File size: 62,005 Bytes
4213a96 |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 |
---
layout: transcript
interviewee: eva brust cooper
rg_number: rg-50.030.0056
pdf_url: https://collections.ushmm.org/oh_findingaids/rg-50.030.0056_trs_en.pdf
ushmm_url: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504466
gender: f
birth_date: 1934-03-18
birth_year: 1934.0
place_of_birth: budapest
country: hungary
experience_group: survivor
ghetto(s)_encyclopedia: none
ghetto: none
camp(s)_encyclopedia: none
camp: none
non_ss_camp: none
region: none
needs_research: none
data_entry: cl
accession: 1991.a.0137
revisit: none
tags: transcripts
---
---
layout: transcript
interviewee: eva brust cooper
rg_number: rg-50.030.0056
pdf_url: https://collections.ushmm.org/oh_findingaids/rg-50.030.0056_trs_en.pdf
ushmm_url: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504466
gender: f
birth_date: 1934-03-18
birth_year: 1934.0
place_of_birth: budapest
country: hungary
experience_group: survivor
ghetto(s)_encyclopedia: none
ghetto: none
camp(s)_encyclopedia: none
camp: none
non_ss_camp: none
region: none
needs_research: none
data_entry: cl
accession: 1991.a.0137
revisit: none
tags: transcripts
---
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<title>Document</title>
</head>
<body><dialogue class=""><p><sentence id="1">EVA BRUST COOPER December 9, 1991</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="3">Q: Could you tell us your full name please?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="5">A: Yes, my name is Eva Cooper.</sentence><sentence id="6">My maiden name was Eva Brust and I was born in <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span> in <span class="COUNTRY">Hungary</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="9">Q: And when were you born?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="11">A: I was born in 1934.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="13">Q: And could you tell us a little bit about your life before the war.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="15">A: My life before the war was very, very nice.</sentence><sentence id="16">I remember living in a very nice <span class="BUILDING">house</span>, actually an <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span> on the Pest side of <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span>.</sentence><sentence id="17">You probably know the <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">city</span> is divided by the <span class="ENV_FEATURES">Danube</span> and the part that I lived in we had mostly <span class="BUILDING">apartment houses</span> as opposed to the other <span class="NPIP">part</span> which was private <span class="BUILDING">homes</span>.</sentence><sentence id="18">And I was...uh...besides my parents, obviously, I had...uh...nannies and governesses and we led a very, very comfortable life with lots of vacations and...uh.. parties and I went to <span class="BUILDING">elementary school</span>.</sentence><sentence id="19">And... uh...in <span class="BUILDING">school</span> we had...uh...we had religious education in the public school system...uh...besides the languages, arts, geography, history and math, everybody went to their own religious classes during that particular period so as Jewish children went to a <span class="BUILDING">class</span> where a Rabbi taught Jewish history, Hebrew, whatever.</sentence><sentence id="20">Catholics went to <span class="BUILDING">Catholic class</span> and Protestants went to <span class="BUILDING">Protestant class</span> and everybody mingled and got along very well and I was never aware of Jewish or not Jewish or anything else pertaining to religion until much later.</sentence><sentence id="21">And until 1944, which was when I was 10 years old, I really don't recall anything particularly disrupting my life.</sentence><sentence id="22">In retrospect, now I understand that many things were going on since 1939.</sentence><sentence id="23">I was aware that my father was in <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">labor camp</span>, but I thought that was just being a soldier and he always came back.</sentence><sentence id="24">Uh...He went several times and came back and I...my mother did go help my father...run my father's business.</sentence><sentence id="25">My father was in paper...wholesale paper manufacturing business.</sentence><sentence id="26">Uh...But otherwise I, personally, was not aware of having to be afraid or being concerned until 1944.</sentence><sentence id="27">And that was a particularly special day in my life because my birthday is March 18th and I was having my 10th birthday party in my...my <span class="BUILDING">home</span> with all my friends.</sentence><sentence id="28">They were really my parents" friends, children who I was brought up with, as well as some of the mothers and a lot of the nannies or governesses.</sentence><sentence id="29">And it was an early evening party of hot dogs, and...uh...we lived on a fairly main <span class="DLF">street</span>.</sentence><sentence id="30">We heard marching of soldiers and we looked out the <span class="DLF">window</span> and the German army at that point, to my recall, was occupying <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span>.</sentence><sentence id="31"><span class="COUNTRY">Hungary</span> was the last of the <span class="REGION">Eastern European countries</span> to be occupied.</sentence><sentence id="32"><span class="COUNTRY">Poland</span> and the other <span class="COUNTRY">countries</span> had already had German troops in them.</sentence><sentence id="33">And everybody started running around and there went my party.</sentence><sentence id="34">Everybody went <span class="BUILDING">home</span>.</sentence><sentence id="35">And the reason being that they were all afraid and that the Germans at that time were occupying <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span> and...uh...that's when our whole world really fell apart.</sentence><sentence id="36">Uh... There were a lot of negotiations.</sentence><sentence id="37">I didn't really know what was going on.</sentence><sentence id="38">Everybody tried to keep the children from worrying and...uh...we lived in...uh...a designated <span class="BUILDING">house</span> that was called the <span class="BUILDING">Jewish house</span>...uh... which happened to have been the <span class="BUILDING">building</span> which we were in.</sentence><sentence id="39">What that meant is that several <span class="BUILDING">houses</span>, <span class="BUILDING">apartment houses</span>, were designated <span class="BUILDING">Jewish houses</span> where the Christians had the option to stay or go.</sentence><sentence id="40">In a <span class="BUILDING">Jewish house</span>, the Jews stayed and the ones that were not the <span class="BUILDING">Jewish houses</span>, the Jews had to leave.</sentence><sentence id="41">Also we had a fairly large <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span>, and we were only allowed to live in one <span class="INT_SPACE">room</span>.</sentence><sentence id="42">But because my father was fairly active in the <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">Jewish community</span>, we were able to pick the families to move into all the other <span class="INT_SPACE">rooms</span>.</sentence><sentence id="43">So we had friends and family move in.</sentence><sentence id="44">Uh...My parents" <span class="INT_SPACE">bedroom</span> because our...our <span class="INT_SPACE">room</span>.