Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map
• Video

Miriam Biegun - August 10, 1983

So you, you, you left Zhetl, went to Łódź.

Yes.

This was your brother, sister, aunt and uncle.

Uh--huh. And, a lots more. You know, lots of survivors--

But just from your family that...

Yes, that's all there.

You left Łódź, and by 1947 you were in Berlin?

No. Mine sister and brother wasn't with me. In Łódź, they went to a kibbutz. We split up.

They went to Israel?

No. In Łódź there was for young people, you know, orphans, like a kibbutz. They call it kibbutz, but it was like a um, orphanage farm for young people with no parents.

So you...

So mine brother and sister went there--

And you went with your aunt and uncle to Berlin then to--

And I stayed with m aunt and uncle in Berlin. I was too young. Then to Ziegenhain, Jäger-Kaserne and--

All right, let's stop here for a minute, and we'll uh, we'll continue with uh, after the liberation.

Okay.

After a little bit more. Just briefly um, can you outline for me your itinerary after you left um, Germany? When you left, you were in the displaced persons camp in Ziegenhain, and then where did you go from there?

Oh, when first we came from, you mean like we came from Berlin?

Berlin.

Okay, from Berlin, we came to Ziegenhain. We stayed for a little while there, then we went to Jäger-Kaserne. We stayed there all together about, let's see, from '47, beginning '47 'til the middle of '49.

Was that another displaced persons camp?

It was like, you know uh, United Nations or something, you know, from the army, you know, camps, and lots of Jewish people there, after the war we stayed there, and Salvation Army brought us food and stuff like that. We stayed there. In '49--this I remember. '49, June the 8th, we went to Israel. But my sister and brother were already in Canada.

So your sister and brother left Łódź and came to Canada.

They were in Germany, they were in Germany, but not with me.

I see, and you now went to Israel.

Auntie and uncle and cousin me went to Israel.

And where did you live in Israel?

We lived in Israel in Kfar Saba.

Kry...

Kfar Saba.

Um, how long were you there?

I was in Israel, but before Kfar Saba, I was in camps, you know, when you get to Israel, you don't go straight. We were on special ah, it's not really camps. You had your freedom, I mean, you know, but the people shouldn't get lost, you know.

Okay, we'll come back and talk about that, but I just want to know--

But I was in Israel for ten years.

So you were married there and you had a child there?

I married there and I have a daughter there. She's a Sabra.

Okay, and then from Israel to?

It's a long story, like a gypsy traveling. From Israel I came to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. From Winnipeg, we moved to Windsor.

How long were you in Winnipeg?

Um, in Winnipeg, we were there, wait a minute, we came in '59, and we stayed there 'til sixty--no, we came there in '59. We stayed there 'til '55.

'65.

Fifty, sixty, '65, yeah.

So you became Canadian citizens?

Yes.

And then you went to Windsor.

Then we moved to Windsor.

[laughing] For how long were you in Windsor?

In Windsor, we were four or five years.

And then to Detroit.

Yeah, and from here, I'm not moving. Wild horses cannot drag me from here. That's the longest period of time in my life I stayed in one place.

Fourteen years?

Fourteen years.

All right, now I'd like to go back and talk a little more about each one of those places. [laughing]

And no moving around no more. I told my kids, they could move. I had enough moving in my lifetime. More than enough.