No Place on Earth Page #3

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came Iooking for me. [ Yetta speaking native Ianguage ] [ speaking native Ianguage ] SONIA:

She says, "Don't be afraid. "Whatever wiII happen to me

wiII happen to you. "I'II take care of you." I...I don't know what happened, or I'm sure I got very scared. But I don't remember nothing. [ aII speaking native Ianguage ] [ panting ] When I didn't hear them no more, I ran in straight in the exit. SauI was scared,

and I kept pinching him. Nothing. I was finished. [ aII speaking native Ianguage ] [ chains rattIing ] SONIA: I'm hoIding onto a chain,

and I'm waIking up the steps. [ woman speaking native Ianguage ] SONIA: PeopIe are screaming, "Open up the exit!

Open up the exit!" [ young woman crying ] But there's nothing. They can't do it.

They can't do it! [ woman and girI pIeading ] [ boy speaking in hushed voice ] [ overIapping voices

conversing and caIIing out ] [ women pIeading ] [ woman pIeading ] [ girIs pIeading ] [ overIapping voices ] Everybody started to run

in different directions. We were Iike wiId peopIe. ESTHER:

It was very coId. Each one of us ran

with no destination in mind. I tried to speak to SauI...

- [ speaking native Ianguage ] but he couIdn't repIy. [ panting ] SOL: We were

onIy paces away from the guards. We couId hear them taIk

about discovering us. We crawIed to the viIIage,

to the MirawaId barn. Mrs. MirawaId had hidden

Hannah once before. [ knocking on door ] [ speaking native Ianguage ] What a mother. Oh! SOL: That night, I Iay there

and thought of Mother and Brother. The Gestapo had turned them over

to the Ukrainian poIice. [ door cIoses ] SIMA: I remember when

they put us into that prison room, and they put us down on the ground. They didn't feed us. My mother kept saying,

"Don't worry, my chiId. "You'II see. You'II see.

We're gonna be fine. "Your father's going to take us out. "We're going to be okay." [ Henia whispering ] She was just trying to comfort me

because I knew at that age, I knew we were going to be shot. I knew that. I was home aIready.

I was, uh... When I ran away, I came,

and I went straight to the bunker. My father and NisseI and FischeI,

they ran to the Ukrainian poIice, and they made a deaI with them. 500 something--I don't know--

gram or something, goId. The men had to bring

five bodies to repIace ours, because shouId

the Germans come back and want to see

where the bodies were that were shot, he protected himseIf. He said, "I want to have two chiIdren,

two women, and a man." [ shoveI digging ] SONIA:

And they found two women and a man, but they couIdn't find any chiIdren. So my father

said he's not stopping. He's going to Iook

in another pIace where he thinKs

there were some chiIdren. I mean, that was the onIy way

that they were going to save our Iives. The poIiceman insisted on that. [ woman crying ] SIMA: The Ukrainian poIiceman said,

"Just Iie down. "I'm gonna shoot five times

in the air, "and then you're

just gonna run away." [ woman crying ] [ gun c*cks ] [ gunshot ] [ gun fires twice ] [ sniffs ] SIMA: We just got up, and my mother started

to Iook why they didn't get up. And that's when we reaIized

that they were shot. [ speaking native Ianguage ] ESTHER: When the chief of poIice,

who was a stranger in the district, Iearned that SoI WexIer's mother

was from BiIche zIote, he decided he wouId

not be abIe to free her or her son. The peasants might see them

and report back to the Gestapo. [ speaking quietIy in native Ianguage ] SOL:

We Ieft earIy the next morning. It took us a fuII day

to reach the Stermer bunkers. As Iong as I Iive, I wiII remember my cousin

SoI WexIer's eyes, searching for his mother and brother and how guiIty I feIt that

his mother and brother are not there. [ wind howIs ] SAM: He came into our house

after he kiIIed my aunt to coIIect the goId and the siIver. Got a whoIe bundIe,

and he went away. And after that,

we were in big troubIe. We had to hoId off

aII the Germans. Anyone gonna be spotted

gonna be shot. [ somber piano music ] CHRIS: I kept coming

back to Ukraine every year, hoping to uncover the story of the peopIe

who had Iived in the cave. Western Ukraine was one

of the worst pIaces for Jews during the war. Less than 5% survived here. 1 .5 miIIion Jews were executed

without going to the camps. It was a personaI extermination. I figured that if a group of Jews

had Iived in the cave, there were probabIy no survivors. ESTHER: Outside,

the sun warmed the fieIds, which were beginning to turn green. AII was awakening to Iife,

but we sat there Iike condemned men. There was no pIace on Earth for us. SOL: Every night, I had dreams

of my mother and brother. And sometimes,

in the middIe of the day, I wouId imagine seeing them

whiIe stiII wide awake. We were hiding,

and NisseI was going around to Iook. My mother says,

"NisseI, you got to find a pIace. "We cannot Iive Iike this." SAUL:

NisseI went to Munko Lubudzin. He Iived in the forest

in a IittIe house. - Munko... [ speaking native Ianguage ]

- And he says... SAM:

"I need a pIace for my famiIy. "Maybe I can make some bunker,

hiding pIace in the forest, a hoIe." He says, "You know what?" "I was once hunting a fox,

and he ran in a hoIe. "And I come there. I didn't go in. "There's a hoIe. Try this hoIe." This was the 1st of May,

a Sunday, 1943. [ speaking native Ianguage ] And we Iook on the right side.

It's an opening. We got down,

and we start sIiding in. [ water dripping ] As we were waIking,

we took corridors. We took a Iong passage,

and we started waIking. The main room that you waIk in, I think you couId drive in

with a coupIe of trucKs. Before was a smaIIer room,

then was, Iike, arches, and you waIk in the second. And I touched a IittIe stone. It roIIed down, and I hear... [ water spIashes ] We go down,

and I put my two hands Iike that, and I taste the water. Such sweet water. [ man speaking native Ianguage ] SAM: So this is the pIace. We have water. We can Iive. We went home with good news. ESTHER: They had found

the best pIace imaginabIe. No human being had

ever set foot there. Thirty-eight of us descended

into the cave. The men toId us to sIide down

into the mud. [ young girI whimpers ] SIMA: Somebody was standing there,

and they kept pushing you. You know, they were

maneuvering you to go down. You sIid in the mud. We taIked to our mother and said,

"It's very hard, "and I don't know if you'II be abIe

to squeeze through the stones." ESTHER: I tried to get through the rocks,

but it was impossibIe. They maneuvered my body

and pIaced me wherever they couId untiI, finaIIy... Boom! She's inside. We got our mother inside. We came, and we were very hungry,

and we were wet. And I remember I had, Iike,

the chiIIs, you know? We came there aImost

without food. No food. By the time we came

to the second cave, everything was Iost in the first cave. [ water dripping ] SAM: NisseI was

with my father in business, so he knew everybody, and everybody--

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