Peri Berki - December 9, 1983
Liberation by Russian Army
Well, now um, when you were in this bomb shelter and you were living among these Gentiles, were they hoping that the Russian army would take over? How were their feelings? Were they for the Germans or for the Hungarians and did you have to also...
Where, where I lived, it was, they were very poor people and they were, I guess they were communistic, because they were not afraid of the Russians.
Aha.
They were not afraid of the Russians. But I know when, when, when, when the Russian came into the city, January 11, I remember that day, it was such an important day in '4... '45, January they came. They occupied the city. Oh gosh, it was such a feeling. And we couldn't express our, we didn't want to say that we were Jewish.
No but you couldn't express joy anyway?
No, no we couldn't, because we had to restrict. We got used to it. We lived a, a year maybe, but I can say from the very moment on, I wouldn't, we wouldn't have been so adaptable, then we couldn't have done it. It was, I never, I don't think I ever had trouble, that I have a, dual personality. How do you pronounce it?
Dual personality.
Yeah, I never had trouble.
No. Well um, so you lived in this situation for a year until the Russians, came.
The Russians came in, yeah. But this is a very abbreviated story of what we went through. Still other, other things happened during, many things, we were... Yeah.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn