I Shall Live by Henry Orenstein Page A

we missed them more than ever.
    Meanwhile, the Russian retreat was becoming a rout. Demoralized Soviet soldiers came through Ołyka, sometimes without their weapons. On June 27 we heard for the first time the threatening rumble of artillery in action. The Stukas were flying low over the town, attacking anything that moved. Clearly it was a matter of hours before the Germans arrived, and so we, together with many others, sought refuge in caves in the hillsides of the main road on the outskirts of Ołyka.
    Never will I forget the entry of the German army into Ołyka. First we heard the distant roar of hundreds of approaching vehicles, which became louder and louder. Then we heard commands shouted in German, and a large column of the German army came into sight—first motorcycles, then tanks, trucks filled with soldiers, artillery, and hundreds of foot soldiers. The column was moving along in a very orderly fashion; the soldiers’ uniforms were clean and fresh, as though they had never seen battle. Officers in open command cars were barking orders and talking to each other loudly. It looked more like a parade of a victorious army than a combat force. There was fear in our hearts; the Germans sounded harsh and arrogant, and we were awed by the power and efficiency of the German war machine.
    Even though we had expected it, we were still surprised by the warmth and enthusiasm with which the Ukrainian population met the Germans. Women threw flowers at the soldiers, people ran up to them waving greetings and offering them bread and salt as asymbolic gesture of friendship. There was no sign of any hostility. Apparently the Ukrainians were not aware of Hitler’s opinion of them—indeed, of all Slavs. They didn’t know that they were classed as
Untermenschen
(subhumans), and that plans were already under way to exterminate most of them to make room
(Lebensraum)
for the Germanic peoples. *

Under the Germans:
Ołyka
    The first couple of weeks under the German occupation were not so bad for the Jews as we had feared. The German army passed quickly through the Ołyka area in pursuit of the Russians, meeting only sporadic resistance. If any Germans remained behind in Ołyka, we didn’t see them. A few Ukrainians had been appointed by the Germans to take over local government, and there was no shortage of food or other basic commodities.
    The rapid advance of the German army and the Red Army’s inability to hold any defensive lines took everyone by surprise. Every day German newspapers and radio gave the names of the cities newly fallen to the onrushing Germans: Zhitomir, Minsk, Smolensk. The German war communiqués spoke of gigantic encirclements, with entire Soviet armies surrounded and annihilated. Five hundred thousand Russians were trapped in a huge pocket in Byelorussia, six hundred thousand in the Ukraine. Most were killed or taken prisoner. The Germans seemed unstoppable.

    Enlargement of the area in Poland where the Orenstein family was moving from town to town during the 1939–t1943.
    One day in the middle of July, Felek, Sam, Father, and I were sitting in our room, discussing the situation. Father wasn’t feeling well and was lying on the sofa. Our landlady looked through the open window and told us, “The Germans are going from house to house rounding up Jews for work.” We quickly decided to go upstairs to the attic. Father wouldn’t join us. “I’m not going,” he said. “I’m sick—they can’t use sick people to work for them.”
    A minute later, from the little attic window, we saw an SS man and two Ukrainian policemen enter the house. First we heard the Ukrainians shout in broken German,
“Juden—Arbeit”
(Jews—work). Then we heard the German screaming, and there was a great deal of commotion. We saw them leave our house and enter the one next door, from which they soon emerged, taking our neighbor and his son with