Plik "AGFl_AV.22.0901.mp4"
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| Źródła | KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg Signatur: AGFl AV.22.0901 |
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Napisy dla "AGFl_AV.22.0901.mp4"
| 00:00:05 | IV: Heute ist Samstag der 20. Juli, wir sind in Weiden in der Oberpfalz im Hotel Admira. |
| 00:00:10 | Mein Name ist Michael Aue von der Medien Werkstatt und wir führen jetzt ein Interview mit Agi Geva, |
| 00:00:16 | die heute in den USA lebt und die 1930 am 2. Juni in Budapest geboren wurde. |
| 00:00:38 | AG: You, you didn't started anything? |
| 00:00:41 | IV: I start, I started, you just have to wait to just.. |
| 00:00:43 | AG: No, but I can talk when, I mean, what I am telling now is not, is off record? |
| 00:00:47 | IV: Now it's off. |
| 00:00:48 | AG: Ok. Then my.. |
| 00:00:50 | IV: Ok, so let's start a little bit with the beginning, can you tell me a little bit about your childhood, |
| 00:00:57 | where you have been born, about your parents, your family, how you grew up? |
| 00:01:04 | AG: Ok, I was born in Budapest, but we didn't live there at the time. |
| 00:01:09 | We lived at a farm, where my father was the director of a very big farm |
| 00:01:14 | and ah problem started in 1936, when Jews couldn't be in key positions anymore and he was ah fired. |
| 00:01:27 | It affected him more than we could have imagined. |
| 00:01:32 | He got heart, heart sickness and ah he, he never recoverd actually from this shock that he had to loose his job. |
| 00:01:42 | Ah until up, up to then we had quite a nice ah childhood, but at the age five, six we had to leave, was called Pogon Puszta. |
| 00:01:56 | And ah we went to Miskolc where I grew up actually and where we were deported from also. |
| 00:02:04 | My mother ah opened a pension ah like a small boarding house, small hotel in order to save my father worries and work |
| 00:02:15 | and ah she did all the management and ah we liked to live there very much with my sister. |
| 00:02:22 | We had again quite nice. |
| 00:02:26 | Ah we didn't feel antisemitism, because our parents were very careful about not having us ah know a lot about it. |
| 00:02:37 | At school, there was no Jewish school ah no Gymnasium, only a protestant one that's where we attended |
| 00:02:46 | and that were only two Jewish girls in my class room. |
| 00:02:50 | We felt it in ah social way that we were never invited to any birthday parties and ah any other parties we two Jewish girls so. |
| 00:03:02 | That we, we could have managed with it {breathing}. |
| 00:03:10 | IV: So and how ah can you remember ah when it started changing the situation a little bit for you? |
| 00:03:18 | AG: It didn't change a little bit. |
| 00:03:20 | It changed a lot in 1944 actually on the 19th of March my dad died. |
| 00:03:27 | He died on, in the morning and we called our relatives in Budapest to come to the funeral and they told: "We can't, uncle Nazi arrived." |
| 00:03:43 | And my mother understood that the occupation started. |
| 00:03:47 | My dad, if he hadn't died that day, for natural, not natural reasons exactly, |
| 00:03:55 | he had this heart trouble and he had lung trouble and he had high blood pressure, he had everything one can imagine. |
| 00:04:02 | He would have died from the shock. |
| 00:04:05 | So when we came back from the cemetery all the street corners were already ah full of ah SS ah guards and soldiers and officers and, |
| 00:04:17 | so Miskolc was occupied on the same day when he died. |
| 00:04:24 | IV: So and what did you do? |
| 00:04:25 | What did your family do? |
| 00:04:27 | At this day, about the next days? |
| 00:04:30 | AG: {Breathing} The next days, I mean, from that day on everything changed. |
| 00:04:35 | But everything changed for the worst in ah in an unimaginable way. |
| 00:04:41 | Rules started to come out of, for instance the red, the yellow star. |
| 00:04:49 | We couldn't go out to the street without the yellow star. |
| 00:04:52 | We couldn't have a bicycle. |
| 00:04:55 | I had to give my bicycle that, take it to the municipality. |
| 00:04:59 | It was an idea I never, never would have imagined that should be connected. |
| 00:05:06 | We {breathing} heard new words like "ghetto", "yellow star", "deportation", |
| 00:05:17 | concentration camps, this became new words, |
| 00:05:21 | we had to learn with my sisters, we didn't know the meaning. |
| 00:05:24 | We never thought we have to know about it. |
| 00:05:27 | And things started to change rapidly. |
| 00:05:31 | IV: Did you have heard about the things that happened in other countries before like Poland? |
| 00:05:35 | Or what happened to Jewish people or what the Germans did there? |
| 00:05:40 | AG: You know, as there was not television on those days and the BBC wasn't supposed to be heard. |
| 00:05:45 | Ah the Hungarian Radio did not give the exact news. |
| 00:05:51 | So the little news that we had we had to imagine the rest of it, |
| 00:05:56 | but somehow most of my acquaintances and friends and relatives |
| 00:06:02 | everybody's told one sentence: "To Hungary it can't happen." |
| 00:06:07 | It happened. |
| 00:06:12 | IV: So maybe you continue what happened then? |
| 00:06:15 | So you could, could go on to school further on, or? |
| 00:06:19 | AG: No. |
| 00:06:20 | IV: No. |
| 00:06:20 | AG: We couldn't go to school anymore. |
| 00:06:22 | It was the only good thing about it. |
| 00:06:24 | IV: {Laughing} And ah.. |
| 00:06:26 | AG: That's what we thought. |
| 00:06:27 | IV: And the little boarding.., the pension your mother that was running, it was closed..? |
| 00:06:31 | AG: No my mother kept on running the pension until the last minute when we just had to walk out from it. |
| 00:06:39 | We had to walk out, leave everything behind. |
| 00:06:42 | We could take something with us what we could carry, nothing more. |
| 00:06:48 | The choice was very hard for my mother mostly. |
| 00:06:52 | And we didn't know where we were going and why. |
| 00:06:58 | IV: Nobody told you before? |
| 00:07:01 | AG: No, we were taken to the ghetto. |
| 00:07:08 | But before we were taken to the ghetto, there were rumours that we could save us the possiblility of being deported, |
| 00:07:19 | if we go to the municipality and swear loyalty to the country and go and work in the fields. |
| 00:07:29 | So my mother ground.., rounded up some 30, 33 friends who were ready to do this |
| 00:07:38 | and we went to the municipality and we swore loyalty and we were send to Muhi Puszta, |
| 00:07:45 | that was the place where we had to work in the fields. |
| 00:07:49 | And nobody exactly knew for how to work in the fields, |
| 00:07:53 | but we had guards around and we had long, long hours and we did it |
| 00:07:58 | and we thought with this we can save our lifes maybe. |
| 00:08:03 | {Breathing} But we didn't. |
| 00:08:06 | They came to take us, they changed their minds or the rules |
| 00:08:10 | or the laws and they took us back to Miskolc |
