Eva Ackermann - December 6, 1982
Life During Occupation
The BBC?
Well, I, I suppose yeah, in secretly. If they had um, it had been intercepted not uh, it wasn't channeled in, I don't think.
Do you remember the arm bands? Things like that? That when the first...
Oh the arm bands I remember. Oh uh, you know something uh, actually uh, it hit home uh, in 1941. Now that you know it's uh, that my, my cousins where taken to uh, they were just taken to uh, what we knew after, to uh, Siberia from the provinces.1942.
On, on labor farms?
Sons of--not these, cause they were in Budapest. But from the provinces. And the arm bands uh, the yellow arm bands, I have a picture of them as a matter of fact where I wear uh, star--Star of David. Because that's what we had to wear. That was after the, after the invasion. That was after the invasion. And the arm bands were in uh, labor camps. Whoever was, inducted into the labor camp. I don't know if they were in uniform, in some type of--no they weren't in any--were in a--they, they wore a yellow arm band and if you were uh, if you were uh, if you converted to Catholicism you wore a white one...
A white star....
A white arm band.
Without a star on it?
No, the star was only for uh, civilians, for the civilian population, because we only had--that was, I'm talking about a past March nineteenth...
Nineteen forty four.
Nineteen forty four. Uh, it was a Sunday, I believe. Because after that, things uh, started happening. The houses, they congregated Jews into uh, houses that were called Jewish houses and there was also a big star on the house. Then the next uh, step was um, you were not able to go out on the street only between eleven and four. I don't remember exactly the time but it was--and then it was just mainly from one to three. Two hours a day, that's when you did your shopping or--and that's how you were distinguished from other people that, that you wore a Jewish star. A Star of, uh...
What, what's...
...David on your lapel.
When...
Is this completely new to you?
No, no. When you, when you uh, how did you find out that you had to wear the star? Was it through...
It was--I couldn't tell you this minute, but it was probably uh, in the paper. Or, uh...
Was it through the newspaper?
...through a newspaper...
Was there a Judenrat?
...there was just another uh, probably the newspaper, because that was about the only--I really couldn't tell you that.
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