</sentence><sentence id="45">We had friends in the <span class="INT_SPACE">living room</span> and somebody else in the <span class="INT_SPACE">dining room</span> and somebody else in my...in my old <span class="INT_SPACE">room</span>.</sentence><sentence id="46">Uh...That's when I first was aware of the fact that things were not quite the same.</sentence><sentence id="47">Also, one of the laws that came to pass at the time was that Jews could not have help, servants or whatever you want to call them.</sentence><sentence id="48">And...uh...so all our so-called staff, which consisted of my governess and a cook and a maid, had to leave.</sentence><sentence id="49">Uh...</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="85">Q: What were the sanitary facilities like?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="87">A: Uh... Well, it was difficult because we had <span class="INT_SPACE">bathrooms</span> and all that but it was a...it was really really interesting from a child's point of view.</sentence><sentence id="88">It was a time of sharing and pulling together.</sentence><sentence id="89">I was an only child, so I thought it was just terrific to have all these children running around and I was always brought up very properly, to behave myself and speak when I was spoken to, and here they were all these people running around.</sentence><sentence id="90">And one of my father's very good friends who was a lawyer and had a great deal of...a tremendous sense of humor wrote poetry for the <span class="INT_SPACE">bathroom</span>, to the effect that the men were to put the <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">toilet seats</span> down after use and all sorts of funny things.</sentence><sentence id="91">We just thought that this was great fun and we played jokes...uh...on the grownups and...uh...but things did progressively get worse because... And one of my first personal experiences as a child was when a little girl who lived in the <span class="BUILDING">building</span>, who stayed in the <span class="BUILDING">building</span>...all the Gentiles chose to stay in the <span class="BUILDING">building</span> in their own <span class="INT_SPACE">apartments</span>, but they kept the whole <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span>.</sentence><sentence id="92">And one little girl said...I asked if I could play with her in that afternoon as we usually had, and she said no, she couldn't play with me.</sentence><sentence id="93">I said, "Well, how about tomorrow?"</sentence><sentence id="94">And she said, "No, she can't play with me tomorrow either."</sentence><sentence id="95">And I said, "Well, why not?"</sentence><sentence id="96">And she said, "Because you're Jewish."</sentence><sentence id="97">And I said, "Well, I don't really understand what that means or what does that have to do with anything anyhow."</sentence><sentence id="98">And she said well, she didn't know either, but her parents said that she couldn't play with a Jewish child."</sentence><sentence id="99">So...</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="113">Q: What was a typical day like for you?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="115">A: Well, by this time we weren't going to <span class="BUILDING">school</span>.</sentence><sentence id="116">We were only ...Jews were only allowed to <span class="BUILDING">shop</span> and <span class="BUILDING">market</span> in the <span class="BUILDING">stores</span> late in the afternoon.</sentence><sentence id="117">They were only allowed on the <span class="DLF">street</span> ..uh...for an hour or so, when the produce and most of the stuff was gone and what was there was not terrific.</sentence><sentence id="118">Uh...my father would go to the <span class="BUILDING">Jewish Community Center</span> to see what he could do.</sentence><sentence id="119">Uh...My father was a prominent person in the <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">Jewish community</span> so that the wealthy Jews still had some influence and were able to do such things, such as acquiring the...the Star for our <span class="BUILDING">building</span> to remain in our <span class="BUILDING">house</span> and...uh...to get much more information than we would have gotten otherwise.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="125">Q: Tell us about the Star.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="127">A: There was a Star outside the <span class="BUILDING">house</span> that designated being a <span class="BUILDING">Jewish building</span> so anybody that would pass by that was not <span class="BUILDING">Jewish building</span> would know that this was a Jewish Star...<span class="BUILDING">Jewish house</span> and...uh...the Jews had to wear yellow Stars.</sentence><sentence id="128">Had to be exactly put on each item of clothes as a certain measurement that had to be...and it had to be put on the left upper shoulder of each garment.</sentence><sentence id="129">In other words, that when you went out on the <span class="DLF">street</span>, you should always be identified and if somebody wanted to spit on you, kick you, shoot you, take you away, that's what you were to do.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="133">Q: Did you go out on the <span class="DLF">streets</span>?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="135">A: Yes, I did go out on the <span class="DLF">streets</span>.</sentence><sentence id="136">We did go out.</sentence><sentence id="137">I have this...my...my little boyfriend who is 11, and he and I would go out and do some stuff in the <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">neighborhood</span>.</sentence><sentence id="138">We would also buy newspapers and sell them within the <span class="BUILDING">building</span>.</sentence><sentence id="139">And...uh...we also, I remember...nobody in my family smoked, but people did.</sentence><sentence id="140">Europeans smoked a lot.</sentence><sentence id="141">And we would pick up cigarette butts from everybody...wherever we could find them, take out the leftover tobacco and roll them in tissue paper.</sentence><sentence id="142">I have no idea where we got the tissue paper.</sentence><sentence id="143">And sell them to the smokers, because there was a shortage of all things.</sentence><sentence id="144">And so having this and, of course, the fact that we were children everybody bought it for us and we decided that we would support our parents because we did realize that nobody was working.</sentence><sentence id="145">And I'm not sure we supported them, but it was again great fun.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="157">Q: Did you have any frightening instances on the <span class="DLF">street</span>?</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="158">A: No, I never had any frightening instances on the <span class="DLF">street</span>.</sentence><sentence id="159">No.</sentence><sentence id="160">Uh...I did have...uh...a lot of fun things in the... in the <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span> as a I said because we were friends and we had all the people.</sentence><sentence id="161">We played tricks on people and stuff like that.</sentence><sentence id="162">But, it was getting to be frightening because you ...you had sense of doom.</sentence><sentence id="163">You had a sense that there was... there was a lot of whispering going on, and sometimes not knowing what is going on is almost as bad as sharing and being told that okay, these are the things that can happen.</sentence><sentence id="164">Uh...There were a lot of <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">trucks</span>...uh...obviously, going on the <span class="DLF">street</span> with lots of people in it, and everybody was making up stories about where they were going.