally be able to read your story. Are you happy with this, or a little afraid of?

I am very happy that it will be published in Polish. It would be great if the book could be used in the towns schools as a piece of history about what transpired during the Holocaust and how one of their former neighbors survived.
My story could be used as way to teach young people about Tolerence, about speaking out against prejudice.To understand that each and every young person can make a difference,can help prevent future Genocides against any people. To accept that we are all different and have to respect one another. After all we all belive in the same God.
 I would like students to know that they can overcome all adversity and become the person they want to be, If they believethat they CAN.

How was Sokolow before the war? Did you have here non-Jewish friends? Was the pre-war anti-Semitism a big problem?



I lived on Ulica (Piekna)Pienkna,Mostly Jewish people lived there. My friends were mostly Jewish. I was too Young for public school.I attended Hebrew school on the second floor of our building. When war came I was not allowed to go to Public school. Polish kids really didn't like me because I was Jewish. I was often called a "Christ Killer" but, in spite of all that we lived a fairly normal life. My parents owned a Butcher Shop on Ulica Rogofska near the Large Market Place and all our customers were Polish .

In September 1939, the war borke out. Was your family thinking about escaping to the east? Many people survived there.

In September 1939 when Germany attacked Poland, the town was bombed and many people were killed,houses burned.
German soldiers appeared in town and rumors about all the terrible things that were happening to Jewish people caused many to run crossing the Bug river and escaped to Russia,and were sent to Siberia because Stalin thought they were spies. Most survived in Siberia as the Germans never got there. My parents,including most of the Jewish population of the town felt that times would be bad, but , never believed that the terrible killings would happen.

What was life like in Sokolow ghetto?

Life in the Ghetto was horrible people died from hunger and disease,because of the rationing and no medicines that were available to us.You survived by dealing in the black Market or thru Polish friends that would come to the barbed wires and sell you some foods, but as time went on the penalties for helping Jews was Death. So that changed. The German occupation would come into the Ghetto and demand that people would be delivered to them for forced labor,but, Most were sent to Treblinka and never came back. Again, I f you had the means to bribe some one, You name would be take off the list and you would survive another day.

On September 22, 1942, the Germans began the liquidation of the ghetto. On this day you were along with other Jews at the Maly Rynek, from which all later marched to the railway station, and from there they were transported in cattle cars to Treblinka. You, however, managed to escape. How was your life in hiding?

The finality to our lives came late Sept. 1942 On a High Holiday(YOM KIPPUR) or Day of Atonement.
The Ghetto was surrounded and The Gestapo,Ukrainian solders and Local Polish Police invaded the Ghetto, People were dragged from their homes chased up to the Maly Rynek and marched to the train station and shipped to Treblinka.
People were beaten, some shot in the back our house and buried in the potato field.(You are the one that cleaned up the marker that has been neglected for years)
My family was dragged out of our Hiding Place,my Mother was pulled out of line and place on a cleanup detail.My father ,my little sister Sara and I were chased to the Market place made to sit on the cobble stones and and beaten by Ukrainian guards if we were lined up to their specifications and than to be sent to Treblinka. My Dad told me to run. I escaped thru the barbed wire fence
Lived for a time in the forest,dug up potatoes and ate them.Some time a farmer would give me some food and many times I would sneak into barns and bury myself in the straw  or hay to avoid dying from the elements. Finally Made my way back to the town and Mrs Gorski let me up to her attic were I survived. Life in the attic was pretty miserable,Hunger,cold ,heat. and fear of being found and killed. Never was able to take a bath,change clothes. Regardles of all suffering, I  have always been gratefullto the Gorski's for giving me life by their risking all to save my sister and me..
The irony in my life: One Pole (Mrs Gorski) saved my life while another Pole was instrumental in my Mothers death.Mr. Uzieblo found my Mother hiding in his barn, he called his field hand,they wrestled her to the ground,tied her, threw her on a wagon and brought her to the Germans and she was shot.

You and your sister managed to survive, but your mother was murdered. In Treblinka was murdered your father and younger sister Sarah. Your mother was captured by the Poles and carried to the Germans. In the court trial you were urged to give false testimony about the alleged help those people gave you.

My testimony was all lies as I never met Mr Uzieblo. We were forced to sign those letters, I didn't even know how to write.

I know that this year you will come to Poland. What do you feel coming back after so many years to Sokolow?

I am looking forward  to come to the town of my birth. I wish there were remnants of our existence in that town that I could relate to.
However, I have met some wonderful people thanks to you. Kasia, I consider you my very good friend. I very much appreciate the work you have done to keep our history.
Would love to see Ms. Anna Kurylek and her class.

You survived the Holocaust - the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century. Do you think that humanity drew a lesson from this history? Can genocide happen again?

Dear Kasia, When the Horrors of the Holocaust was over we said "Never Again" but, look around we are still killing one another
Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur it goes on and on. It is people saying that "My world would be better without you in it"
I devote my days in speaking to thousands of  young people about the dangers of prejudice and plead with them to be UPSTANDERS and not BYSTANDERS.