Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Abraham Asner - October 10, 1982

Are you ready to talk about how you got from over there to over here?

From uh, from Canada uh, to Canada?

To Canada, mm-hm.

Yes, uh. When I arrived... Left the ghetto I had my relatives, from my uncles, my aunts, everything. When I walk out from the ghetto I took the addresses with me, from my uncles and my aunts. And uh, then by that time when we was liberated already, it was all finished, the war finished, mail wasn't going so good. And in the, the for... in the woods, I said who's going to survive. Well, me and my brothers signed up the addresses, everyone get, get a address. Had to write down for himself everything. Somebody maybe get killed, and somebody survive. If I'm going to have 'em by myself, everyone had the addresses. And then I have a cousin in Los Angeles, a girl that I told you, and the two girls. I told her, said, "The time," I said, "it's going to be uh, more stable." We're going to arrive to the United States and I have the addresses. Okay. One time, I went somewhere. I went somewhere and uh, it was already went through a few months. And then I saw the mailman. The mailman come to me and told me, "See, if you give me a good drink, I'll give you something." I said to him, "It's no problem." He took out two letters from United States, my two uncles. And that uncle, if you, did you saw sometime uh, Ed Asner on television? From his father. Ed Asner's my cousin. And then uh, he took out two letters and he give it to me. One from Ed's father and one from uh, a younger brother, half a brother. Kalman, used to be Ed Kalman. He used to live in Denver. Then I said to my cousin, I said, "If you have in mind to write letters, why didn't you tell me?" And she was standing here, was in my uh, sister and me was staying together with me. And I say, "It's no, it's no uh, nothing to write. I don't hide from you, I have the addresses." She took the addresses and wrote the letters. Anyway.