interview

After we sat down and got comfortable, Bob began to tell his story.

Robert Geminder was born in Wroclaw, Poland on August 3rd, 1935, to his parents, Mano and Bertl. Bob had a brother named George and was born into a wealthy family. In 1939, the Second World War began and Nazis forced his family to get out of their house when he was barely 4 years old. Bob wasn't able to take anything with him and they all ended up walking towards Warsaw, which took them a few months to get to. The family settled down in Stanislaw, where Bob's grandmother, Golde, along with some of his aunts, uncles, and cousins were also staying. But in 1940, that changed after Germany violently threw the Russians out of Poland. His father, Mano, in an effort to prevent his family from being injured or killed by the explosions and bullets, tried covering up their window with a mattress to protect them from shattered glass. As Bob was helping his father protect the family, Mano had a heart attack and died. After the Nazis succeeded taking over Poland, they forced the 20,000 Jews from Stanislaw into the town square and eventually the cemetery. Although Bob was too small too see what was happening, he heard the sound of rapid gun shots being fired and people falling to the ground. So many people died that day that there were only about 8000 left from the original 20,000 Jews. The only reason his family survived was because they were one of the first people to go, meaning that they were in the front while the people in the back were being killed. The Nazis told the remaining Jews to leave. The Jews were so scared that they started running frantically, and the confusion separated Bob and George from his mother, Bertl. Luckily though, Bob's grandmother, Golde, found them and took them to their Bertl, who thought all three were dead.

A few days later, they had to leave again because the Nazis came back. Bob asked his mother why there were fences. She explained that the fences contained a ghetto that was packed by Jews. The Nazis forced the adults to march everyday while Bob and George stayed with Golde, unable to go outside due to the diseases floating around. One day, Bertl and her friend, Emil, came home, devising a plan to get out of the ghetto, since they believed something bad was going to happen and there was no way she was going to let her kids die. Even so, Golde, refused to leave because she didn't want to defy the Nazis. One day though, Nazis came into their home with dogs that were trained to find kids, since kids were seen as useless people who couldn't work. Golde quickly put the kids in the closet and placed pieces of wood against the door. After about ten minutes of searching, the Nazis left. They were safe. The dogs were not able to smell the kids due to the wood. A few weeks later, Bertl and one of her friends hid Bob and George under their skirts while they marched out of the ghetto for daily work. Luckily, no one saw them because they were in the middle of the crowd. Bertl later hid both of them in an abandoned closet, where she later returned to pick them up and quietly leave to meet Emil at the train station. They took a train to Warsaw, but a few weeks later, the Nazis killed everyone in the ghetto, including Golde.

The family was able to settle down in Warsaw because Emil's sister lived there. She was Jewish, but no one knew this due to the fact that she married a non-Jew, which is why they called her a gentile. They were able to blend in by pretending to be Catholic, but one day Bob became very ill. The problem was that the only way to save him would be to go to the hospital, but if he did, the doctors will know he is Jewish because Jewish kids get circumcised. What this means is that they might tell on him. Although this could happen, Bertl only cared about her kids, so she took him to the hospital under a fake name. She told him to only speak Polish, but the doctors eventually found out that he was Jewish anyway. Even so, they didn't turn him in. It was luck that those doctors didn't do so. After Bob got better, he helped care for other patients as a thank you to the doctors and nurses for not turning him in. Later, Bertl found a family willing to take care of her children in exchange for some of her land. The boys eventually blended in with the family by going to Catholic Church on Sunday and playing with the other children. But one day, George accidentally left his hat on for prayer, which Jewish people do and not Catholics. This drew the attention from others, and Bertl was forced to come back and take only him away, since she could only take one at a time. Bob, due to the George incident, was forced to stay in the hay loft because it became too dangerous for him to be inside the house anymore. Bob wasn't allowed to come down during the day, and I could only imagine how bored he must have been just laying there hidden all day. One day, the family taking care of him forgot to feed him, and Bob, feeling a combination of bravery and hunger, climbed out of the window and ended up eating pig food. The same situation ended up happening again later, and Bob this time ended up eating raw chicken eggs. A few months later, Bertl returned to get him, but she made a remark on how dirty Bob was. She told him that he was so filthy that lice are jumping off of him. After she cleaned him, they headed back to Warsaw.

During the winter, their family put a Christmas tree up in order to look like they are Catholic. Bertl found a way to make money on the black market. She took tobacco and made cigarettes to sell. Both Bob and George even ended up "borrowing" potatoes from other farms. In 1944, the Russians wanted to take Poland back. People knew of stories about how vicious the Russians were. Although they ran through Poland, they stopped across the river from Warsaw and waited there. All of these actions went against everything Bertl thought would happen. The reason she moved her kids there was so they would be better protected from Russians and Germans. The Polish underground rose up against the Nazis because they wanted Poland back. This caused a battle that ended with the Germans destroying most of Warsaw and putting its people in cattle cars. The family witnessed both Polish and Jews being placed in these cars. They waited until they saw a cattle car with no ceiling, which Bertl was grateful for because "at least they will be able to breath." As they rode on standing due to no room, Bertl eventually realized where they were headed: Auschwitz. Bob was really tired since he was still just a 9 year-old kid and had to stand all day. For some reason, the cars stopped 100 yards away from that dreadful doom they were headed to, and Emil came up with a plan. He told Bob that he is going to lift him out of the car in order for him to open the door for them. Although he was weak and tired, Bob somehow opened the door. Bertl told others to run, but they didn't listen. Bob took a 6-foot jump and ended up hurting his knee. Even so, the family ran, leaving the door open and running fast, for they knew that all the people in the car were going to be killed. They quickly found a farm house and told the old farm house man that they were a part of the Polish underground so that he would protect them. The moved a rug in the living room and removed the floor boards in order to show them his secret staircase. After hiding, they heard Nazis come in the house demanding to search the house for 4 fugitives who ran out of the car. Since these Germans were train workers, they didn't have dogs, so they were not able to find the family and just gave up. It was luck that the Germans didn't have dogs with them, who would have surely smelled them.

A few weeks later, Germany surrendered, and the family thanked the farmer and left the farm house. They stayed in Poland for a while, and people saw them as heroes. But Bertl didn't want to stay in Poland because the government has changed in Poland and because times were too hard there. They decided to go to Germany, which wasn't going to be easy. Emil hired a guide to get them to Germany, but they didn't have a place to live. They were put into a camp that houses displaced persons. This was the first time Bob had ever tried a banana. Finally, they no longer had to "borrow potatoes. Eventually in the camp, Emil and Bertl decided to get married. Almost two years after living in the camp, Bertl decided that they were going to America. She had relatives in Pittsburgh that would let them live there with them. The only problem was that in order to enter America, they had to be healthy, which luckily after all that they went through, they were. Both George and Bob were enrolled in school and forced to learn English in order to communicate in this country. They were so bright that Bob even ended up graduating early. Bob eventually graduated from College with a degree in engineering. Bob ended up meeting Judy in a party one night. What's interesting is that Bob came with a date, but Judy's date couldn't take her home, so Bob ended up taking both his own date and Judy home. Four years later Bob and Judy ended up getting married. I guess you can say it was luck.