Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Jay Ipson: The Original Survivor, Part 2

NARRATIVE 1

1:00

Jay Ipson is a survivor. He told us last time how he and his father Israel and mother Edna managed to avoid selections and deportations in their native Kuvna, Lithuania. To escape escalating Nazi aggression, the three moved into the hiding place on a farm thirty miles from their home. They were joined by more than a dozen family members—Ipps and Butromovitches. The hiding place was dug by Jay’s father at the bottom of a potato hole. It measured nine by twelve by four feet high. For six months the Ipps and their extended family lived in these cramped quarters with just enough oxygen to survive and absolutely no light. When Lithuania was finally liberated, all sixteen people emerged. Jay was just nine old. He and the others had endured an unending night, but with the liberation hope seemed to stream back into the world. The first thing they all did was get cleaned up.

ACT 1

1:34

(from Track 9, 0:22-1:56)
For six months I didn’t have a change of clothes or a bath. We were liberated in August of ’44. And on liberation the first thing we did is was have a sauna. Now that sounds kind of luxurious but in the country there were no bathtubs, there were no showers, there were no bath, you either bathed in the lake or if you had a farmer that was up to date he had a sauna. Now what he had a sauna was a small shack right next to the lake with big boulders in it the boulders were put their first before the shed was built around it. And he would build a fire under the boulders, the fire would get the boulders hot, he then took water from the lake, dumped it on those hot boulders which made steam. The steam would run on your body. You then would take some lard and wash your body with it, soap yourself up as it might be then take another cold bucket of water and dump it over your head and that would rinse you off. In the meantime you would use twigs with broad leaves to scrape your body with similar to the way you use a sponge nowadays to soap your body up you did that with those twigs.
NARRATIVE 2
0:20
Even now, sixty-five years later, there is disbelief in Jay’s voice when he considers what he and his family managed to survive. There’s also an almost boyish giddiness about the whole ordeal, and something cautionary about our constant drive to acquire what we do not need.
ACT 2
1:15
(from Track 9, 3:42-4:46; from Track 10, 0:11-0:22)
I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. I know it happened. I verified it over and over and over again like I just told you I found the IPPs records so I know it happened. But how I did it, living the way I do now it’s uncomprehensible I mean right now I’ve got a cell phone that’s a computer. I didn’t have two sticks to rub together to have a toy. How does a child play without toys? How do you survive without food? Right now you want a drink you go up to you get a Coca- Cola, a Pepsi Cola, a Dr. Pepper all those other drinks, you get all the chocolate that you want you get all the food you that want more than you really need you stuff yourself. We had nothing and we were happy, we were happy to be alive.
The more you give us, the more we want, and we don’t need any of it to survive. (Because what do you really need to survive?) Air, water and food.