| 00:08:15 | to the ghetto, that was we thought the worst possibility, in very small apartments they ah send five, six families, |
| 00:08:29 | of, of course only one bathroom and one kitchen. |
| 00:08:33 | It was terribly crowded and very un.., very, very uncomfortable. |
| 00:08:39 | We had very little food, also water was scarce ah they didn't let us go out. |
| 00:08:47 | We were fenced in. |
| 00:08:49 | It was a very bad situation. |
| 00:08:52 | IV: Ah, can you remember how many people have been living in this ghetto? |
| 00:08:58 | AG: {Breathing} You know, all the Jews from Miskolc. |
| 00:09:00 | IV: Yeah. |
| 00:09:01 | AG: All the Jews, I can, I don't have a number. |
| 00:09:04 | I, I have no idea. |
| 00:09:06 | I knew only pro apartment how many families were in there. |
| 00:09:11 | Nein, I couldn't tell you. |
| 00:09:14 | IV: But so, was it a big ghetto or a small one? |
| 00:09:16 | AG: It was a very big ghetto. |
| 00:09:17 | It was a very big ghetto. |
| 00:09:20 | Ah people were there much longer than us, because we were in the fields trying to work |
| 00:09:26 | so we, they brought us back and then, whatever they say, meant {breathing} they had some other plans, |
| 00:09:34 | we took, they took the whole ghetto to the brick factory and outskirts of ah Miskolc. |
| 00:09:41 | And ah we were waiting there for trains they told us. |
| 00:09:50 | We can't be ah anymore in our hometown, we can't even be in Hungary anymore, |
| 00:09:56 | we have to be in concentration camps, we have to be deported. |
| 00:10:02 | These abstract words didn't mean to us anything. |
| 00:10:07 | We didn't understand the meaning, my sister and me. |
| 00:10:11 | But my mother was with us, so at least we were together |
| 00:10:15 | and after a couple of, I don't know, it was a week, two weeks, ah the trains came. |
| 00:10:22 | IV: And all the time you've been waiting at the brick factory just waiting for trains to come? |
| 00:10:26 | AG: For the, yes, yes. |
| 00:10:28 | And disappointment was very big. |
| 00:10:31 | It wasn't trains, they were boxing cars. |
| 00:10:34 | They were wagons, cattle wagons. |
| 00:10:37 | We couldn't believe it that we have to crawl up on these wagons, |
| 00:10:42 | they were very high and they pushed us inside. |
| 00:10:49 | And there was, there were only standing place |
| 00:10:51 | until there was absolutely no more standing place, they closed the door on us. |
| 00:10:56 | {Breathing} It was very hot, no air, there was a pail in of the corners. |
| 00:11:03 | We had no, very little food, no water {breathing}, waited for a long time until they started |
| 00:11:13 | and ah we had no idea where we were going, for how long ah took a long, long time. |
| 00:11:22 | Took three, three and a half days. |
| 00:11:26 | And we were in very bad condition when, from day to day it was getting worse and worse. |
| 00:11:33 | Worse about it was that there were pregnant women, |
| 00:11:37 | women with very small babies, very old people, very sick people. |
| 00:11:42 | Ah, all sorts of conditions. |
| 00:11:46 | There were people who were yelling, they didn't know how certain things can be possible. |
| 00:11:53 | How, how human beings can be transported that way. |
| 00:11:57 | There were women starting to cry, they never could stop, they never stopped the whole three days. |
| 00:12:02 | There were of course babies crying who couldn't stop either. |
| 00:12:06 | There was nothing to stop them with. |
| 00:12:09 | Ah it was ah very, very desperate, fant.., a terrible situation. |
| 00:12:15 | We thought that the ghettos were the worst, so that was the worst. |
| 00:12:21 | IV: So and where the train ended up? |
| 00:12:24 | AG: When we got to a certain station the train stopped and we had no idea where we were. |
| 00:12:30 | The doors opened, we saw a lot of SS soldiers, |
| 00:12:36 | we were supposed to get off those trains, was hard to get off. |
| 00:12:42 | We were helped off partly, but not out of politeness, |
| 00:12:46 | they had to, they wanted us to get down already. |
| 00:12:49 | And they went back to see who was left in many other boxcars, |
| 00:12:59 | or how you call them, cattle, cattle wagons? |
| 00:13:02 | Many people died before they arrived. |
| 00:13:07 | In, in, in the one I was, nobody. |
| 00:13:11 | And then, men and women were separated, that was a very tearful, |
| 00:13:16 | very, very emotional sight the way they clung |
| 00:13:21 | to each other and they didn't want to be separated and they wanted to stay together. |
| 00:13:26 | There was lots of ah yelling, shouting: "Los, los." |
| 00:13:31 | And lots of ah, ah yelling, crying, hysterics faintings. |
| 00:13:41 | It is impossible to describe it even, until they could seperate the two groups. |
| 00:13:47 | And we didn't know where the men were taken. |
| 00:13:52 | IV: What about the children? |
| 00:13:53 | They also were, the little boys came with the men or they were seperated with.. |
| 00:13:58 | AG: No, no, they were, they were, they stayed with the women. |
| 00:14:02 | Children stayed with the women. |
| 00:14:04 | Nobody ever asked me this, I didn't think of it. |
| 00:14:07 | And then, we were going to our, to a certain point. |
| 00:14:12 | And my mother was very scared and very worried and she told us to keep on going the way the line is moving. |
| 00:14:28 | And she is going to the front and see what's going on |
| 00:14:32 | and of course from both sides there were ah SS with guns pointing at us and she risked, |
| 00:14:46 | she risked this, her life I would say, but told she has to find out what's going on. |
| 00:14:54 | She has to know what's the next step should be. |
| 00:14:57 | And when she came back she told us never to mention family ties, |
| 00:15:04 | because she saw that whenever someone told: "Let me go with my mother, let me go with my grandmother." |
| 00:15:10 | Or with my daughter or sister. |
| 00:15:12 | That was immediately, yeah, select ah I mean, separated. |
| 00:15:20 | Then she saw that they asked ages, she heard under 16 |
| 00:15:26 | they were automatically send to the, to a certain side. |
| 00:15:30 | She didn't know what was good, what was bad. |
| 00:15:33 | The women with, whoever had a child with ah her, definitely went to the other side, we called it. |
| 00:15:41 | Ah these babies naturally, pregnant women of course, ah old people also, sick people also, people who couldn't walk, also. |
| 00:15:51 | So she observed that ah the able-bodied women might be sent to a working camp, |
| 00:16:01 | she thought, and she came back and told us this. |
| 00:16:05 | And then she told: "You can't say your age." |
| 00:16:07 | We were 13, my, my sister and I was 14. |
| 00:16:11 | She told: "You can't say, you have to say 18 and 19 at least." |
| 00:16:16 | And she will say five years younger, if it came to it that they asked her. |
| 00:16:20 | And then they ah asked all, they, they looked over also whether people were healthy and, and moving well. |
| 00:16:31 | So she warned us how to behave in case we were asked. |
