Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Eva Ackermann - December 6, 1982

You didn't have much food then on this march. How long were you marching?

No, there was uh, I think, I think maybe ten days--I really don't remember, but as much as it would take uh, I would have to look, look up. I never bothered to look up what's in there, because I remember very well the name of--there must have been Austrian--Hungarian border towns, because that's where we got uh, transferred to cattle cars. Something interesting I must tell you that uh, bothered me terribly that uh, is, is very much uh, in concert with uh, some news of today. I didn't know who it was. I'm talking about Wallenberg. Um, there were people uh, when we were resting, there were some people coming through and they called out names. They had these uh, passports...

Swedish passports?

Swedish passports for them. Uh, that someone was supplying. I have no idea who and they called out names and I and I had such a hard day because I just stood there and I uh, I was hoping against hope that maybe. I knew that there was, it was just really hoping against hope, because uh, I only had my mom and we uh, had no circle of friends, it, it was--at that time, too, I'm sure who you knew that were able to uh, give--supply you with uh, papers or give you shelters. It was--I was just, it was just, I was just like hoping and always feeling uh, very envious of the people that were taken out of the, of the caravan, you can call it uh, and now, when I read the article, that that's when it hit me that, that was it. That he was the one who supplied and probably uh, to peop...I don't know what it went by, who, who got it. I mean who, I'm sure he didn't uh, care who it was, because I'm sure he didn't know anybody personally. It must have been in that uh, uh. I don't know, in the Jewish center or wherever, it went out from. I don't know, do you?

Do you think it was to wealthier people?

Uh, I really do, yes, because it was uh, it was, it was always, if you--even in the concentration camp if you had uh, if you were able to buy something, you bought. I mean uh, that's uh, that's why my hope was against hope, because I knew that uh, it's, it's always the case. This is nothing new and uh, that's why I never--I was just, I just remembered feeling uh, very envious of the people who were uh, taken out, because we knew--we didn't know the ultimate uh, we knew the destination. We didn't know what was going to happen, but, uh...