Vitka Kempner - Vitka runs away from home
Transcript: I was born in Kalish. This is a little town, close to the Polish-German border. In the year (19)39, since it was so close to the border, the war (which) began in September, 1st of September, and on the 3rd of September the German army was in Kalish. And immediately the expulsions began. And when I saw, that the Germans collect the Jews in some monastery, empty, and I saw, heard the screams, the way they related, the beatings they beat the Jews, I told my parents, I am not staying, I am running away with my friends. They argued with me at first, they did not agree, and said, you are so spoilt, how are you going to get along being alone, how can you succeed, and they were very much against it. Then, in '39, nobody imagined that this would be our last meeting. When I left my parents I didn't think for a minute that I would not see them anymore. Nothing had yet begun, that was in October '39. So, when I fled from my parents they did not imagine, and I did not imagine, that we would not see each other again. They were basically worried in the material sense, what I would do, how I would get along, how I would travel. They were afraid of what was going to happen to me. And I fled, and my brother also fled. We arrived at Lodz, there was my grandfather, and he would not let my brother go. "Children like that don't run away from their parents". And they returned him. So he, too, ran away (my brother). But he couldn't tell me what to do (my grandfather). I was 19 years old.

Video provided by Great Projects Film Company