| 00:16:34 | It went terribly quickly, left, right, left, right. |
| 00:16:38 | There was not much to think about. |
| 00:16:41 | And then she saw that we had scarfs with us |
| 00:16:46 | and she told we should bind our scarfs on our head in a way that we should look older and it was like this {putting the scarf on}. |
| 00:16:54 | My sister and me we both bind, bound our heads that way. |
| 00:16:58 | And we don't know exactly what helped, but we were sent all the three of us to one side. |
| 00:17:09 | IV: And then you stood there still beside the trains? |
| 00:17:13 | AG: Not any more, not any more. |
| 00:17:15 | We were sent to a building ah in a big, big hall and we sat on the cold stone for hours |
| 00:17:27 | we were waiting we didn't know for what. |
| 00:17:31 | And then they came and took our bags away, |
| 00:17:37 | this bag we had to, we could take with us, ah my sister and me, we had a doll, watch, |
| 00:17:47 | I had a new watch, I had a book that I read currently, I took a dress I remember |
| 00:17:53 | and we had to put it down in one of the corners of this big hall. |
| 00:17:58 | And grown-ups didn't have such not un.., unremarkable stuff. |
| 00:18:08 | They had documents, money, jewels, pictures, they didn't want to part from the bags.. |
| 00:18:18 | They were hysterical, they were crying, they were begging, they were ah fainting. |
| 00:18:24 | But they didn't let them. |
| 00:18:26 | They told you: "Put it in that corner." |
| 00:18:27 | Of course that we were ah, everything was on gun point. |
| 00:18:31 | So, I don't know what my mother heard, but I imagined that she was also desperate |
| 00:18:37 | and had to get, had to part with her bag. |
| 00:18:41 | {Breathing} They were, everybody was in a very bad situation |
| 00:18:50 | and every time we thought that is the worst, but it wasn't. |
| 00:18:55 | After that we had to undress and that was the utmost humiliation. |
| 00:19:01 | They told us to undress everything, to not to have on anything. |
| 00:19:06 | Now ah besides the humiliation it was again the point that ah most of the women had sewn in their cloth |
| 00:19:16 | and in their pockets, but they thought that if the bags get lost |
| 00:19:22 | or it will be taken maybe, but they didn't think it will be, |
| 00:19:26 | will have, they will have to think of something else. |
| 00:19:30 | So they took some of the jewels, some of the money, documents, pictures, what ever they could think of, |
| 00:19:35 | whatever was very, very important for them they sew it in the linings up the cloth |
| 00:19:41 | or in the pockets and now they have to take it off. |
| 00:19:45 | So it started all over again the beggings, the cryings, the faintings, the screamings. |
| 00:19:51 | It's impossible to, to, to imagine what was going on. |
| 00:19:55 | {Breathing} But we had no other way. |
| 00:20:02 | And then we were standing there without anything on and then they came to shave all hairs of all from our body. |
| 00:20:12 | That was, I can't tell what humiliation it meant. |
| 00:20:16 | And after it more, they desinfected us with, they sprayed us with a disinfectant, |
| 00:20:23 | so, we just, we just couldn't breath even, we couldn't even recognize each other |
| 00:20:28 | without hair and, and ah without cloth and ah {breathing}.. |
| 00:20:34 | IV: Who did this work? |
| 00:20:35 | Other inmates from this camps or soldiers or female soldiers? |
| 00:20:40 | AG: Female soldiers, but men soldiers were, were present all the time, so it was getting worse even. |
| 00:20:46 | I, I couldn't even look who, who, who it was. |
| 00:20:51 | It was so unpleasant and so unbelievable. |
| 00:20:56 | And then we were sent to the showers and then we didn't know |
| 00:21:02 | that in the other barracks all those people who were sent to the other side, |
| 00:21:08 | we had no idea that they had gas coming from the showers. |
| 00:21:14 | We didn't know and we didn't find out for a long, long time. |
| 00:21:19 | So after the showers we were ah led to another hall and we had to pass by a big pile of cloth |
| 00:21:31 | and as we were passing by slowly everybody could took, everybody could take a dress and the shoe. |
| 00:21:37 | Whether the shoe fits or not, it wasn't important and |
| 00:21:41 | of course no underwear, no nothing, just one single dress. |
| 00:21:47 | After this was done, we were sitting on the cold stone again for hours and waiting, |
| 00:21:53 | we didn't know for what. |
| 00:21:55 | And the way we looked and the way we felt, was anyhow, nothing was important anymore. |
| 00:22:01 | And then we were given two grey blankets. |
| 00:22:05 | Everything was grey in Auschwitz, the blankets, the barracks, the air, everything. |
| 00:22:11 | And then we were sent to barracks that had three floors, three pritsches. |
| 00:22:19 | IV: So, from (???) |
| 00:22:20 | AG: Yes, yes. And there were six, seven women on one of them, on each one ah |
| 00:22:29 | And we had these two blankets with us, we could use it underneath or we could cover with it. |
| 00:22:36 | And sometimes they got wet and we're standing still Zählappell was the way, |
| 00:22:43 | that we spent our time in Auschwitz, we were standing outside in five lines, |
| 00:22:49 | rows and they came to count us all the time, |
| 00:22:52 | three, four times a day and when it was raining these blankets got wet. |
| 00:22:57 | Or this only dress we had on got wet. |
| 00:22:59 | We had to deal with it. |
| 00:23:02 | And it was a very bad situation. |
| 00:23:07 | IV: At this time did you know that you had been in Auschwitz or had you ever heard the name Auschwitz before? |
| 00:23:12 | AG: I have never, never. |
| 00:23:15 | So there we heard that we were in Birkenau in Auschwitz, I am not quite sure. |
| 00:23:20 | And we didn't know what it meant. |
| 00:23:23 | We didn't know it was a ah extermination camp. |
| 00:23:27 | We had no idea and my mother spoke to all the grown-ups around her. |
| 00:23:33 | They were mostly friends from Miskolc from our city. |
| 00:23:37 | Not to let my sister and me know, what's going on. |
| 00:23:42 | And whenever something bad was going on, did she, we were taken away, |
| 00:23:47 | we shouldn't know and she was very scared of our, our a moods and, and ah knowledge, |
| 00:23:56 | we shouldn't be involved in anything that's scary. |
| 00:24:00 | And she succeeded, we never found out what happened until the liberation. |
| 00:24:06 | In this she succeeded, so after ah two weeks I suppose there were selections daily, |
| 00:24:14 | she was so scared of these selections, she knew that if one of us will be sent somewhere else |
| 00:24:23 | ah we will not survive, that she was sure of it. |
| 00:24:27 | And she did everything to keep us together. |
| 00:24:30 | And she kept taking of my glasses to put them sideways in her shoe, to hide it. |
| 00:24:36 | That I shouldn't look different like anybody else. |
| 00:24:40 | And I should have my glasses. |
