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Szymon Binke - June 16, 1997

So you came right to the United States from there?

Yes. Well, from Bremen, Bremerhaven, you know. From Feldafing we went to Bremen which is near Hamburg and caught a ship and came over here.

Did you ever consider going back to Łódź,?

Not until the last year or so. I'd like to see it one more time. I'd like to see Łódź, I'd like to go on back and see uh, Auschwitz, Birkenau.

But after the war...

No. Never had a desire to go back.

Not even, you were certain that your mother had died?

Oh yeah, we knew that, yeah. Because by then we, we found this aunt that went with them and she knew that uh, they went with the kids.

Did you think about going to Israel?

I, what, to live?

To live, yes.

No.

You never...

I did that one time, yes. I was already on a, on a, it must have been in '46 or '47 I was already on a truck to, to go. I told them I didn't have anybody, I was alone. 'Til somebody must have told my father. He came and dragged me off the truck.

Was this the Haganah?

Yes.

Were they training you?

Yeah.

So this was a serious commitment?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Taught me how to use a gun and everything.

All clandestinely?

Mm-hmm.

And your father wanted to come to the United States?

At that time, no. He didn't want to go anywhere, yet. But he didn't want to go to Israel. Well, but he, he probably did want to go, come to the United States, because he had an aunt here. He knew he had an aunt. We never got in touch with her then, by then yet, but he knew she was here, my, my stepmother's sister, which was also a cousin.

So when did you, when did you get to, to New York?

1950. March, 1950.

And until then you were in...

Feldafing, Germany, yeah.

Feldafing. What was it like living in a, in a DP camp all that time?

It was all right. You had food. [laugh]

How many in a room?

We didn't care. In the, in the villa it wasn't bad. It was about maybe five, six of us in a room. We also had uh, uh, these bunkbeds.

But there was indoor plumbing this time.

Yeah, but not very long. It was too many people. It's always plugged up.

But better than the ghetto.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Um, you came to New York and how long did you stay in New York?

Three months.

Were you planning to live there?

Uh, maybe. But my uncle was here already, so I ca...I took a, a bus and came to Detroit. And we liked Detroit. We didn't like the hustle and bustle of New York. And I went back and we all moved here.

And so you were eighteen at the time?

That was 1950? Yes.

You, you moved to Detroit.

Mm-hmm.

Um, was there any help offered from various agencies in Detroit?

No. We didn't need any help in Detroit. We just got a job right away and...

And you had learned English already.

No.

So...

I learned English probably a little bit in New York, because I used to go, for, for a quarter you could go to a movie and see continuously different films. So I and you could stay there as long as you wanted. So I'd see two, three films, you know and uh, mostly cowboy movies. And I'd learn a little bit that I could converse. Oh, I also was going to school in Germany and I learned a little bit, so I could uh, converse a little. Not much.

But when you came to this country you didn't go to school?

Here? No.

But you watched a lot of movies.

[laugh]

Do you remember any of the movies?

Oh, cowboy movies mostly.

Uh, you got a job in Detroit?

Yes.

Doing what?

In a steel factory, a little factory on Clay and Oakland.

And your father?

My father got a job on East Eight Mile Road, also in a steel factory, R.C. Mahon, doing structural steel.

How did you get to work?

Uh, bus.

Both of you took buses.

Sure.

Where did you live?

We lived on Pingree, 2450 Pingree, between uh, Linwood and LaSalle.

So right in Detroit.

Oh yeah.

What happened next that, that you remember that sort of stands out in your mind?

Well, my father got married in Germany, [smacks] and she had a daughter and my father adopted her. That's when we came over here, so she was also Binke. Then, well, we lived on, on Pingree, then we moved on Tracey, which was in the northwest section. And uh, then I got married.

How'd you meet your wife?

Met her at a dance in the Shul on Wyoming and Curtis.

You remember which Shul that was?

Geez, I don't remember. It was a City of Hope Dance.

Your wife's name?

Celia. Celia Rae. Her maiden name is Nessel.

Did you tell her about uh, your experiences in the war?

At first I couldn't talk too much about it. But in time, you know, a little here and a little there, yes.

Why couldn't you talk about it?

I don't know. I guess I didn't want to talk about it.

Did you and your father talk about it?

Yeah.

To each other?

Yeah. With my uncles, yes. But I couldn't talk about it to somebody that didn't go through it.

So did you meet other survivors here?

Oh yeah.

Same age?

No. Most of them are older.

But as a group, did you, when you got, when you'd get together as a group, would you talk about it with them?

Yeah. We probably still do, if I get together with some of them, you know.

Um, do you think anybody wanted to listen?

I don't know. Didn't seem like it. Nobody asked us. All we were is the greenhorns.

What do you think about all this interest now in the...

That's what's, that's what uh, surprises me. I guess, [laugh], we are the few left. If, if, if, if we don't tell the story, it'll be forgotten.

Did you see Schindler's List?

Yes.

What, what's your reaction to the movie, or the, the response to the movie?

It was all right. The, that uh, Plásow was a good camp. They had a lot of food. They were together with their families. You know, big deal, so he shot a few people.

Um, do you think it's strange that, that survivors now are in such demand and...

Yes. Like I, I told you that. All of a sudden we became celebrities. You should have, you should have uh, contacted me uh, twenty, twenty-five years ago. I would have remembered much more than I do now. A lot of it is forgotten.

Would you have told me then?

[sigh] If you were as gentle as you are now, I would have. [laugh] Probably.

But nobody asked.

No.

Did you ever start to tell people and, and have them...

No, no.

How did they react to you?

We didn't talk about it.

You didn't talk about the war at all?

No, they...

Did anybody in the United States talk...

Pardon?

Did any Americans tell you what was...

Oh yeah. They told us how tough it was when they came, after the First World War. We had it easy. Well, they had it tough. They probably didn't get as much help as some of us did.

Did you respond to that?

What can you respond?

You could tell them about Auschwitz.

No, no.