Yakov Kaper

Thorny Road

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48, Melnikova Street

In the morning Smulsky came for us and we went for food products for the canteen. At the end of the day he went up to Rotenfuhrer and decided that we would stay in Melnikova street since it was convenient for our work. The Rotenfuhrer ordered us to stay and promised us some new clothes in a few days, since they did not want such pitiful looking creatures on the grounds of Gestapo headquarters.

The girls who worked in the kitchen were civilians and they looked at us with pity. They always tried to help us somehow. Once we drove to Kozelets, a small town not far from Kiev, to cart potatoes. One managerial officer also went with us. He ordered us to load the potatoes and went to register the documents. The girls from the collective farm told us that if we could managed to hide it away they would give us an additional sack of potatoes. So we took that additional sack and said that we had finished the work. We worried a lot but during unloading we dumped it in the coal pile and put some coal on the top of it. Then we unloaded the rest of the potatoes. The German counted and everything matched up. We were very glad.

In the evening, when throwing the coal into the furnace we brought the sack of potatoes. Two civilians also worked there. One of them, Stepan of about 60 and the other, Stepkin was a bit younger. They treated us well. We used to drop in there to warm ourselves. Stepkin let Vilkes and me stay there for the night duty. When he came there in the morning all the boilers were cleared, the cinder was taken out. We had kept the boilers going all night. He was satisfied and so were we. There it was warm, we boiled the potatoes and ate to our hearts' content.

Some days later pan George, as we called him, went with us into 33 Korolenko street. In one of the rooms there were all the clothes of those who had been shot in Babi Yar. We changed our clothes like he ordered. Even the driver couldn't recognize us afterwards. We then were sent to Myshelovka where the subsidiary farm for the Gestapo was located. Together with a detachment of folksdeutsches we erected a fence and equipped the storehouse with racks. When the work was over, Senya Berlyand and Kuperman were left there, and the rest left to work at 48 Melnikova street. Danya Budnyk was an electrician, I was a carpenter, Ostrovsky, Podkaminer, Wilkes were assigned for the kitchen to go for food products, to chop wood and to fire the boiler for coffee.

I had no tools but I was required to repair windows and doors and to glaze. I told pan George about it and he gave me two loaves of bread and sent me together with a policeman to the Yevbaz, Jewish Market to sell the bread and buy the tools. Bread was very costly, especially the pure German kind. I didn't know its price but they almost fought for it in the market. I bought the tools and noticed a woman selling snacks in a stall. She worked in a buffet before the war and she recognized me at once. I couldn't talk to her but she winked at me and I realized that she wanted to tell me something.

I began making a rack for the clothes which needed to be stored after people entered the police school and got their uniform. I made a lock for this room and kept one key for myself. The second key was in the chief's possession and nobody knew about my key. It was necessary to glaze and again I was sent to the market with bread to get a glass-cutter. I asked the folksdeutsche to stand aside when I was buying something because people were afraid of Germans. I entered the stall of that barmaid and the policeman remained outside. She called her companion and that one promised to make contacts with partisans and to get documents for us but she needed five thousand marks for this. I asked her to get me a glass-cutter and promised to come back in two days. In the evening I told my friends about it.

At 48 Melnikova street there was a sewing shop with civilian workers who sewed for the Gestapo. The head of the shop often came to us and told about the situation on the fronts and how the partisans acted. We believed him. We stole bread from the kitchen and he sold it for us. I also opened the room with the clothes and took some to sell. We were afraid of keeping money with us so the head of the shop who lived on Turgenyevskaya street kept it there.

A few days later, I again went to the market with the same policeman and entered the store. The barmaid remained in the hall and Lydia Stanislavovna invited me into a small room and said that the documents will be obtained for sure if there was money and that we could get to the partisans. But since I had no more pretexts to go to the market and she promised to come to 48 Melnikova street. I took the glass-cutter and we went left.

When I came back to the camp I heard an unpleasant piece of news. Lenya Ivry was taken from us after Sharikov had told some lies about him to the fascists. He was taken to the main garage in 3/5 Institutskaya street.