| 00:24:42 | And then we were selected together and taken to the railway station and into the wagons again. |
| 00:24:50 | And we were sent out of Auschwitz at last to Plaszow. |
| 00:24:56 | We didn't know, we didn't know it was Plaszow, we didn't know what it meant, |
| 00:24:59 | we didn't know what it was. |
| 00:25:01 | Later Spielberg made a film there. |
| 00:25:03 | IV: It's not so far. |
| 00:25:06 | It's not so far from Auschwitz? |
| 00:25:08 | AG: It was an hours train ride. |
| 00:25:10 | IV: Yeah, yeah. |
| 00:25:13 | AG: And it was much worse. |
| 00:25:16 | It was better only in a way that there were no selections. |
| 00:25:21 | So we didn't have to be, have this scare every single day to be separated. |
| 00:25:26 | But it was ah camp of ah I could say a camp of torture, |
| 00:25:32 | but what I didn't see ah I don't, I am not going to talk about it. |
| 00:25:38 | I heard a lot of stories, later. |
| 00:25:40 | My mother was careful we shouldn't hear it there. |
| 00:25:45 | We did a very ah humiliating work. |
| 00:25:50 | We had to take big rocks, carry them up the hill, |
| 00:25:54 | next day we had to carry them back, back down. |
| 00:25:58 | My sister was thirteen and out of frail she couldn't lift those rocks that they showed her to take |
| 00:26:07 | and when she couldn't move it and pick it up she was very badly beaten. |
| 00:26:11 | Nor my mother and me couldn't do anything, we couldn't say that we could help or something, |
| 00:26:16 | because we were not suppose to say that, that we were family. |
| 00:26:21 | So she had to deal with it. |
| 00:26:25 | Ah I will not even talk what was going on in Plaszow with other people, |
| 00:26:30 | things that I haven't seen and haven't experienced myself. |
| 00:26:35 | We were working a lot in the sun. |
| 00:26:38 | We were very s.., we looked very bad, we were sunburned and our skin was peeling and ah, ah |
| 00:26:47 | we had pains and, and ah we were tired and the food was a little bit only better than in Auschwitz. |
| 00:26:55 | And ah it was hard. |
| 00:27:01 | IV: So you told that this work you had to do was totaly senseless? |
| 00:27:08 | AG: Totally, totally senseless. |
| 00:27:10 | IV: Also and other people, was there also work like in other camps to produce things |
| 00:27:17 | like weapons or something in Plaszow or you didn't see, you didn't.. |
| 00:27:20 | AG: I didn't see. |
| 00:27:21 | I know one more working place that we sometimes did it. |
| 00:27:25 | We were sitting on the ground and hammering small stones into a small path that it should be straight. |
| 00:27:36 | Ah there were many, many other working places that I don't personally know about |
| 00:27:44 | and then we hoped that we are going to be liberated by the Russians as we heard some gun shots, |
| 00:27:52 | we thought they are nearing. |
| 00:27:53 | And we were big, ah hopeful, but they liquidated the camp and they did not. |
| 00:28:05 | IV: You like to drink a little bit? |
| 00:28:07 | AG: Ah thank you. |
| 00:28:09 | They took the whole camp to the railway station into the wagons. |
| 00:28:14 | And this time, my sister and me at the first time we were so desperate we couldn't stop crying. |
| 00:28:21 | Because in Plaszow as bad as it was we knew, you know, sometimes you, it's very bad, but you it, it's known, it's familiar. |
| 00:28:32 | And to go back again to the wagons and start this travel, we didn't know where, |
| 00:28:40 | where to and my mother kept on telling: |
| 00:28:42 | "You were in Auschwitz, it was the worst. |
| 00:28:44 | You were in Plaszow, it was, not, not much better, but it was also bad, |
| 00:28:50 | you can be taken only to a better place." |
| 00:28:52 | So, she kept on telling us the whole hour and then the train stopped and when they opened the door |
| 00:29:01 | we just couldn't believe our eyes, we were back in Auschwitz. |
| 00:29:06 | So this time my mother had really nothing to say anymore. |
| 00:29:10 | She only saw one officer alone, selecting, that's how I remember it. |
| 00:29:18 | The information is, that it was Mengele. |
| 00:29:21 | We didn't know of course that he was a doctor. |
| 00:29:23 | We didn't know the experiments, we didn't know what he was doing there, |
| 00:29:26 | but we saw that he was selecting alone. |
| 00:29:30 | And then my mother really got scared, she told, |
| 00:29:34 | she will go first, sister will be next and I will be the third. |
| 00:29:40 | And we should try to follow her wherever she was sent, she took this risk, |
| 00:29:44 | because she didn't think that we can survive without her. |
| 00:29:48 | Or we should say or try to get to a working camp and say that it's a working camp, in case it's possible. |
| 00:29:57 | So she kept on telling this to us and ah, because I, my face and my whole skin was peeling all the time |
| 00:30:06 | so that's why she thought that I should be the last |
| 00:30:09 | and she trusted me that I'll go where she was sent to. |
| 00:30:14 | So she went in front of him, in front of Mengele and she was sent right and so was my sister. |
| 00:30:22 | And I was sent to the left. |
| 00:30:25 | Then I told him: |
| 00:30:28 | "No, please, please, let me go to that side." |
| 00:30:32 | He says: "Why, what is on that side?" |
| 00:30:34 | I told: "The working camp." |
| 00:30:35 | Of course I didn't say that it was my mother or sister. |
| 00:30:39 | Ah she really prepared us well and he told: "You don't, |
| 00:30:44 | what, what you want to do in a working camp? |
| 00:30:46 | You don't look to me who can still work." |
| 00:30:49 | But then he realized that we were talking German. |
| 00:30:52 | And then he asked: "How do you speak German that well?" |
| 00:30:56 | And somehow something changed and he told: "Ok, go there." |
| 00:31:00 | IV: He was talking in German to you? |
| 00:31:03 | AG: And I was talking in German. |
| 00:31:04 | IV: Yeah, but he, when he asked? |
| 00:31:06 | AG: Yes, yes, he was talking in German, I was answering in German. |
| 00:31:11 | And ah he was impressed enough to let me go wherever I asked to go. |
| 00:31:16 | So, I was safe, but my mother from far, when she saw, what was going on, she was sure, she lost me. |
| 00:31:24 | And she fainted and she didn't ah come to herself yet, when I arrived even to, to that side. |
| 00:31:35 | So at least we were again together. |
| 00:31:40 | And then came another humiliation, we were tattooed on our left arm, |
| 00:31:49 | the letter A, Auschwitz, and a long number. |
| 00:31:54 | All the three of us. |
| 00:31:55 | And then I fainted. |
| 00:31:57 | Maybe also from the shock of almost being sent somewhere else, I didn't know what it meant. |
| 00:32:05 | I didn't know that it was ah the crematorium, I didn't know these things. |
| 00:32:10 | But to be separated from the family I knew that it, I won't make it. |
| 00:32:17 | And then the pain after tattooing, so I fainted. |
| 00:32:24 | IV: So that was the first time, you got tattooed in all this? |
| 00:32:28 | AG: Yes, but it was the second time in Auschwitz. |
