Video Transcript: Norman Salsitz

Norman is saved by an SS commander

The commandant of the Polish police came to me and he said to me to run away. And I was wondering, why does he tell me? He was not a Jew lover. He was a big antisemite. So before I run away, I went to his home because I could go out from the camp. He was there with his wife and I said to him, “This time I’m going to listen to you. I will run away. But please tell me why do you want to save me? I know you are, you don’t like Jews.” So he told me the reason. And the reason was he had a son. And the son was in the army. He was killed in 1939 when the war started. When he saw me, he looked at me and I looked very much like his son. It like, like a double. And he told this to his wife and his wife said, “I want to see this young fellow.” He brought her to our, to our place and she looked at me and she told him, “Make believe because he look so much like our,” they had the only son, he was killed, “because he look so much like my, our son, please promise me if there will be a times that you will be able to save him, save him.” So for this reason, he told me the first time to run away; and for this reason he told me nows that they going to liquidate the camp, I should run away.

Stealing a bike and a rifle

I wanted to take away the rifle so I killed him. He fell down. So we went and we took away the bicycle, we took away the rifle and we left him. Now, the bicycle was very important because for the bicycle, my friend went to a peasant and he exchange it for a calf, so we have what to eat. The rifle remained with us. To me, this was very important because I did something. What did I do? I killed a Polish policeman who worked with the Germans and we got a other rifle which it didn’t cost us no money and I got it.

“The blizzard is our mother”

The blizzard is our mother. The night is our mother. A heavy rain is our mother because those were only the times that I could go out. If there was, who was our biggest enemy? The moon. The moon was our biggest enemy because if there was a moon night, because in day we couldn’t go. In night, if there was a moonlight night, we couldn’t move. So the night, the blizzard, heavy snow, heavy rain, this was our friends.

Norman threatens a doctor to save his life

She went to the doctor and she said “I have somebody who was wounded yesterday. He’s from the AK,” if he will look at me. He said yes. She brought me over and he started, he said, “Well, here is no dangerous because it went through the muscles. Here it went through the finger,” but I have to have injection against blood poison. He said, “Let down your pants.” So I was afraid that he does it purposely to see if I’m Jewish because she says that I’m from the same group. I took out a hand grenade and I took out the pin and I said, “If you do something I will let the pin out and we all be killed.”

Joining the AK

When the AK, when I came in I was very happy. Why? Because I didn’t have to hide. Before when I came in, I had to hide the rifle. I had to hide the revolver. I could only walk when it was a blizzard or it was a heavy snow. Nobody was on the street. But when I was in the AK I came out in a shiny night. When we came to our village, the girls grabbed us, they kissed us, the people came out, they brought us, they brought kielbasa, food. We were heroes. I was the same guy but before I was not with the AK. I was a fugitive and I had to be killed. So for being in the AK was a very, very rewarding day and also we were so organized, so we could do a lot of things. We demolished railroads, attacked police stations. It was all together a different story.

Norman saves a farmer and Jews in hiding

He went to his village and from a distance he showed me, “You see, this is the house,” and there I know he had a bunker and there are the Jews hiding. So we checked our revolvers and, and he said, “We going in. I will knock on the door. He knows me. And we’re old mate and we take out the Jews and we kill them.” So I said, “You go first because you know the way,” and as he started to work, I took out my revolver and I shot him

So I knocked on the door. He didn’t listen to me when I spoke Polish, so I spoke to them Yiddish. I said, “Look. I want to save you. I came here. I’m not AK. I’m a Jew. . I, we came in to kill, to kill you.” So well, after I spoke Yiddish and they told him to open the door. They open the door. There were 3 Jews. There was a man about 28 years. There was his girlfriend. She must a be about 22 and his girlfriend had the brother about 18. And they 3 were hiding by this, by this man. I said, “You cannot stay here because if you stay here, if they will find, I cannot go back to the AK because I killed him. They will know I killed him. So you better go, if you have a place to go, go. And I, if you don’t have a place, you come to me because I cannot go back to my group. I’m going back, I cannot go back to this group. I have to go back to my group. So, it will take about a day or two, we’ll come to my group.” So they said okay. They decided to go with me, and they came with me and I came back to my group in the woods. And we had in this times still left not too many, and they joined us. And this is how I stayed with my group in, when I left the AK. So they stayed with us.

Norman’s legacy to survive

Everybody had to have a legacy why to survive. And I had two legacies and two reasons. The first legacy was when my father was shot and I witnessed it...and after he was shot twice, he started to yell, “Nicoomen, Nicoomen, nem Nicoomen” means “Revenge, Revenge, Take Revenge” and this is ringing in my ears til today.

And the second legacy I had, when my mother was taken to Belzec to the death camps together with my 5 sisters and with the grandchildren, somehow from the transport, from the Oonshatplatz, she could give out a note, a letter to me. I was at this time in the labor camp. She said to me “You are my youngest child. You are young. You are strong. You are smart. If somebody would survive, it would probably be you. Go ahead. Survive. Let what you are orphan, let it not break you. But survive and go after the war, go to the world and tell the world what the German murderers did to us.” And this is the second legacy.