Olga Adler - July 26, 1982
After the War
What did you and your husband do after the war?
Oh, after the war. Well, he was...Wait a second. [Asking husband] What did you do after the war at home?
Husband: I was ??? and head of the...
I know.
Husband: Jewish Council.
Yeah, the ??? the head of the Jewish, Jewish Council, I know. They were taking the few Jews who came back, they wanted to make them comfortable, to get them furniture, to get them food, to get them everything. And then there was a girl who used to deliver newspaper to us.
Husband: Are you writing a novel?
She was a gypsy girl, she was a gypsy girl.
Mhm.
Used to deliver newspaper to our house and once we meet in the, on the street and she says, "Olga, you know, if you want to find your parents' furniture it is here and here and here." So, we went to that place. I didn't need the furniture because he had a furnished home already. But it was my... I thought if I could get my mother's bedroom. Whatever bedroom I have I don't care but I'll have that bedroom. I found the bedroom at a Gentile home but they, they, they said it isn't ours. And the committee, there was another Jewish committee, a, a regular committee there. But they didn't, they, they said, you have no rights to that furniture. They didn't want to give back Jewish furniture.
Yeah.
They didn't. So, I told my husband, all right, I just wanted to have it for sentimental reasons. I don't need that furniture. It's not worthwhile to start with them. I don't want to be noticed too much, I'm, noticed too much. I am home, it's enough punishment for them that we are home. And my husband said, you know... Yeah, we went back to Budapest. We went back to Budapest because this lady is, this, this uh, Mrs. Geiger I lived with, she, she, she said that she wants to meet Ernie very much and uh, if there's any possibility I should bring him home and, to, to her home and interview him to her. So, we went back to Budapest. It was quite difficult, but we went. And we stayed in Budapest for awhile and we went to visit this uh, young man of mine who lived there, who was a big shot that time in the government and my husband and I went there. He lived with the Interior, Minister of the Interior. And we went there and he told my husband, "Look, you, I, we can give you such a high position here, you are an attorney, you can have any kind of a high position here, it would be beautiful. And uh, you don't have to worry about your wife because I am honorable and after you married her, she's your wife." But my husband said, "You know, Andy, if... I'd rather be a truck... I want to go to the United States and I'd rather be a truck driver in the United States than the President of orga... any kind," he didn't want to take any kind of a position there. And then we went back home and then we thought that Czechoslovakia is going to be Czechoslovakia again at home. But all of a sudden the Russians came into my little country, which was Hungary before the First World War and it was Czechoslovakia and then became Hungary again when the Germans came. All of a sudden, we became Russians.
Hm.
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