| 00:32:31 | We didn't get in the, at the first time. |
| 00:32:37 | IV: And then you've been brought to barracks? |
| 00:32:40 | AG: Yes, then we were brought to barracks and we had an incident. |
| 00:32:46 | Ah, my mother had some wounds, someth.., something on her shoulders, |
| 00:32:54 | because someone stood on her shoulder to look out the window where we were taken to |
| 00:32:59 | and they were afraid that it might be contagious, |
| 00:33:04 | so she was sent to a quarantine barrack and we were sent to a different one. |
| 00:33:11 | And she was scared of course of the selections that we were, |
| 00:33:15 | this time we can be separated easily and she will not be able to join us or vice versa. |
| 00:33:21 | So she agreed with a girl whose sister was in our barrack to ex.., to get exchanged. |
| 00:33:29 | And when the evening came and the time came to, to make the change, the girl got scared and she stayed. |
| 00:33:38 | And my mother came and that meant that in our barrack there was one more |
| 00:33:45 | and when the Zählappell was done in the evening and they saw that there is one more |
| 00:33:50 | and they wanted to find out who it was. |
| 00:33:54 | And they threatened us that it, when they found out that it was missing from the quarantine barrack |
| 00:34:01 | of course we were only numbers, there were no names, |
| 00:34:05 | they ah threatened us that we are going to die, we are going to be sick, |
| 00:34:10 | we are going to be this and the people were told, tell who it was who joined you. |
| 00:34:17 | Now my mother was highly respected for one reason. |
| 00:34:22 | Ah the hunger was really very bad and many mothers or daughters stole from each other at night |
| 00:34:35 | the piece of bread that they put aside and when it was found out of course there were beatings and shoutings |
| 00:34:42 | and yellings and cryings and ah almost everybody did it. |
| 00:34:47 | That was ah such a situation where you were not human even anymore sometimes. |
| 00:34:52 | And they respected my Mum, because she did not steel from us, on the contrary, |
| 00:35:00 | she came and told us sometimes to my sister and me that: |
| 00:35:03 | "Look, I had my portion already and here have another, another slice or ah half a slice" |
| 00:35:10 | and they couldn't understand how she could do it. |
| 00:35:14 | And they knew that she joined us, so nobody, nobody was ready to tell it. |
| 00:35:21 | And then they came this another SSs who told us, that if you don't tell it the whole barrack will be shot. |
| 00:35:31 | And still nobody told it. |
| 00:35:34 | And we stood till five o' clock in the morning Zählappell, |
| 00:35:38 | outside and we don't know and we never found out what was the reason, |
| 00:35:43 | but we were sent back to the barracks and we were not shot. |
| 00:35:49 | So that was one of the incidents. |
| 00:35:51 | The other, other let's say it was pleasant, somehow, the other incident, |
| 00:35:56 | when one of ah we found out that one of the young women from Miskolc |
| 00:36:02 | was an opera singer and we asked her to sing to us. |
| 00:36:08 | And ah it was hard to convince her, because |
| 00:36:12 | ah at the selections her mother was sent to the other side, |
| 00:36:16 | when we came back from Plaszow and she was desperate and her si.., |
| 00:36:21 | she was also, also two girls with their mother, |
| 00:36:23 | and her sister was with her, but ah she was in no mood to sing of course, but she did it. |
| 00:36:30 | And ah we applauded her so much and loved her so much for it that she did it |
| 00:36:39 | every couple of days and that lifted our spirits really, really for the time being. |
| 00:36:47 | IV: Can you remember what kind of songs, or? |
| 00:36:50 | AG: Traviata. |
| 00:36:54 | I remember most opera arias, that are very well known, |
| 00:36:57 | but the Traviata was very, very impressive for us. |
| 00:37:01 | Also because of those words and so this, this really meant a lot. |
| 00:37:11 | And then someone found out an old accquaintance of my mother was working in the kitchen |
| 00:37:18 | and she found out, she was afraid to ask whether we are with her, my sister and me, |
| 00:37:23 | and I and she sent us raw cabbage, every now and then, |
| 00:37:29 | when she could find us and might have been a lifesaver in a way |
| 00:37:35 | until we were selected again and sent to the station again. |
| 00:37:42 | IV: Can you remember how many days you have been in this situation? |
| 00:37:46 | AG: Weeks, weeks. |
| 00:37:47 | IV: Weeks, weeks, and so after this ah first ah thing you mentioned, wou.., ah |
| 00:37:55 | where ah nobody told ah the guards that your mother is the one, |
| 00:38:00 | who, who came back so and they ah told you: |
| 00:38:04 | "We are gonna shoot you, all." |
| 00:38:06 | Did somebody change? |
| 00:38:07 | So in, in your imagination what could happen? |
| 00:38:10 | Or, or are they, are treating the people? |
| 00:38:14 | CM: Ah, sie müsste mal das Papier aus der Hand nehmen, weil das {???} |
| 00:38:20 | IV: Das krazt? Das Tempo Taschentuch? |
| 00:38:21 | CM: Ja, sie tut die ganze Zeit so mitm Tempo machen und direkt vorm Mikrofon. |
| 00:38:26 | IV: Ah, excuse me, do you need the ah, ah, |
| 00:38:29 | AG: Ah, ok. |
| 00:38:30 | IV: It makes some noice sometimes. |
| 00:38:31 | AG: I didn't know, I didn't know, oh good you just say so. |
| 00:38:34 | IV: But he can, can hear it, with the ear phones and.. |
| 00:38:38 | AG: Ok, sorry. |
| 00:38:40 | IV: Make a noise, we cannot hear. |
| 00:38:42 | CM: What's that? {Cell phone ringing} |
| 00:38:45 | IV: I forgot to turn off my .. |
| 00:38:49 | AG: You know, we were in such an inhuman situation, position, ah desperate, ah starving, |
| 00:39:00 | we were so thirsty in most of the time, ah even sleep deprived ah, |
| 00:39:06 | we were not quite, we were not ourselves at all, so, who was thinking? |
| 00:39:12 | Look, if someone would have told, who it was, |
| 00:39:15 | well we would have accept it, what could we do? |
| 00:39:18 | But we knew somehow that nobody will tell. |
| 00:39:21 | Somehow we knew. |
| 00:39:23 | And my mother wasn't scared eigther, I mean it was a, it was a situation where you, you, |
| 00:39:30 | ah you couldn't even talk, we were standing, standing in this Appellplatz for, for so many hours. |
| 00:39:35 | All, all our concern was that we can't stand even anymore, |
| 00:39:38 | when we can, we have to drink something, we have to eat something, |
| 00:39:40 | we, we were not thinking anymore. |
| 00:39:45 | IV: So we're now, we came to the time you got selected again or? |
| 00:39:49 | AG: Yes. |
| 00:39:50 | IV: Maybe you can go on? |
| 00:39:51 | AG: And we were s.., ah lucky again, three of us together, but that was already September, |
| 00:40:03 | and we were stands to the r.., we were sent to the railway station, |
| 00:40:11 | that's the forth time I was in this railway station |
| 00:40:15 | and back into the wagons and ah the wagons started and we didn't know again where to. |
