Stefan, you wrote:
"Ed, is it possible that you (who was there as a young man, while I wasn't)
have formed your impressions because you do not personally remember many
Jews among the deportees? The deportees were scattered amongst hundreds of
far-flung settlements across the USSR - is it possible that not many of the
Jewish deportees did not end up in your settlement?"
In the area where we were deported there were 3 camps. There was not a
single Jew in any of them.
My family (aunts and cousins ) reported on 5 other camps. I know over 300
children from various camps in USSR (including Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan)
who were in the camp in South Africa and they reported not a single Jew in
their camps. In travelling south to Uzbekistan we came across transports of
Jews some of whom spoke Polish (had to have been Polish Jews) who were
fleeing the German advance and they were travelling as Soviet citizens. I
came from a town on Kresy where over half the population was Jewish, most of
whom spoke very broken Polish or none at all- they spoke Yiddish. Then there
were few cultured Jews who spoke Polish well and also at home. My father was
a businessman and had Jewish friend and close contact with Jews.
Edward