Whenever our fellows from the kitchen happened to be in Institutskaya, they always tried to give us some food. Once they met Lenya Ivry and he told them that they were all preparing to escape and there needed to get some arms. He also showed them a revolver that he had hidden in the garage.

We need more and then we shall be able to escape, he said.

Some days later I handed the money to Lidiya Stanislavovna in the appointed place. The fellows from the kitchen in Institutskaya found out that Wolf was not there either. Germans had shot him because he attempted to defend somebody. The senior engineer Krynichny said that he was not telling the truth and the German shot both Wolf and the man whom he had tried to defend on the spot. Another Polish Jew, Volodya by name, was appointed instead. He knew German well and Russian badly. All the tortures and sufferings continued.

In Melnikova it was much better. The only problem was when the Germans and policemen got their rations of biscuits, vodka and sweets on Saturdays. They got drunk and ran to torture us. They threw at us whatever came to hand. We already knew about it and locked ourselves up. They knocked, but we would not open the door. Once a Gestapo soldier knocked so hard that we thought he would break the door and we opened it. He said: I also have a heart, do you want some vodka? We told him that we would rather have bread. I went with him to the third floor and he gave me a loaf of bread, a bottle of vodka and a pair of underwear.

Once some young people, folksdeutshe, arrived and one of them came to us. We didn't know about his intentions. He saw that there were five of us and must have been afraid to do something but he started explaining that if a German entered everybody should stand up at attention, thankful for being there. He talked all evening as if we were newcomers and we did not know what to do about it.

On the next day he came into the shop where I was busy with carpentry. I didn't notice when he stood by my side and suddenly, without a word, he struck me on the face. Blood ran from my mouth and nose. But I came to quickly and grabbed the handle for the spade which I was making. I beat him so hard that he ran into the yard and I dashed after him. At that moment the German that gave me the bread was walking through the yard. He caught me by the hand and saw that I was all covered in blood and called over the folksdeutche. He asked him why he beat me. He tried to extricate himself from the situation and said that I had not taken my hat off. The German struck him on the head and yelled You have nothing to say. In a few days I saw that German drunk in the yard. He was crying out loud: Proletarians of all countries, unite! He was taken away forever.

Our fellows cooked in the kitchen in the morning and in the evening boiled coffee in the yard.

When we learned from Smulsky that in Syrets there was a concentration camp and that people there suffered greater than in Institutskaya, we started helping them. In the evening Smulsky parked the car not far from kitchen and we gave him bread in half loaves so it would not attract attention. We did not know whom he gave the bread to but after the second time we got a message of thanks with the signature Arkady Ivanov.

Danya Budnik repaired radios and we used to listen to the radio Moscow. I repaired the windows and doors in big bosses' offices. The doors bore the inscriptions Hauptsturmfuhrer SS doctor Schuhmacher, Sturmbahnfuhrer SS Radomsky. Once Budnik and I had to work in the flat of Radomsky. Budnik was ordered to fix a new chandelier and I had to hang curtains. He was a short, plump man with red cheeks and by his side was his dog Rex who was about his same height. We got scared and he called the dog back and locked it in the adjoining room. We finished our work and were ready to go when he opened a drawer, took out two packs of cigarettes and gave them to us without a word. We thanked him and left.

There also was one supervisor Rotenfuhrer Willi Lange and one red head. They always went together with the schutzpolice and folksdeutches to hunt the partisans. We knew about it in advance because many cars came to our place to take dry rations for them. They started off early in the morning. I started to prepare at once. After each trip I had to make wooden boxes for killed policemen instead of coffins. I prepared boards one and two meters long. The boards were not planed. When a German was killed I could not sleep that night since I had to make a real coffin. They always left for two or three days. Yashka told us that very often some policemen ran away.

One night we heard some shooting and in the morning we learned that two policemen wanted to run away. At night they got up, dressed and went down the ravine at the back of the yard. But the soldier on duty noticed and shot them down with his automatic weapon. They were buried without a coffin there.