</sentence><sentence id="165"><span class="POPULATED_PLACE">Labor camp</span>, to the <span class="COUNTRY">country</span>, all sorts of things, but it was...it was getting obvious even at my age that people were being picked up, but I didn't know why.</sentence><sentence id="166">And this lasted from about the middle of March until...uh...the fall in October.</sentence><sentence id="167">And in October, the <span class="BUILDING">Jewish houses</span> did no longer protect the people that were there.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class=""><p><sentence id="178">Uh...my parents were able to...uh...get the Wallenberg protection papers.</sentence><sentence id="179">Raoul Wallenberg, under the Swedish king, was able to protect and save a lot of people.</sentence><sentence id="180">They were designated <span class="BUILDING">Swedish houses</span>, protectorates, where they claimed that Jews could be saved and we did go to such a <span class="BUILDING">house</span>...uh...for one night and they had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people.</sentence><sentence id="181">I don't know how many.</sentence><sentence id="182">But my parents decided that there were just two many Jews under one <span class="DLF">roof</span> and if the...if the Germans really wanted to get rid of a whole bunch at a time, we would be better off going somewhere else where...where it would not be so obvious that we're together.</sentence><sentence id="183">I think that night that we left our <span class="BUILDING">home</span> in October was the first time that I was really scared and I think that was the experience that, as a young adult, stayed with me for a long time.</sentence><sentence id="184">I was very attached to a <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">pillow</span> that I carried.</sentence><sentence id="185">We had no suitcases to take with us because we had to travel light.</sentence><sentence id="186">Uh...we were dressed, all of us, in several layers of clothes so as to have some warmth and have some change and I did take my pillow.</sentence><sentence id="187">And...uh...I also had long...long hair.</sentence><sentence id="188">I had long braids which were cut in case the sanitary facilities were non existent and I shouldn't get lice.</sentence><sentence id="189">And I remember asking my parents...uh...where're we going to sleep that night.</sentence><sentence id="190">And my parents said, "We didn't know."</sentence><sentence id="191">We were just hoping that somebody would take us in.</sentence><sentence id="192">I said, "But we have to have a <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">bed</span>.</sentence><sentence id="193">We have to sleep."</sentence><sentence id="194">And that was really very upsetting and as I said that took me a long time.</sentence><sentence id="195">I always like to know where I'm going to sleep.</sentence><sentence id="196">I don't like to go.</sentence><sentence id="197">I have to know where my <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">bed</span> is going to be.</sentence><sentence id="198">And we went to somebody's <span class="BUILDING">house</span> who took us in for one night, that night, and again everybody whispered and it was really scary.</sentence><sentence id="199">People were being picked up on the <span class="DLF">street</span>.</sentence><sentence id="200">And from then on, we went to several <span class="NPIP">places</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="224">Q: Did you actually see people being picked up?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="226">A: Yes.</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="227">Q: And what were your thoughts as a child?</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="228">A: That I didn't know where they were going, and I didn't really get a lot of answers.</sentence><sentence id="229">I mean I was asking questions, but I guess my parents were...this was not the time for the truth.</sentence><sentence id="230">It was just time for me to be quiet and do what I was told.</sentence><sentence id="231">I remember very distinctly once taking issue with something that I had seen, and my mother gave me a very stern lecture and she said that if she says it's black and if I know that it is white, but if she said that it is black, it is black and I am never, ever to question because that's how people get killed.</sentence><sentence id="232">And this was not a time that people came up and said, "Are you Jewish," and my parents obviously were going to say no, and if I would have answered, "Oh, yes, we are Jewish.</sentence><sentence id="233">Why are you telling a lie?"</sentence><sentence id="234">That could get you into a lot of trouble.</sentence><sentence id="235">So I was really at a very young age told...was told to just do what I'm told and not to ask questions.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="244">Q: Were you still wearing your star?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="246">A: No.</sentence><sentence id="247">No.</sentence><sentence id="248">At this time we were so serious.</sentence><sentence id="249">This was not admitting to being a Jew.</sentence><sentence id="250">This was hiding...uh...and my mother did not look Jewish.</sentence><sentence id="251">My father did.</sentence><sentence id="252">And, of course, it's very easy to determine if a man is Jewish or isn't, especially in those days so that my mother always did all the talking.</sentence><sentence id="253">And...uh...she was very competent and very strong willed and...uh...was able to handle these situations.</sentence><sentence id="254">We did go to somebody's <span class="BUILDING">house</span> where we stayed for two weeks.</sentence><sentence id="255">Uh...A man worked for my father and my father gave him the position as superintendent of one of the <span class="BUILDING">houses</span>, <span class="BUILDING">apartment houses</span>, that my father owned, and he let us stay in the <span class="INT_SPACE">basement</span>...uh...for a couple of days, and brought us food whenever he could.</sentence><sentence id="256">And a very nice family who I think was aware that something that was going on, told the superintendent...uh...that they were going to be away for quite awhile and sort of insinuating that without their knowledge but it's okay, if we stayed in their <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span>.</sentence><sentence id="257">Uh...I don't think we ever met them, but that's what the superintendent told us, that it's okay for us to be taken to this <span class="NPIP">spot</span>.</sentence><sentence id="258">He would bring us a <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">tray</span>.</sentence><sentence id="259">There was a radio.</sentence><sentence id="260">Uh...We listened to...uh...Radio Free Europe, and this lady happened to have had the best collection of child...of children's books, and I remember reading Little Lord Fauntleroy and a lot of the children's classics.</sentence><sentence id="261">I remember that very well.</sentence><sentence id="262">I was a avid reader, and that was the only place during the war that there were books that I read.</sentence><sentence id="263">I used to remember taking a <span class="INT_SPACE">bath</span>.</sentence><sentence id="264">I was too hot and I almost passed out.</sentence><sentence id="265">And one of the things that happened that I recall very clearly...and it's interesting because my mother just finished her interview and she didn't mention it...my father was having a kidney stone attack or had...we thought he had a kidney stone, and he was having an attack.