Olga Adler - July 26, 1982
Start of War
Okay, now uh, where were you when the war began?
When the war began. Well, our war began earlier than the war, the German war because, as I say, we lived in Czechoslovakia, and we grew up in Czechoslovakia, which was lovely. And um, the Hungarians came in, as I say, in 1938 and I remember back as a young girl, sixteen years old, and my mother didn't let me go out on the street because it was trouble going out on the street, but we sneaked out once and we saw the Hungarians uh, on the corner. On the street there was a Royal Hotel and they were stationing and laying down on the, on the sidewalk there and everything. So, maybe the second or the third day we had a, a... By the name of ??? uh, he was a gentry, he was gentry, a Gentile, gentry, you know. It's Hungarian, some type of gentleman. Had a little Franz Josef beard and he couldn't hear well. That was maybe the second or the third day when the Hungarians came in and he was walking on the street. And they said, ah, you're Jew. And he didn't understand and he was smiling and he was nodding with his head and they beat him with so much that I, I don't remember if he lived it through or not, but I remember that incident. And I remember that right away they went to the Temple, which was right across the street, the main street, the most beautiful temple. I don't know if you've ever been in Temple Beter here, it was on, on uh, Woodward.
I've seen the outside. From the outside it looks pretty big.
The inside, the beautiful temple with the paintings on the, on the ceiling. And uh, it was just... And the, and the windows, that type of a temple we had. So I remember that they broke into the temple and the trouble started right away. I mean, it was just uh, terrible, so uh, we were restricted going out on the street too much. And that was about, uh...
[interruption in interview]
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