At the end of August, several workers were brought to the shoemaker shop because the civilians couldn't cope with the work. The clothes and footwear for gestapo soldiers and policemen needed to be repaired. Three men were assigned to the various works. Among them there was one strong man, Misha. He was about thirty or thirty five and was a former seaman from the Dnieper fleet. He arrived as a sanitary equipment fitter and together with him there was one more fitter, a young lieutenant still in military uniform but without any badges of rank. Misha always addressed him as lieutenant. Boyarsky was the third one, he was a kind of sotnyk but he requested to be assigned to Melnikova street.

I don't know why he asked to be transferred since in general it was not bad for sotnyks in the camp. Their barracks always had enough to eat and drink just like in the master's barracks.

Every day they took people to work in the city from the concentration camp Syrets. Sometimes people managed to get in touch with their relatives and they brought them some food. Both the masters and policemen had to be bribed with alcohol to let that person off work for the day.

Former soccer players Misha Sweredovsky and Makar Goncharenko also ended up in the shoemaker's shop, as well as the former master of the Syrets camp, Grigoryan Sergey. We had already heard about Grigoryan and Boyarsky earlier.

The bandit Grigoryan used to kill our people and then told about it in Melnikova. I don't know what Jews had ever done to him to make him hate them so much. He boasted of how he had managed to kill them. Later I was told that during the occupation of Kiev he opened a shoemakers shop. The workers were to be supplied with bread to make them work at his shop, so he opened a small bakery. Then he got a small truck, repaired it, make rounds of villages, bought hides and processed them himself. He was in good with the Kiev authorities, made high boots for them, shod them and they gave him a certificate for purchasing hides in the Kiev region. But as soon as he went into the other region he was caught, deprived of his truck and beaten so severely that he hardly remained alive. Thus he was sent to the Syrets concentration camp. Since he was very strong and showed hatred towards Jews he was appointed a master. When Kiev was liberated Grigoryan was caught and hanged.

Boyarsky was a former chief of political department of Kiev police and a former émigré. He had lived in Poland and Germany. He was assigned to Kiev before Kiev even fell. According to him, he was sent to the concentration camp for his ideas of an independent Ukraine. Very soon he didn't have to work at the Syrets camp and he became a sotnyk. In 1943 he left together with the Germans when they evacuated the camp.

We waited for the documents and prepared for our escape. Once we were summoned and told that we had removed the antenna on the equipment for overhearing from the roof. We were ordered to turn in those who did it or else they threatened to shoot everybody. But we did not know. Then they decided that it was Budnik who worked with radio and electricity. They put him near the wall and wanted to shoot him down. At this moment Misha, the sailor came up and asked what Budnik was going to be shot for. I explained and the sailor said that he saw Sharikov remove the antenna. I ran to the rotenfuhrer who was standing ready to shoot with a revolver in his hand and told him about Sharikov.

Budnik was released and Sharikov was taken to 33 Korolenko street. He was gone for a couple of weeks and then he appeared again. Zhenya, his son who worked as a driver of a gasenvagen, managed to take him out. Lenya Smulsky told us that Ivry said something in the garage and the rotenfuhrer who was also a senior mechanic ordered him to get into the car. Lenya wanted to take something but he didn't permit him. They drove, stopped on the outskirts of the city and Ivry was shot with a revolver.

We thought that Lenya Smulsky was a reliable person since he brought food products from the canteen where gestapo, folksdeutsche and schutzpolicemen lived and ate. Our fellows Vilkes, Ostrovsky and Podkaminer used to go with him as loaders. We were warned that if anybody tried to run away he would be caught and the rest would be shot down.

Everything he told us we believed and thought he was telling the truth. He always told us about the Jewish camp in 3/5 Institutskaya and the Syrets camp.

