Eva Ackermann - December 6, 1982
Sharing Story
Have you told them about it?
Uh, I guess in bits and pieces. Never uh, because I always uh, just like I uh, I felt--I feel that how can you teach the Holocaust when you weren't there? I can't--I could not uh, I couldn't, I couldn't uh, it's just not, I uh, I just couldn't. They were always, like I said, they were always either too young or uh, or I was not in the mood, or uh, there was just no way for me to uh, in details. I couldn't go into details. Because I uh, I don't think that anybody can understand it. It's not that I am putting them down that they can't understand it.
They know? I mean....
They, they certainly do because of some--whenever something happened, once my bigger--my son said, "Haven't you been twisted enough?" I don't know what reason, I forget uh, I don't remember what it was, something was done to me. So they do have an understanding and uh, they do know history and they do--they know, know. But they don't know in detail. And, uh....
Did you ever talk to anybody about it besides Dr. Krystal....
For years uh, for years there was a very curious thing in Germany when after uh, when the liberation and I got married and there were other couples also in the same uh, waiting to come out here. Uh, we saw each other everyday because there was nothing else to do. We played cards or we got together but there was--everyday I was, I--it was uh, oh I would say for two years at least the duration of the waiting period. I couldn't imagine--is this ever gonna stop? I mean we weren't talking about it as uh, uh, like I told you in the beginning, I didn't have the comprehension and I didn't suffer as much as I do now from the aftermath. We were just uh, relating, just talking it over and just everybody had sort of a story to uh, I don't, I just--at the end of the day, I always thought here was another day and we were just talking about uh, experiences, exchanging uh, experiences.
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