| 00:40:23 | And ah my mother again kept on consoling us, that it can't be worse, |
| 00:40:28 | and this won't be worse and we should cheer up and |
| 00:40:33 | think positively and whatever they say at these days, but it was terribly cold. |
| 00:40:39 | And it wasn't winter yet, but it was very cold those nights and we with the |
| 00:40:46 | little cloth we had on and this time we didn't have any blankets even. |
| 00:40:51 | And we had no shoes proper, proper shoes and we had no proper clothing and no food no drink ah |
| 00:41:00 | during this ah trip and we were sent to Rochlitz, to Germany and |
| 00:41:13 | when they opened ah doors, at least we didn't see a camp. |
| 00:41:19 | Ah Rochlitz was a very small camp and we were chosen, selected actually 200 women, |
| 00:41:29 | 20 Polish and 180 Hungarians. |
| 00:41:35 | And we were brought to a barrack and they told us, |
| 00:41:41 | we are going to be taught how to make small spare parts, screws, for aeroplanes. |
| 00:41:48 | But it's not the factory where we are going to work, it's the school actually |
| 00:41:52 | where we are going to be taught how to do it. |
| 00:41:57 | So in a way we felt good, that we are humans that we are not just a number, we are not cattles, |
| 00:42:06 | we are treated better, but the discipline was very, very harsh. |
| 00:42:12 | Food was a little bit better and the sleeping quarters were of course much better, |
| 00:42:17 | but it was, all the time we were scared, |
| 00:42:21 | all the time, it was very hard discipline and threats and ah, |
| 00:42:26 | and there were women guards, SS guards who were in many ways worse |
| 00:42:33 | and we were there a couple of weeks. |
| 00:42:38 | IV: And how many hours a day you had to work? |
| 00:42:41 | So or was it just to learn you.. |
| 00:42:42 | AG: It wasn't bad, it was just to teach us, it wasn't so bad |
| 00:42:49 | and ah what was bad was the cold and ah the whole situation of course. |
| 00:42:56 | My sister had suffered very much, because she saw in September, |
| 00:43:01 | it was September that the school children, she saw school children from, |
| 00:43:05 | we were taken to another location that I can't recall where to |
| 00:43:12 | and she saw school children with bags and she broke and |
| 00:43:15 | she cried for two days that she will never go to school anymore. |
| 00:43:20 | I couldn't care less. |
| 00:43:22 | And that was the end of September when we were sent to, |
| 00:43:32 | I can't remember by train, by bus, I had no idea how we got to Stuttgart. |
| 00:43:39 | Near Stuttgart to Calw into the aeroplane factory, spare parts factory. |
| 00:43:50 | And there it was very bad. |
| 00:43:54 | They, people told us, our guards, that we are not supposed go near, go near the windows. |
| 00:44:00 | We had no ah fresh air for weeks, no daylight. |
| 00:44:09 | We were working from seven in the evening till seven in the morning |
| 00:44:12 | near monotonous machines that, that have put you to sleep even without being night. |
| 00:44:20 | And it was very hard to stay awake and do our job. |
| 00:44:26 | One girl lost her balance, because she fell asleep and she fell into the machine. |
| 00:44:34 | She was very badly hurt, she didn't die, she survived it. |
| 00:44:40 | One woman got Typhus, we thought that we are all going to get it, somehow I don't know, we didn't, she died. |
| 00:44:50 | Ah my, one day my mother fainted, because her stone exploded, |
| 00:44:58 | it was a filing stone, a big filing stone. |
| 00:45:01 | I was working on a revolver Drehbank. |
| 00:45:05 | I got the piece of Aluminium and the plans and I had to make a screw out of it and I did. |
| 00:45:12 | And when it was too big, it went to her departement |
| 00:45:15 | where they filed it the ac.., the necessary size |
| 00:45:22 | and my sister was in the controlling departement |
| 00:45:24 | where they checked whether the size was right. |
| 00:45:28 | So she filed ah these little screws and the stone exploded, she fainted |
| 00:45:36 | and they explained her that the stone is very, not only expensive, |
| 00:45:40 | but very rare and they, it will take a long time until they can have another one, until it comes in |
| 00:45:48 | the screws will stay in the cartons near the doors. |
| 00:45:53 | They can't do, they can't send them out. |
| 00:45:55 | And then she realized that maybe this was a good idea, she could make some mini sabotage |
| 00:46:02 | and keep those screws from arriving to the planes. |
| 00:46:07 | And so she did it many times. |
| 00:46:10 | The stone exploded, she fainted and nobody found out, of course we kids, we didn't know. |
| 00:46:16 | We had no idea that it was real, we thought really that it ah happened again, |
| 00:46:22 | so the maximum what could have happened, they thought she was stupid. |
| 00:46:25 | Nobody thought that she is doing it on purpose {breathing}. |
| 00:46:33 | Ah one day {clearing the throat} they came to tell us that this period is also done, finished, we have to leave. |
| 00:46:44 | So we thought, ok, we are going to get into the wagons again and god knows were, but we have to leave. |
| 00:46:52 | But there were no wagons, we had to walk. |
| 00:46:59 | Ah, it was unimaginable, that was already January, February, it was the end of February, |
| 00:47:08 | the cold was impossible and we were supposed to walk only at night. |
| 00:47:14 | IV: There was snow? |
| 00:47:16 | AG: I don't remember snow. |
| 00:47:19 | That was later than February, it was March already. |
| 00:47:23 | I have, I can't remember. |
| 00:47:27 | You know there was this 50-year silence, I never mentioned, |
| 00:47:31 | where we tried everything in our power to forget what happened |
| 00:47:35 | and nobody wanted to talk about it and we really tried hard to forget. |
| 00:47:41 | And my mother and sister mostly they didn't ah want to talk about it even, they didn't even, after I |
| 00:47:50 | came up with a question or wanted to know really something, they told: |
| 00:47:54 | "You survived, you just don't mention it anymore." |
| 00:47:59 | So, many things I really can't remember, couldn't remember |
| 00:48:05 | and anyhow we had to leave and it was the start of the death march the way it was called. |
| 00:48:15 | I can't describe what it was ah really we, we had no proper clothing of course, we had no proper shoes, |
| 00:48:23 | we had no hats, gloves, scarfs, underwear, it was undescribable, food, drinks I'm not even mentioning anymore. |
| 00:48:32 | {Breathing} We, I think, we took one blanket, that was not helpful at all. |
| 00:48:41 | And they wanted us to walk only at night. |
| 00:48:44 | They didn't want the people, the villagers to see us and to ask questions, who we are. |
| 00:48:52 | IV: And during day time? |
| 00:48:54 | You have been sleeping somewhere or? |
| 00:48:56 | AG: They found us barns. |
| 00:48:58 | IV: Yeah. |
| 00:49:00 | AG: And they found us, we, we had to find ourselves, they tried to find us something to eat. |