</sentence><sentence id="266">And he had no choice.</sentence><sentence id="267">He had to go to a doctor.</sentence><sentence id="268">So he went and he left...uh...quite late in the afternoon so as...so as to be dark and my mother and I sat there wondering if he would ever return, if he was going to be caught or what.</sentence><sentence id="269">But he had to go because he had I guess ...I'm not sure but he must have had a kidney problem before because the choice was not to stay.</sentence><sentence id="270">It was not going to go away.</sentence><sentence id="271">Anyhow, he returned.</sentence><sentence id="272">I don't know what happened to the kidney or the stone, but he came back.</sentence><sentence id="273">And from then on, we went to a <span class="NPIP">place</span> in the <span class="COUNTRY">country</span>, a very beautiful <span class="BUILDING">house</span>.</sentence><sentence id="274">And by this time, there was a lot of bombing going on because the Russians and Americans were bombing.</sentence><sentence id="275">The Germans were starting to lose the war, so their interest in the Jews were getting less except if they happened to see any, they shot them.</sentence><sentence id="276">But I mean, it was not as active involvement in killing the Jews as to save their necks because they were losing the war.</sentence><sentence id="277">I remember somebody being shot.</sentence><sentence id="278">I think it was a Russian or a German.</sentence><sentence id="279">I'm not sure.</sentence><sentence id="280">But I know there was a dead body, and somebody went out and stole their shoes or whatever they could off the body.</sentence><sentence id="281">But I don't really remember the details.</sentence><sentence id="282">I just know that this was a body and people went and stole things off the body because peple were now at this point didn't have shoes, didn't have clothes.</sentence><sentence id="283">The food situation was terrible.</sentence><sentence id="284">And I was an obnoxious, terrible eater.</sentence><sentence id="285">I still am.</sentence><sentence id="286">I don't eat if I don't like it.</sentence><sentence id="287">And most of the children just ate whatever there was to eat, including horsemeat off dead horses, but I was not having anything to do with that.</sentence><sentence id="288">So I had a hard time being fed because sometimes when something was found that was edible I save it up for a week and chop up little pieces of it and I would just eat it because I wouldn't eat if I didn't like it.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="332">Q: What was your contact with other children then?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="334">A: Very little.</sentence><sentence id="335">At one <span class="NPIP">point</span>, we were being hidden and there was another child there.</sentence><sentence id="336">And that's when I was told that I was not to say that we were in hiding, that we were friends of the family.</sentence><sentence id="337">And I really don't remember too much about that.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="342">Q: What were the living conditions at that point?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="344">A: Terrible.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="346">Q: Can you describe them?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="348">A: We slept on the <span class="INT_SPACE">floor</span>...on <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">beds</span>...as groups of people, together.</sentence><sentence id="349">I don't remember the sanitary conditions as far as <span class="INT_SPACE">baths</span> or <span class="INT_SPACE">showers</span>.</sentence><sentence id="350">I remember my mother mending things when they were torn.</sentence><sentence id="351">Wearing the same dress, you know, over and over again.</sentence><sentence id="352">Sometimes rinsing things out in little <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">pails</span> if there was enough time for it to dry to wear again.</sentence><sentence id="353">And then as the bombing got worse and worse, we moved.</sentence><sentence id="354">We didn't move, we walked to the <span class="REGION">countryside</span>.</sentence><sentence id="355">I wouldn't call it a <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">suburb</span>.</sentence><sentence id="356">It was really <span class="REGION">countryside</span>, <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">village</span>, peasants, a lot of poor people lived there.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="366">Q: Before we go into that, is there any story about your mother making a cake?</sentence><sentence id="367">A Oh, yes.</sentence><sentence id="368">This is as a matter of fact happened in the <span class="COUNTRY">country</span>.</sentence><sentence id="369">I was, as I said, a very bad eater and my mother, some way or other...out on a walk, saw some people that had some food and stole an egg.</sentence><sentence id="370">And out of this egg, she whipped up a I guess what you could call yellow cake thing and there was the one egg and I guess she had the other ingredients.</sentence><sentence id="371">So I ate that for a very, very long time.</sentence><sentence id="372">And then this...this was in the <span class="COUNTRY">country</span> and there was a lot of bombing going on.</sentence><sentence id="373">It was sort of getting towards the end of the war.</sentence><sentence id="374">We all slept on the <span class="INT_SPACE">floor</span>.</sentence><sentence id="375">Usually I slept between my parents.</sentence><sentence id="376">The <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">toilets</span> there I remember, they were on the <span class="NPIP">outside</span>.</sentence><sentence id="377">We used to take trips to go to...to an <span class="BUILDING">outhouse</span> kind of a thing.</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="378">Q: About how many people were with you?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="380">A: I don't know, but a lot.</sentence><sentence id="381">I think maybe a dozen or...I mean, not fifty or a hundred but maybe a couple of dozen people.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="384">Q: All Jews?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="386">A: No.</sentence><sentence id="387">Not Jews.</sentence><sentence id="388">At this point there was a mixture of people because the war was ending and people were hiding.</sentence><sentence id="389">There was...at this point in the war, people tried to keep alive from bombings that were going on.</sentence><sentence id="390">There were a lot of shooting and bombs and this all sorts of things going on as far as our physical safety.</sentence><sentence id="391">And at one point I remember and I was going to ask my mother and I don't remember but we were in front of the <span class="DLF">firing line</span>.</sentence><sentence id="392">We Were lined up to be shot and I think they were by Russians, but then something happened and we all walked away.</sentence><sentence id="393">But I remmeber thinking that we were going to be shot.</sentence><sentence id="394">I mean, I was aware of the fact that there was a lineup and there were guns.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="404">Q: Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into the <span class="DLF">line</span>?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="406">A: We were...we were walking.