NARRATIVE 3
0:10
Out of the hiding place the Ipps had all three of these ingredients. But they still lacked permanent shelter. So the three of them—mother, father and son—worked their way back to Kuvna.
ACT 3
1:11
(from Track 13, 3:26-4:25; 4:48-5:00)
We went back to our home. The people who lived in our home where our furniture were German collaborators. So they ran with the Germans. And we took over the house. We came in our furniture was there, everything was there. There food they had lived a storehouse full of food because they were living good. We had something to eat we didn’t have to immediately go look for it because the food was there.
(But they were Lithuanians and they collaborated with the Nazis)
They were Lithuanian collaborated with the Nazis and then they came back looking for their apartment or their house. Not theirs it was ours figuring that we didn’t survive. They came to the door and Daddy opened the door Hello, Oh Ipp. So they said well, ah, ah, ah, ah. Daddy said well I guess you got to find yourself a place to live
NARRATIVE 4
0:25
Because Jay’s father spoke seven languages and had a background in law, he was given a job with the newly established government, supervising five different cooperatives. And then Israel Ip did something nice for a number of the women who worked at one of the cooperatives. The new totalitarian regime frowned on his actions and the Ipps soon embarked on a new chapter in their exodus.
ACT 4
1:58
(from Track 14, 0:14-2:12)
Oh there was another beginning. The war was going on and every cooperative had a quota. Well daddy and the people that worked for him, worked really hard, after all they wanted to defeat the enemy, which was Germany. Well they made their quota. And if you made your quota at that time the Russians came and presented you with the Russian flag, you were a hero. Well daddy was from the old school, he figured if everybody does a good job everybody needs to benefit. So he gave his employees a half a pound of sugar. Well there were a lot of women there, the women’s job also was to go in the woods, cut wood to bring into the plant to fire the furnace so they could do the work. Well some of the women took the sugar and sold it on the black market. That was a no-no. Well somehow word got out where did you get the sugar. Ipp gave it to us. So he was declared an enemy of the Soviet Republic. Which meant jail in Siber. Siber is the coldest part of Russia. He was coming home, in those days nobody had radios, but just like we have monument Avenue they had loud speakers and the radio and marshalling music was playing all day long those speakers. And he heard his name as an enemy of the republic.
NARRATIVE 5
0:15
The Ipps were out of the frying pan. Sure. But now they were in the fire. Which meant more running and hiding. Jay’s father and mother were up to the task. They still had their quick wits about them. And they knew how to survive.
ACT 5
2:32
(from Track 14, 2:13-4:15)
That night we escaped with forged papers. The Russians were repatriating the Poles to Poland, my mother’s maiden name was Butramovich which was a Polish name so we forged papers in her names and instead of being IPP we were now Butramovich. And on an KGB truck, we bribed the driver, and he took us toward Poland. And dropped us off where we knew there was a safe house. Everybody knows secret routes so we knew there was a safe house. We came to the safe house to spend the night. The next morning I went out at that time I was about nine, I guess, nine and a half with a little six year old boy to play in the snow. And there was a big lake. It was frozen. So there was also a house that during the battle was torn down, and they used wooden lathes that they put plaster on. I found a couple of pieces of wood like that I made myself a pair of skates and I went out on the lake and the little boy told don’t go out on the lake a couple of days ago somebody broke through Well there was a nice clear spot, it was clear of snow the rest of it was snow, I said hey look that looks like a good spot they said don’t go there. So I took a stick and beat on it a couple of times and everything was solid so I stepped out on it. Boom. I fell through the ice. I couldn’t swim, I kept grabbing a piece of ice and kept breaking off and that little six year old boy said to me in Russian,
(from Track 15, 0:03-0:08)
Davychimer gouchka, give me your hand.
(from Track 14, 4:21-4:46)
Well I gave him my hand and he pulled me out I was soaking wet. We went back to the house. I didn’t get a beating. They took my clothes off right away dried me off gave me a big glass of hot tea with cherries and whiskey in it. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, I did not get sick.
NARRATIVE 6
0:10
The next morning, warm, dry and rested, the Ipps left the safe house and started moving ever westward to a sort of promised land. Their conveyance to first stop was, ironically, a cattle car.
ACT 6
2:10
(from Track 15, 0:22-2:32)
Then we made our way to Warsaw, Poland. And there there was the Jewish community and we went to the synagogue. And refuges were all over the place. Daddy and I slept on a table and mother slept in another room with women and after that we tried to make our way for Czechoslovakia to cross the border into Germany. So on our way to Czechoslovakia we went to where the railroad station was from Poland and they had cattle cars, a train full of cattle cars, well you couldn’t get on, the Russians were guarding it, my father tried to make a deal with the Russians. And one of the cooperatives that my father was in charge of made boots so my father had a nice looking pair of boots on. The Russian that was guarding the train had a pair of beat up Army boots, they were wore through. Daddy said, look, you look about my size, I’ll give me my boots for yours if you’ll let us on the train. So they swapped boots. Daddy, Mother and I got on a cattle car, went to the Czech border train stopped, Czechs wouldn’t let us cross. They said too bad. There were refuges all over the place. I remember the place like today it was a wooden shack like a railroad stop but had a hole in the wall and people were saying drop your stuff in the wall, drop your stuff in the wall so they don’t catch it on if the Czechs find it on you they’ll put you in prison and people were dropping money and jewelry into that hole. If somebody finds that place or they tear it down there will be some rich people there.
NARRATIVE 7