| 00:49:05 | Sometimes it was milk, sometimes it was bread. |
| 00:49:08 | We found us, we found ourselves the ah raw potatos, raw cabbage and we lived on it for a long time. |
| 00:49:18 | And ah I don't know, what they told to the villagers, who we were, what we were. |
| 00:49:26 | Sometimes they brought us something, most of the time no |
| 00:49:31 | and ah it took a long, long time this walk. |
| 00:49:36 | It was four hundred kilometers. |
| 00:49:38 | We were supposed to get to either Mauthausen or Dachau and we got till Garmisch-Partenkirchen, |
| 00:49:48 | but before we got to Garmisch-Partenkirchen I just really couldn't walk anymore |
| 00:49:53 | and one of the guards was helping me and told me |
| 00:49:55 | that we have to get to a station and then we can continue by train. |
| 00:49:59 | Now, some other people who understood German told us in Hungarian, that this is not true, |
| 00:50:08 | they are taking us to a railway station where they are waiting for trains with guns and the order to execute us. |
| 00:50:17 | "So just don't hurry so much", they told us. |
| 00:50:20 | Well, I couldn't hurry anyhow, I just sat down, I told: |
| 00:50:23 | "I don't care, I don't, I just can't walk anymore." |
| 00:50:26 | And I was the, the last one in the line. |
| 00:50:32 | And we didn't know what to believe, but we didn't even care anymore, |
| 00:50:36 | you know, we were so cold and so hungry and this time the tiredness were added to it. |
| 00:50:42 | That, we just, the, the despair was, was undescribable so we just couldn't cope anymore. |
| 00:50:51 | But they, we were, we were on gun point and we heared it later, |
| 00:50:59 | not then, we didn't know that many death marches ended with ah lots of ah casualties, |
| 00:51:05 | because those who couldn't continue walking they were shot and left on the roadside. |
| 00:51:09 | We didn't know it and even if we had known, I don't think we would have cared anymore. |
| 00:51:15 | So we got to the railway station somehow and the trains left. |
| 00:51:21 | So there was, there were no guns to execute us, |
| 00:51:24 | what we didn't know, we found out after a couple of days. |
| 00:51:28 | And ah, there were white envelopes given to the officers, |
| 00:51:33 | not to the soldiers, that's what we saw from far |
| 00:51:37 | and they contained ah false papers to go to Switzerland for the officers. |
| 00:51:43 | All this we found out a couple of days later. |
| 00:51:47 | And we were sent back to the forrest, there were creeks in those forrests |
| 00:51:57 | with small stones and my foot was bleeding and I was hurting |
| 00:52:02 | and I really didn't care anymore and it was the worst, worst day of my whole ah year, let's put it that way. |
| 00:52:12 | And I just said: "No more, that's it, I really, really don't care anymore." |
| 00:52:17 | And then somebody told: "Look around there are no guards around us." |
| 00:52:22 | And then ah the twenty Polish people were actually the Kapos and the Lagerälteste during the whole period |
| 00:52:33 | so the Lagerälteste called us to be around her |
| 00:52:41 | and she let us know that: "From today the 28th of April you are free." |
| 00:52:47 | So, yeah, it was impossible to understand even the, the |
| 00:52:54 | word and to imagine that it might be true. |
| 00:53:00 | And ah you know the worst day turned out to be the best |
| 00:53:06 | and the happiest and something that we never imagined even. |
| 00:53:10 | I never thought I will be ever free. |
| 00:53:14 | And ah actually that was the liberation, no, that was not the liberation. |
| 00:53:21 | I mean they told us, we are free |
| 00:53:22 | and then we were hundred and eighty Hungarians with hundred and eighty opinions |
| 00:53:27 | where we were, what to do, where to go, just didn't know what to do. |
| 00:53:32 | We were too tired and too worn out to think even. |
| 00:53:40 | {Breathing} And then somehow some 30, 35 women where of one opinion with my mother and we started out, |
| 00:53:52 | I don't know South, West at a certain direction and we heard soldiers from far |
| 00:54:02 | and we get scared again, might be Germans, Russians. |
| 00:54:05 | We had no idea, we found a stick, we, we bound some underwear on it, lifted it that it's, we are peaceful, |
| 00:54:15 | was supposed to be white and at least the soldiers saw that |
| 00:54:21 | we are peaceful and they sent me to talk to them |
| 00:54:25 | because of my English knowledge and they told me they have never in their lifes seen so many ugly, dirty, bold, |
| 00:54:35 | thin I don't know what else women in their lifes. |
| 00:54:40 | So, we told them, if they were liberating a camp they would have seen much worse. |
| 00:54:45 | As it was really true. |
| 00:54:47 | IV: And those were the Americans? |
| 00:54:48 | AG: And the.., those were the first Americans in my life I have seen. |
| 00:54:52 | And I have met and I never found, |
| 00:54:55 | who, never found them, those liberating veterans {breathing}. |
| 00:55:02 | IV: You've been looking for them, later? |
| 00:55:04 | AG: A lot, a lot, the Museum where I work also. |
| 00:55:07 | IV: Yeah, so and then, what happened? |
| 00:55:11 | So you are in a foreign country with nothing, ah with people you don't know, |
| 00:55:18 | how would they react when you show up, so.. |
| 00:55:22 | AG: So they were the nicest people we have ever met. |
| 00:55:26 | They took us to their headquarters, they let us rest of course, they will fed us, |
| 00:55:34 | they brought doctors, nurses, whatever was necessary, we were in very bad state. |
| 00:55:42 | They ah really looked after us, but it couldn't have been forever. |
| 00:55:48 | They, the, they went shopping one day, |
| 00:55:50 | they told everybody can ask for something. |
| 00:55:55 | They will bring us whatever we were dreaming of the whole year. |
| 00:56:00 | Some people asked for a piece of cake, someone asked for Schnitzel, someone asked for chocolate, |
| 00:56:07 | someone asked for a jacket, because of the cold all the time and I asked for lipstick |
| 00:56:14 | and they brought whatever we asked for they give it, was ah, they were a very nice few weeks, |
| 00:56:22 | the way they looked after us. |
| 00:56:24 | But they had to give us up, they had to got to, to the URO, |
| 00:56:28 | United Restitutions Offices, they took us to Innsbruck |
| 00:56:34 | and we stayed there for eight months, my, we couldn't decide what to do. |
| 00:56:38 | I didn't want to go back to Hungary. |
| 00:56:41 | When my mother wanted to go and see who stayed alive, so we went back eventually. |
| 00:56:51 | IV: Let's have another short break, a little bit of water {breathing}. |
| 00:56:56 | Or maybe Hungaria, you learned German there? |
| 00:56:59 | AG: This is off record, right? |
| 00:57:00 | IV: This is off, yeah, yeah. |
| 00:57:03 | AG: I could tell this actually, ah I can't cope with the realitiy |
| 00:57:09 | as it really was, so that's not exactly as it was. |
| 00:57:13 | What I can't cope is the harder, harder parts of it. |