</sentence><sentence id="407">We were walking from one <span class="NPIP">place</span> to another <span class="NPIP">place</span>, and we were caught.</sentence><sentence id="408">And whoever was with us...there were other people with us...</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="412">Q: Who caught you?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="414">A: The...the soldiers.</sentence><sentence id="415">And...uh...and that's really all I remember.</sentence><sentence id="416">I don't really remember...I know there were bad guys, but I don't know whose <span class="NPIP">side</span> they were on.</sentence><sentence id="417">By this time, the Russians started coming.</sentence><sentence id="418">And they kept saying that they were winning the war, and there were not too many Germans around.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="424">Q: Do you remember being in the <span class="DLF">line</span>?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="426">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="427">Oh, yes.</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="428">Q: What...do you remember your feelings as a child?</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="429">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="430">I was scared.</sentence><sentence id="431">I mean, I don't know if I thought about death as far as that's concerned, but I know that it was bad.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="435">Q: How many people were in the <span class="DLF">line</span>?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="437">A: I think two dozen.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="439">Q: And what were their feelings there?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="441">A: I mean, there was a lot of, you know, crying out and talking and negotiating and foreign languages and stuff like that.</sentence><sentence id="442">And then all of a sudden it was dispersed and we just walked away.</sentence><sentence id="443">And then we stated walking back toward <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span> because we were told that the Russians and the Americans and the English, liberation had occurred and that the Germans were gone.</sentence><sentence id="444">And it took a long time to come back because the <span class="DLF">roads</span> were bad.</sentence><sentence id="445">There were a lot of bodies and still there was still some bombing going on because there were still groups of Germans all over the <span class="NPIP">place</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="451">Q: What was your reaction when you would see a dead body?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="453">A: I just wanted to...oh, I think we were all very happy to see them, especially if they were German.</sentence><sentence id="454">I mean, there was like...like almost a game of...of Germans.</sentence><sentence id="455">I remember later when we were back in <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span>.</sentence><sentence id="456">I was back in <span class="BUILDING">school</span>.</sentence><sentence id="457">The Germans were being hung <span class="NPIP">outside</span> on <span class="ENV_FEATURES">trees</span> and stuff, and I remember everybody was very joyful and as a child, you just sort of go along with it and just...it almost becomes meaningless.</sentence><sentence id="458">You just walk through the bodies, and you're just happy you're alive.</sentence><sentence id="459">And we walked back...</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="467">Q: Do you remember the physical exhaustion?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="469">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="470">Especially with a child, you know.</sentence><sentence id="471">You're always tired and you want to stop and you couldn't stop.</sentence><sentence id="472">You had to go to the next <span class="NPIP">destination</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="477">Q: What condition were your clothes in at this point?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="479">A: Not very good.</sentence><sentence id="480">Funny, I don't remember anything about shoes.</sentence><sentence id="481">But I...L..just...I don't know.</sentence></p><p><sentence id="482">Of course, we were also cold, because by this time, you know, we had gone through the winter, and I remember being cold.</sentence><sentence id="483">I still am.</sentence><sentence id="484">I'm always cold.</sentence><sentence id="485">My hands are always cold.</sentence></p><p><sentence id="486">And my hands and feet were frozen and...</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="487">Q: Did you ever leave your parents" side at this point?</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="488">A: No.</sentence><sentence id="489">No.</sentence><sentence id="490">At one point, I was supposed to be sent to a <span class="BUILDING">convent</span>.</sentence><sentence id="491">And also some arrangements were made.</sentence><sentence id="492">A lot of Jewish children were being sent to <span class="BUILDING">convents</span> because the nuns were going to take care of them and save them.</sentence><sentence id="493">And then...I don't think I wanted to go and my parents just decided that we would all get through the whole thing together or...or not at all.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="500">Q: Any question of conversion for you?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="502">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="503">Actually, before all this, we were told that...that...if you had non-Jewish papers, Catholic papers...by a certain date that you would be...considered a half-Jew and possibly not be taken to <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">concentration camp</span> or whatever.</sentence><sentence id="504">So we did acquire Catholic papers and my father didn't.</sentence><sentence id="505">My mother and I went to <span class="BUILDING">church</span> and we learned whatever it is.</sentence><sentence id="506">I don't...Cath...whatever you call it.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="512">Q: <span class="BUILDING">Catechism</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="514">A: Catechism and the beads and all that kind of stuff.</sentence><sentence id="515">And we actually had to take a test or at least I remember taking one, and I remember reciting the...uh...what everyone recites, and so we had papers.</sentence><sentence id="516">I don't know of my mother still has them, but we had papers saying that we were converted.</sentence><sentence id="517">My father wouldn't do it, but he thought it would be a good protection for us.</sentence><sentence id="518">Subsequently it didn't help anybody anyhow because it was just another gimmick, but we did have the papers.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="524">Q: What was the attitude of priests and nuns during your <span class="BUILDING">classes</span> and learning?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="526">A: Fine.</sentence><sentence id="527">They were happy to convert, and I guess they were hoping maybe ultimately that people would remain.</sentence><sentence id="528">And a lot did.</sentence><sentence id="529">A lot of people who came to this <span class="COUNTRY">country</span> when we came...families of my parents I knew had converted when they came to this <span class="COUNTRY">country</span>, raised their children as non-Jews.