0:20
But all the money in the world wouldn’t by them their freedom. They were stuck at the border, stranded. Jay’s father tried to get them help but there was none to be had. Finally they struck out on their own. It was bitter cold. There was a crust on the snow that covered the landscape as far as they could see.
ACT 7
1:30
(from Track 15, 2:35-4:05)
Well at that time Daddy saw a guide. A guy that was guiding people across the border, illegally through the woods. And Daddy tried to make a deal with him to take us through or take us with his group. He said I’m waiting on a big group, I can’t take you but if you go that way you’ll eventually go out into Berlin. No compass. Daddy’s not an outdoorsman, no sense of direction whatsoever. I’ve got a back pack with the blanket from the hiding place that I still have today. Daddy’s got a back pack with some food and stuff on it. Mother’s got a backpack with some clothing in it. And we take off into the woods. Middle of the night. Snow above my waist we’re just pushing the snow as we’re walking. Finally, I don’t know how long it was, I stopped and I said I don’t care if they kill me I can’t take another step. Mother took my backpack with the blanket, how heavy is a down blanket, but I was only nine and half years old, she put it on her backpack. Daddy picked me up and put me on his backpack and we kept walking through the woods.
NARRATIVE 8
0:10
Israel Ipp carried his son, while his wife carried their gear, meager as it was. They walked for hours and then, at least momentarily, they spotted a glimmer hope.
ACT 8
0:53
(from Track 15, 4:06-4:59)
Finally, I can’t tell you how long it was we saw a small light no place to go we don’t know where we are start heading for the light. Head for the light it’s a house. We get there, Daddy knocks on the door, a German with an insulated undershirt comes to the door Daddy tells him we’re lost, we’re trying to make it to West Berlin, the American Zone. The best I can remember it the guy said just a minute, closed the door when he came back he was in full police uniform with a weapon. He said come with me and Daddy whispered to me Look like we’re caught, we’ll have to see it through
NARRATIVE 9
0:10
Their teeth chattered with the cold and with raw fear. They had no idea what the German was planning to do with them.
ACT 9
0:34
(from Track 16, 0:00-0:34)

We went to what came to be known as Check Point Charley. And this guy must have been in charge of watch he told them to open up the gate, he says go that way, when you cross the bridge you’ll end up in the American Zone. And we ended up in the American Zone.
(Was that the end of a new beginning, then?)
I guess you can call it the end of a new beginning Right—(laughter)
NARRATIVE 10
0:30
From Berlin the Ipps made their way to Munich and then Bremerhaven where they secured passage on a vessel bound for New York City. They arrived in the shadow of Lady Liberty on June 12, 1947. The following day they came to Richmond. Strangers in a strange land. But almost immediately, this small family began carving out a new life. If anything, they knew how to survive, how to improvise when necessary.
ACT 10
2:53
(from Track 11 Jay Ipson Tracks 2, 2:53-5:00)

Yeah, basically when we came, daddy was a lawyer but he couldn’t speak English, you can’t be a lawyer if you can’t speak English so he said this is a nation of wheels. We opened up a service station, and my mother was the first woman to pump gas, wash windshield, and check windshield wiper blades in the United States.
(Where)
We took a run down service station at 1900 West Cary Street, Meadow, Cary,
(You’re right)
And Meadow and then it was the only station there, it was at that time it was a Conoco station, became eventually a Citgo. We started building up that corner so well that Sunoco built a station on one corner and then Texaco built a station on another corner so now we had two competitors and we eventually went into the wholesale parts business. Well while we had the service station I used to go to school and after school I’d used to work in the station and we had a mechanic by the name of Jim Cockman he was an outstanding mechanic but he was also a drunk (Laughter) And he came out of the military, he used to work on P-40s and he also used to work a the military was the first ones that had automatic transmissions in the Dusen halfs, a T-4 Allen transmission and he worked on those automatic transmissions well when automatic transmissions came out in 1949, 48 I think they started coming in on Oldsmobiles nobody could work on them, nobody knew how to work on them and the warranties then weren’t like the warranties now, the transmission went bad

(from track 12, 0:00-0:29)

you went to a service station or you went to a mechanic and trying to fix it. Well Jim knew how to fix them so he would take the transmission apart and then go on a drunk. (Laughter.) Well I had to face the customer so I leaned how to put them back together. (So you learned how to become a mechanic.) I had to. (Just as your dad had to really learn how to become a mechanic) Right.