One period they started bringing wood to our premises in 48 Melnikova. After dinner I was summoned to the yard. When I went out I saw that there stood Sturmbahnfuhrer Radomsky, Rotenfuhrer Lange and pan Willi, as we called him. Pan Willi told me in broken Russian that it was necessary to build a big barn garage for five cars by the evening. He showed me the place, where the beginning and the end was and said that people would be brought over and I was to supervise everything in order to finish by the evening. I was thinking about how to begin when suddenly a policeman ran up and said that his team was ready. So I saw a platoon of policemen with spades and axes and pan Willi told me to give them the orders. I marked where to dig holes, some of them were to dig, others needed to tie up the poles and make a frame out of the boards. When the holes were ready I told them to lift the ready-made walls. We managed to bring them together and made a box. The barn was to have a lean-to roof that had be made and gates and then everything would be ready.

On the next day again I was summoned. Radomsky and Willi were standing in the yard and talking and I saw him smile for the first time. I came up to him after having removed my hat in advance and stood at attention. Pan Willi asked me in German, so Radomsky could hear, Why haven't you made up a fence? and pointed to the ravine. I answered that nobody had told me to make a fence. Then Willi smacked me in the face so hard that I saw double. He was trying to get himself out of trouble about the fence. The fence was made. That evening he came to my barracks with a bottle of vodka, cigarettes and bread.

One time after the workers who were brought from the Syrets camp every day were brought in, Mishka, the sailor and the lieutenant told us that they had heard a rumor that a group naked Jews, they did know where from, had been brought to our camp in the gasenvagen. They were let out on the camp-ground and the Germans mocked them. They were told to wash themselves and take nettle to rub each other with, so it could be seen that you have been cleaned. They were forced to do so. They were beaten with whips, sticks or the butts of rifles. Some of them were even beaten to death. Those who were left alive were gathered into a circle and made to sing and dance while being whipped, entertaining their executioners. This entire operation was performed without participation of Germans only by policemen and camp authorities, i.e. sotnyks and masters but, certainly, with the consent of the Germans. There were many bandits like Grigoryan, Moros, Serbin, Boyarsky and others who thought that they had ended up in the camp because of the Jews and that the Jews should be annihilated to the last man.

Boyarsky did not come to our camp any more since there was no more work for him there. In the other camp he was a big chief and was lived quite well there.

Some days later Lenya Smulsky told us in detail that in the garage at 3/5 Institutskaya, the mechanic who had killed Lenya Ivry found a pistol that he believed was hidden by Ivry. That is why the Germans decided to search all the Jews. They did not find anything in the cells where the Jews slept. Then they decided to search each person separately. They announced that the next day would be a mandatory bath day and ordered some prisoners to start the boiler. When the prisoners came inside, they undressed and Germans started searching their clothes. Each of us carried a gas mask bag and in two of them pistols were found. The Germans summoned the gasenvagen, made those found with the weapons go inside without any clothes and brought them to the Syrets camp and ordered them killed.

Just at that moment there was an emergency at 33 Korolenko where the gestapo was located.

There was a cell in the building where twice a week people were taken to Babi Yar to be shot. A Jew and his son happened to end up there. The boy was of about twelve or thirteen and played the violin.

Every time when the Germans took prisoners to Babi Yar they left them in the cell. They often summoned the boy to play the violin for them. That's why they never touched the father.

One time the father told the prisoners who were in the cell that they would be taken to Babi Yar. They became desperate and tried to escape when the guard came into the cell. They attacked him, but their plan failed. The German managed to cry out and help arrived immediately. Nobody escaped. As a result, everybody was taken to the Syrets camp.

We all remained in our places and every day we thought that Lidiya Stanislavovna would come and bring us the documents. We started fighting amongst ourselves. Some of us said that we should abandon the other plans and run to the forest. Others insisted that it was impossible to go without documents. The debates were intense and we yelled very loudly. One time Vilkes grabbed a kettle and launched it into Ostrovsky's face. At that moment a German, Pan Yan appeared. He was the assistant of Radomsky in the Syrets camp. I ran to meet him and said that Ostrovsky had been chopping wood and a piece hit him in the face. He ordered me to follow him and when I came into his room he gave me bandages and cotton. Budnik and I bandaged Ostrovsky and our conflict had ended for the time being.