</sentence><sentence id="530">Well, we always remained Jewish and after the war was over the paper that was just a piece paper that may have saved our lives at the time, but it probably wouldn't have.</sentence><sentence id="531">So it sort of served its purpose.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="538">Q: When you were out of the <span class="COUNTRY">country</span>, were you aware of what was happening in other parts of Europe and the <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">work camps</span>?</sentence><sentence id="539">Do your parents talk to you about it?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="542">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="543">Yes.</sentence><sentence id="544">By that time we were aware of <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">concentration camps</span>.</sentence><sentence id="545">I don't know if I personally knew what that meant and I think the grownups had difficulty acknowledging that there could be such a thing as...as...as <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">ovens</span> where they...where they gassed people.</sentence><sentence id="546">I mean, to comprehend that whole thing is...is very, very difficult.</sentence><sentence id="547">And a lot of people who should have at the time believed that it existed refused to believe it because it was so mind-boggling and I don't reallythink I had any particular feelings or total awareness of just exactly...I knew we 0 were in hiding and I knew we were running away from being taken away.</sentence><sentence id="548">And then as we started coming back, I remember my father saying that if there was anybody in our <span class="BUILDING">home</span> he would just kill them.</sentence><sentence id="549">Which is most unlikely because he was a very, very gentle man.</sentence><sentence id="550">But you do get angry.</sentence><sentence id="551">But I think it was when it was all over for us, I think it was a relief that it was over and some of the anger kind of went away.</sentence><sentence id="552">And I am an only child and since my parents and I survived together, that was already a good beginning.</sentence><sentence id="553">A tremendous amount of our relatives were gassed in <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">Auschwitz</span>.</sentence><sentence id="554">Most of these relatives being my grandmother's sisters, brothers, and their children.</sentence><sentence id="555">Then after the war were the horrors of identifying people.</sentence><sentence id="556">Yes.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="572">Q: What were your thoughts as you were coming back to your <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span>?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="574">A: I just wanted to go <span class="BUILDING">home</span>.</sentence><sentence id="575">I had enough of all this.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="578">Q: So you went back to your <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span>.</sentence><sentence id="579">What were your feelings?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="582">A: I went back to the <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span>.</sentence><sentence id="583">Glad to be <span class="BUILDING">home</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="586">Q: What did you do when you got back?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="588">A: The <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span> was a mess.</sentence><sentence id="589">Interestingly enough, the <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">furniture</span> and all, that was there.</sentence><sentence id="590">It was not totally destroyed.</sentence><sentence id="591">Windows were gone from bombings.</sentence><sentence id="592">This had nothing to do with the Germans.</sentence><sentence id="593">This was, you know, the shooting.</sentence><sentence id="594">And...life just short of started all over again.</sentence><sentence id="595">I went back to <span class="BUILDING">school</span>.</sentence><sentence id="596">People found whoever they found.</sentence><sentence id="597">People cried.</sentence><sentence id="598">They cleaned up...the cleanup process was really the bodies and they were just all over the <span class="NPIP">place</span>.</sentence><sentence id="599">At our <span class="BUILDING">temple</span>...in the backyard of the <span class="BUILDING">temple</span> -- the <span class="BUILDING">court</span> I guess is what you would call it -- became a <span class="DLF">graveyard</span> for those who could not be identified or they were such...they were so totally disfigured that they were not recognized.</sentence><sentence id="600">My father went to identify people and, you know, one of the ways to identify these bodies that were practically not recognizable through their teeth, through dental something.</sentence><sentence id="601">I'm not sure what, but it was like their teeth or through birthmarks, stuff like that.</sentence><sentence id="602">So that was a horrible experience.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="618">Q: This is something you witnessed?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="620">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="621">And...uh...</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="624">Q: And your thoughts when you would see sights like this?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="626">A: Scared.</sentence><sentence id="627">And...but I guess it's interesting, you know, from a child's point of view, because I...I was with my parents.</sentence><sentence id="628">I always felt a certain amount of security and that I really think is what helped me come out of it fairly well-adjusted, I guess.</sentence><sentence id="629">For a long time as an adult in this <span class="COUNTRY">country</span> or as a young adult, I never wanted to go anywhere without knowing where I'm 1 going to sleep and I do not like sirens because we always ran to the shelter and I always knew that when the bombing started that there was the potential of being killed.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="634">Q: What kind of <span class="BUILDING">shelters</span> did you go to?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="636">A: Well, when we were still living in our <span class="BUILDING">house</span>, there was...the <span class="INT_SPACE">basements</span>, became <span class="BUILDING">bomb shelters</span> ad they were not set up with first aid.</sentence><sentence id="637">There were underground facilities under the <span class="BUILDING">building</span>, and whenever the bombings and sirens went off, everybody ran to the <span class="BUILDING">shelters</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="640">Q: What did you take with you?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="642">A: Nothing.</sentence><sentence id="643">Just whatever we had.</sentence><sentence id="644">Some food, if there was any to be had.</sentence><sentence id="645">A flashlight, that kind of thing.</sentence><sentence id="646">As a child, you were just sort of dragged along to go and be quiet, and that was a safe <span class="NPIP">place</span> to be and when the...uh...when it was over, then you came back up again.</sentence><sentence id="647">And at this point it was obvious that many <span class="BUILDING">buildings</span> were bombed out and sometimes people died.