| 00:57:19 | This can be told actually, I mean, not off record. |
| 00:57:24 | IV: Yeah, yeah. |
| 00:57:25 | AG: At the end I will tell it. |
| 00:57:27 | So tell me when you start, when you.. |
| 00:57:29 | IV: Yeah. |
| 00:57:31 | AG: Ok, so from, from Innsbruck ah we went back eventually to |
| 00:57:38 | Hungary and my mother reopened the pension |
| 00:57:43 | although it was ah in a bad condition that it was not un.., not furnished the, the way, we left it. |
| 00:57:52 | So she went to the municipality and asked for help, |
| 00:57:56 | they sent with her people and she went to the neighbours and asked back for her curtains, |
| 00:58:04 | beds, carpets, whatever she found that they took {breathing} |
| 00:58:11 | and she refurnished it and restarted it. |
| 00:58:15 | And I went to school for one day, because the class mates told me, they did never thought, |
| 00:58:23 | they never thought that they will see me again |
| 00:58:25 | and the other one asked: "Why did you come back?" |
| 00:58:28 | So the antisemitism wasn't done. |
| 00:58:31 | Wait, so I went to the principal and told him: "I can't sit here, I can't study here." |
| 00:58:39 | But I was studying here all my, all the years, before it was a protestant Gymnasium. |
| 00:58:45 | Ah it was the best in the vicinity. |
| 00:58:48 | So, he came to the conclusion that he will give me the material and I will study at home |
| 00:58:53 | and come for the exams and I will finish my studies that way. |
| 00:58:58 | So while I studied at home, I tought English and German to Hungarians |
| 00:59:04 | who wanted to flee, many of them wanted to flee, |
| 00:59:08 | so they took private lessons that I provided. |
| 00:59:12 | And ah when the communism started to started in Hungary, I told my mother that I have to leave |
| 00:59:21 | and she couldn't leave of course, but ah it was ah known, that if kids leave |
| 00:59:29 | their parents come after them or if grown ups leave, their kids can come, |
| 00:59:34 | there will be a lot to go, they will get the pass. |
| 00:59:37 | And ah they were looking for soldiers 18, 19 years old, young Jewish people |
| 00:59:46 | who were ready to go to Palestine and fight for Isra.., for become Israel. |
| 00:59:52 | So, my mother did refuse to sign this petition actually and I ran af.., |
| 01:00:01 | went after this ah person who brought the list and signed my mother's name |
| 01:00:07 | and so my passport was sent to me in a couple of weeks |
| 01:00:12 | and my sister and me where the last once to leave Hungary, |
| 01:00:15 | I mean, last ones means, there were no more groups, only individual ah, ah passports, |
| 01:00:24 | so we left and ah they didn't let us in to Palestine before the war ended, |
| 01:00:31 | so we were in Marseille waiting |
| 01:00:33 | and when we came to Israel it was already ok. |
| 01:00:37 | No, it was a hard beginning, because of, I speak already three languages and I come to a place |
| 01:00:43 | where they don't want any of these languages, they told me: "Please, talk Hebrew." |
| 01:00:48 | So it wasn't that easy. |
| 01:00:51 | And my mother got married immediately after we left |
| 01:00:55 | and in '56 after the revolution they lef.., they sh.., |
| 01:00:59 | she got her passport also and her husband's and they came to Israel to a Kibbutz, |
| 01:01:05 | where my sister was and ah my mother was 97 years old when she died |
| 01:01:13 | and my step dad was 79. |
| 01:01:16 | And they had quite a nice life, nice, old age actually |
| 01:01:23 | and my mother had 17 great-grandchildren and 13 grandchildren. |
| 01:01:33 | And my sister is still in the Kibbutz also with, |
| 01:01:40 | only one of the children is in the Kibbutz, the rest is ah around, somewhere else. |
| 01:01:49 | IV: And when, why did you decide to leave Israel and go to the US? |
| 01:01:54 | AG: My daughter left Israel ah went to, all my children were in the army, |
| 01:02:02 | so they were after they served the arms, serving the army, also my son-in-law, |
| 01:02:08 | they wanted to go to England for a while and for a while meant thirteen years |
| 01:02:17 | and then they got a job offer in the States and they went to the States. |
| 01:02:23 | And ten years ago, my daughter invited me to stay with them and to live with them, |
| 01:02:30 | so I left Israel and came for the States ten years ago. |
| 01:02:35 | And my son and her fams.., families stayed in Israel. |
| 01:02:42 | Both children had a boy and a girl and the, I have four great-grandchildren, |
| 01:02:51 | everyone of them has two and that's it. |
| 01:03:00 | IV: So, ah, I don't have anymore questions, so you are released. |
| 01:03:05 | But maybe is there anything you want to say? |
| 01:03:07 | Sometim.., sometimes people they have a message or something, ah |
| 01:03:12 | what they want to say to me, to us, to the people.. |
| 01:03:19 | AG: {Breathing} One message, one last message, a fact is that it's not exactly the way it happened, |
| 01:03:26 | but because I am talking very much about it, I can't cope with more than I can tell, |
| 01:03:35 | the more than what I told. |
| 01:03:38 | Ah there were, ah, I, I had some hard times more than with my mother to tried to shield us, |
| 01:03:48 | not at, not always she succeded, but there are things that I am really unable to talk about. |
| 01:03:54 | I came to the conclusion that, if I don't have to, I can keep on doing what I am doing. |
| 01:04:01 | What I am doing is, ah, volunteering in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, |
| 01:04:08 | translating and speaking to schools, |
| 01:04:14 | to colleges, to Universities, not only in Washington, they send me to different states |
| 01:04:21 | and I couldn't cope with more than what I am telling. |
| 01:04:27 | The other thing is, if they ask me, if it is a school, what do I leave with the kids is |
| 01:04:38 | first of all the discipline to listen and listen and then do whatever the teachers or parents think they have to do |
| 01:04:49 | and languages, not to stay with one language. |
| 01:04:54 | To keep on learning languages and ah that I hope that I'll be able to continue doing what I do. |
| 01:05:05 | They have also a writing workshop in the Museum to make us write, |
| 01:05:11 | not our story, not from the first day till the last, to write episodes about some parts of what happened. |
| 01:05:22 | So I do this also very often and four stories were published already through the Museum. |
| 01:05:32 | And I find this gathering of remembrance what is going on in Flossenbürg |
| 01:05:40 | that I never dreamt of, never knew that, never thought that it's possible to do I find it beautiful thing, |
| 01:05:47 | to have all these people here and make them feel so good and important |
| 01:05:52 | and give back our self-respect and, and everything about it. |
| 01:06:04 | IV: Thank you for doing this work. |
| 01:06:06 | AG: Thank you for inviting me {laughing}. |
| 01:06:09 | IV: Ok. Camera out. |
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