(0:39-0:54)

So we ran the service station and I became a mechanic, every time the mechanics they would do a job I’d learn I’d have to put it back together, I even painted cars at one time. (Survival instincts)

(0:59-1:01)

You do what you have to do.
NARRATIVE 11
0:35
Jay ended up studying accounting at University of Richmond. At the same time he was running the family service station while his parents managed their wholesale parts dealership. One of his cousins, who had survived the ordeal in the hiding place, had landed a good job in Montreal and invited Jay to join him. Jay was reluctant, but his parents convinced him to go. It was the week before Purim, in memory of that ancient genocide against Jews by the Persians, and Jay drove straight through to Canada. He began working in the nylon industry, but that didn’t last long. When he drove out of Montreal his future was sitting beside him. Her name was Elly, short for Eleanor.
ACT 11
6:18
(from Track 13 Jay Ipson Tracks 2, 3:07-5:00

We came to a Porim holiday celebration and I see this beautiful girl dancing across the ball room. Well I used to do exhibition dancing, Arthur Murray style, ballroom, tangos and that kind of stuff, rhumbas sambas. And that girl just looked gorgeous, so I told my cousin that’s a beautiful girl, oh you want to meet her she went over there brought her over and she snobbed me said hi and just as a favor to my cousin went back. So one of my coworkers said oh that woman will never have anything to do with you. I said why? Oh she won’t I said Well get me her telephone number so they got me the telephone number. Five o’clock I called ner would you like to go out, Nope I’m busy. The next day at five o’clock I called her again I said would you like to go out she says, No I’m busy. So I said okay I’ll call you every day at five o’clock until one day you probably won’t be busy. And I did that for a week and I expected to get the same answer when I called her at five o’clock and she said well I’m not going to be busy tomorrow evening you want to go somewhere. I picked her up and I’m gonna leave out

(from Track 14 Jay Ipson Tracks 2; 0:00-3:25)

A whole lot of the other stuff. We had three dates. I’d been in Canada for about a month. I had made arrangements, I was still in service, to do my training at Burlington Vermont, I’d go across the border, do my training go back to work so I had to get a permit to work in Canada in order for me to get paid, you know I’ve got to live. So I asked her would she go with mee and show me where the Canadian government office was cause I ddin’t know Montreal it was a big city. She said yes she would so I came to it was 4:30 in the afternoon I had my appointment with the guy I walk into the office and he says to me you Europeans are all alike, you got to the United States and you can’t make a living so you come to Canada. I was 24 years old you don’t talk about my country that way I said you you can take my goddamednd papers and shove it up your ass. I’m not staying here and tomorrow morning at 6:30 I’m gonna be across Rosa’s Point, which is the border crossing, back wehre I belong. And he looked at me. And I turned around and I walked out. She was sitting at the lobby I came out and I said I’d like to marry me you you can come back to the states with me and we’ll get married or you can stay here maybe I’ll come back but I doubt it. She went home packed her clothing and she was dating somebody at 6:30 in the morning we were across the border in those days you didn’t stop I drove all the way through came to Richmond I had called my parents told them I was on the way she moved in with my mother’s aunt and I stayed with my parents and thirty days later we got married. (Is that right?) Fifty years ago. (So for you it was obviously love at first sight.) I can’t say it was love at first sight I knew it was right at first sight. She was the woman I need. (How did you know that?) I went looking for an apartment and I took her with me cause I was going to settle I was staying with my cousin, figured this is where I was going to stay. And I looked at the apartment I saw and it was an empty room and I said I’m gonna call my parents and have them send me a stero. Well she misunderstood, I had a stereo that I was gonna have shipped over she though I was going to tell them to buy it for me and sende it to me. And she said, You’re gonna have them buy you a stereo. In those days it was a record player a stereo. And I said whay do you mean. She said well aren’t you gonna get your own. I then realized she was the right one for me she was not materialistic if you want something you buy your own you don’t aske your parents to give it to you. And that’;s what did it and then love just blossomed.wd p/ h
NARRATIVE 12
1:10

Jay’s life had started in earnest now. He would later learn photography on his own, become a pilot, sire children, nurture his parents’ business into full fruition. But a man doesn’t survive something as cataclysmic as the Holocaust without having his spirit forever changed. Jay’s world view did not become some Hallmark made-for-prime-time-TV moment where all loose strands are suddenly tied up in a convenient knot. And a happy ending thus ensured. Jay is a true and dirty realist. His story is full of actual hardships—hunger, thirst, fear, sweat, blood, grime, illness, murder, despair. He would go on to create an entity that’s sole mission is to educate. Because only through education does humankind even stand a chance of surviving its own inhumanity. And that education may require, at least figuratively, the use of blunt instruments on thick skulls. Jay was ready to deliver the first blow. He would open eyes to an undeniable truth about us all.