</sentence><sentence id="648">So, you know, toward the end of the war, you didn't know if you were going to survive because...or not survvie because you were a Jew or just because you could get killed from the bombs.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="656">Q: Did you ever talk about not surviving with your parents?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="658">A: No.</sentence><sentence id="659">No.</sentence><sentence id="660">And so by 1945 we were back <span class="BUILDING">home</span>.</sentence><sentence id="661">My father tried to get his business back and for a while it looked like everything was going to go back to normal, but then the Russians sort of started taking over what the Germans had taken over before.</sentence><sentence id="662">And my grandparents had come to this <span class="COUNTRY">country</span> in 1939 to visit the World's Fair and my grandfather I guess he was smarter than most of us, had planned to stay.</sentence><sentence id="663">He just didn't tell my grandmother because she wouldn't have left.</sentence><sentence id="664">And so we came out here to this <span class="COUNTRY">country</span> in 1947.</sentence><sentence id="665">It took a while to get papers and visas and all that kind of stuff.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="674">Q: When you first came back to the <span class="INT_SPACE">apartment</span>, did you try to look up friends?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="676">A: Oh, yes.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="678">Q: Some survived.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="680">A: Oh, yes.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="682">Q: What did you talk about with them?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="684">A: Most of my friends were children of my parents" friends and they all survived.</sentence><sentence id="685">And I think we were just really talking about all the things that happened and busy listening or not listening to each other's stories.</sentence><sentence id="686">A lot of these youngsters...well, they're not youngsters any 2 more, they're my age.</sentence><sentence id="687">A lot of them are in the <span class="COUNTRY">States</span> and <span class="COUNTRY">Canada</span>.</sentence><sentence id="688">Somehave stayed in <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span>.</sentence><sentence id="689">I have not stayed in touch with any of them.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="696">Q: What are some of your feelings about leaving <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span> to come to this <span class="COUNTRY">country</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="698">A: I didn't want to leave.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="700">Q: Why not?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="702">A: Well, that was my <span class="BUILDING">home</span>.</sentence><sentence id="703">I mean, after...after the war was over, there were my friends.</sentence><sentence id="704">There was my family, whatever there was, and it was an adventure coming here and we came through <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">Paris</span> and then we went to <span class="COUNTRY">England</span> and we sailed on the Mauretania, which doesn't exist any more, but it was a <span class="DLF">Cunard Line</span> and we travelled first class.</sentence><sentence id="705">It was a wonderful trip.</sentence><sentence id="706">And then when we came here, it was a very, very new life for everybody.</sentence><sentence id="707">But a child adjusts very quickly.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="714">Q: Did your father have any experience with Adolph Eichmann?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="716">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="717">My father, because he was an important person in the <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">Jewish community</span>, met anybody and everybody that came to do any kind of negotiating and basically Eichmann wanted money from the <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">Jewish community</span> and the wealthy Hungarian Jewish Community had a great deal of money and he made all sorts of deals to promise to release some people or take less people to <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">prison camps</span> for money.</sentence><sentence id="718">So it was a trade.</sentence><sentence id="719">And my father was in on some of the negotiations.</sentence><sentence id="720">They were not intimate friends, but as my mother told the story, that he was a perfect gentleman and elegantly dressed, as all Germans were, as opposed to the Russians, who were boors and did not, you know, their uniforms were not as the Germans" were.</sentence><sentence id="721">The Germans always were saluted and were, you know, in their own horrible way were always perfectly behaved.</sentence><sentence id="722">Such as Eichmann who obviously was not a perfect gentleman otherwise.</sentence><sentence id="723">And the Russians were...were just the opposite.</sentence><sentence id="724">But when the war was over, there were a lot of American soldiers were and my parents became quite friendly with some of them.</sentence><sentence id="725">And the, as I said, the wheels started working...to my father, was not really thrilled about coming to this <span class="COUNTRY">country</span> in the beginning.</sentence><sentence id="726">I mean, he thought that everything was just...that was his <span class="BUILDING">home</span>, and...</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="738">Q: What were your feelings to go out on the <span class="DLF">streets</span> as a child when the freedom came about?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class=""><p><sentence id="740">Were you...did your parents let you go out after the war was over?</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="741">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="742">No...after the war was over, for your own personal safety, there was no...there was no more problem.</sentence><sentence id="743">Very slowly it was really the government, because of the Russians, the 3 Americans left and and the Russians stayed.</sentence><sentence id="744">But that took a while.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="749">Q: Did you go back to <span class="BUILDING">school</span>?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="751">A: Oh, yes, I went back to <span class="BUILDING">school</span>.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="753">Q: And what were your experiences with your non-Jewish classmates?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="755">A: It all passed.</sentence><sentence id="756">As a matter of fact, one of my best friends was non-Jewish, and at one point after coming out to this <span class="COUNTRY">country</span>, I tried to bring her out because she was having hard times there.</sentence><sentence id="757">And I tried through a <span class="BUILDING">Jewish agency</span> and through a <span class="BUILDING">Catholic agency</span> to bring her out and then I lost track.</sentence><sentence id="758">But I never had any...my only experience with...with so-called anitsemitism besides the large scale of things was with one child who said she couldn't play with me because I was Jewish.</sentence><sentence id="759">But otherwise, it was not a one-to-one thing.</sentence><sentence id="760">It was the whole world was collapsing and being Jewish I was part of that world.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="767">Q: But you didn't feel singled out at <span class="BUILDING">school</span> after the war was all over?