Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Peri Berki - December 9, 1983

That's incredible.

And my, my son, my son brought... She came back with, he went with the other people, he came back he had a sack on his shoulder and there was a, a small piglet in the so... in the sack. And that's why I wrote about it because I heard a story that there was—can I talk about it?

Yes, yes, yes.

There was a very rich family, a very rich Jewish family. They lived in a mansion and he had personnel and gard... gardener and chauffeur, and very elegant, very rich mansion. And then somehow he went bankrupt. So he had to sell the mansion and live in a small five-room apartment. And he was very upset. He couldn't adjust himself to this different living, and went to the rabbi and asked for help to tell him what to do. He said you move out and go to a three-room apartment. And he did. He didn't want to uh, extend it too long. So he, he was again not satisfied. He went back, go to a one-bedroom and take in your chickens to the apartment too. And he went back to the rabbi, you couldn't, you didn't help me. I, if you can tell me what to do, I just want to finish my life. So he go back and go back to the five-room apartment originally. You understand?

So he was happy in a five-room. JB: That's relativity, right?

Right, right. That's very wise.

What did I say, I said about something before. Yeah, with the piglet.

Yes.

And then this, they, they couldn't, they couldn't call the pig... kill the piglet and so that the piglet this afternoon it was too late so they put it in a box under our bed in the room. And I said if you can't imagine how much noise and how stinky they were. So I was thinking of this rabbi, repeated in life, hundred percent, hundred percent. I, I had to take in the piglet in the... I, I very vividly remember the noise, they were roaming around in the bed.

Oh several? More than one?

Sure, everybody in the house, in the apartment took one and my son took one. And they killed, but they didn't eat.

You didn't eat?

I don't remember, I don't remember. But I remember one thing that one horse was killed by a shrapnel, you know what shrapnel is? And this was still during, before, before the war ended. There was a big ??? it looked awful, it was all barricade, barricades and ???. It was very, it was very difficult and then uh, there was a horse and it was still steaming. It was just killed by the shrapnel and the thing, and people came with knife and they cut pieces. I did too. I got a big chunk of meat and we made a beautiful, and I said it again. It was a beautiful meatloaf. It was very good. And this is a prejudice why people don't eat horse.

Yeah, but you had to cut it off this freshly dead animal.

Yeah, yeah. You see I'm the same person who went through this. Nowadays, now if a table because it's not right and I am worried and I have to clean and vacuum clean. Un... unbelievable, unbelievable. That's where, where survival.