Allen Small - Neighbors with the Bielskis
Transcript: But on the way back from my mission when I was with the Russians -- on the way back from my mission back to our headquarters to where we were stationed in the forest -- I accidentally met two partisans, also on the way there. And one of them -- I didn't even know -- but then I got closer to him and I see it's one of my cousins. And I didn't know that he's alive. Or he didn't know that I'm alive. And I says, 'Where are you? Where are you going?' So he said to me, 'We belong to the Bielski brigade.' I said, 'the Bielski, what's the Bielski Brigade?' Because I never heard of them, you know? Because, while I was there. But at that time when he told me that he belongs to Bielski Brigade, he says, 'And your father's brother is there'. I said, 'My father's brother is alive?' I said, 'Where are you guys stationed?' So he told me where it is. When we got back to our headquarters, I went to the commanding officer and I told him and asked him for permission to allow me to go to the Bielski Brigade. I think it was about five miles or six miles. I had to go through the forest and I was on horseback. And I came there to them. And when I got there and I got off the horse, as a matter of fact, and I see a lot of faces that I know. And I see my uncle was there. And as a matter of fact, my uncle was there, and his son was there, but when they had the typhus epidemic the year before, so my cousin died from typhus. And then I met other people, you know, from my hometown -- survivors. And that was the most wonderful thing that happened to me during the war. Just to not expecting to go in and see people there.