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="769">A: No.</sentence><sentence id="770">Not at all.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="773">Q: And then what were your thoughts as you were travelling from <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">city</span> to <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">city</span> to come to the <span class="COUNTRY">United States</span>?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="775">A: Well, that <span class="NPIP">part</span> was really...again, it was a very nice trip.</sentence><sentence id="776">It was a pleasure trip coming out.</sentence><sentence id="777">I mean, we weren't running away with...with clothes on our backs.</sentence><sentence id="778">By this time, my father had acquired some of his <span class="BUILDING">properties</span> back.</sentence><sentence id="779">We weren't penniless.</sentence><sentence id="780">We weren't escaping.</sentence><sentence id="781">We packed our belongings and we were taking a trip.</sentence><sentence id="782">We had left options that if my parents didn't like it here to come back, to go back to <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span>.</sentence><sentence id="783">Things were packed, ready to be shipped if we had said to ship it or not.</sentence><sentence id="784">And as I said, wecame out first class and my grandfather was here.</sentence><sentence id="785">My uncle was here.</sentence><sentence id="786">We had relatives here.</sentence><sentence id="787">It was a difficult adjustment for my parents.</sentence><sentence id="788">New language.</sentence><sentence id="789">New <span class="COUNTRY">country</span>.</sentence><sentence id="790">Different lifestyle.</sentence><sentence id="791">My father was a very prominent person in <span class="POPULATED_PLACE" lat="47.497778" long="19.039722">Budapest</span>, and here he wasn't.</sentence><sentence id="792">So it took a long time for him to adjust...and probably a little bit faster for my mother.</sentence><sentence id="793">But I went to <span class="BUILDING">school</span>.</sentence><sentence id="794">I literally got off the <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">boat</span>, went to <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">camp</span>, and then went to <span class="BUILDING">school</span>.</sentence><sentence id="795">And except for the fact that I spoke with an accent and I was probably a little embarrassed that my parents did, I just became an American teenager.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="817">Q: Where did you settle?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="821">A: In <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">New York</span>.</sentence><sentence id="822">I lived in <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">New York</span> all my young and old adult life.</sentence><sentence id="823">I went to <span class="BUILDING">schools</span> in <span class="POPULATED_PLACE">Manhattan</span> and I have one daughter and three grandsons.</sentence><sentence id="824">And that's the story.</sentence><sentence id="825">I think that I got involved with the Holocaust Musuem...actually, my daughter had pointed out to me about a year ago a New York magazine had written an article about the Hidden Children Conference that had taken place last year in the summer, and she thought it would be something...something I should look into.</sentence><sentence id="826">And I did.</sentence><sentence id="827">And I did attend the Conference and I realize that with my generation...it's kind of the end of the <span class="DLF">road</span> for the people that have been there, that participated.</sentence><sentence id="828">That after me it's just history, which is very different from having been there.</sentence><sentence id="829">And I think that's for us who...whatever way participated in the war, it's very important to record the history, to tell our children and their children.</sentence><sentence id="830">And when I attended the Conference, I went with mixed feelings, thinking, you know, the war is over.</sentence><sentence id="831">This was fifty or forty years ago.</sentence><sentence id="832">What am I doing here?</sentence><sentence id="833">And I found the Conference very, very moving.</sentence><sentence id="834">I found a lot fo Hungarians.</sentence><sentence id="835">Some from similar and some from different <span class="NPIP">backgrounds</span>.</sentence><sentence id="836">A lot of the nationalities formed support groups within themselves.</sentence><sentence id="837">The Hungarian women of my generation formed a group.</sentence><sentence id="838">The Hungarian women that have been meeting monthly and during the Conference besides meetings and people still searching for each other and people finding each other...there was also a large library of books on the Holcaust.</sentence><sentence id="839">And I bought one book: the name of it was Remember Never to Forget.</sentence><sentence id="840">And it was a book written for children in a very simplistic way with pictures, black and white barbed wire, but nothing particularly scary, certainly if you don't know what it's all about.</sentence><sentence id="841">And I bought the book thinking that one of the days when my grandchildren are old enough, I will read it to them.</sentence><sentence id="842">And I forgot all about it.</sentence><sentence id="843">And this summer I took my oldest grandson who is six and a half to the <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">train</span> to pick up somebody and as we were standing at the <span class="BUILDING">train station</span>, he raised his right hand in sort of a Hitler salute and said, "Heil Hitler."</sentence><sentence id="844">And I was very upset and I tried very hard not to scare him.</sentence><sentence id="845">He didn't think he was doing anything bad.</sentence><sentence id="846">And we sat down on a <span class="SPATIAL_OBJ">bench</span> and I said, "Adam, I don't ever want you to say that again, and I want to tell you a little bit about who Hitler was, what he did, and how it affected me."</sentence><sentence id="847">And he really was fascinated.</sentence><sentence id="848">He's a very bright little boy and he's very curious.</sentence><sentence id="849">And I said, "When we go <span class="BUILDING">home</span>, I have a book that I'm going to read to you," which I subsequently did.</sentence><sentence id="850">But the reason he did this "Heil Hitler", because we had been watching "The Sound of Music", and he loved the music and that was one of the salutes.</sentence><sentence id="851">So that's where it all came from.</sentence><sentence id="852">But the concept was still there and I had to get rid of his other brothers, because they really were too young, and he and I went into a <span class="INT_SPACE">room</span> and read this story.</sentence><sentence id="853">And since then he has very often asked me to tell him stories.</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="887">Q: Any other final message you would like to leave?</sentence></p></dialogue>
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="889">A: Yes.</sentence><sentence id="890">It should never happen again.</sentence><sentence id="891">That's it.</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="893">Q: Okay.</sentence><sentence id="894">Well, thank you very much.</sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="895">A: Thank you.</sentence></p></dialogue>
</body>
</html> |