Bella Camhi - November 18, 1999
Round-Ups
When on a Saturday they came to round up all the Jewish men from eighteen to forty-five and they took them all...
In Salonika?
In Salonika.
Maybe. You know, like I says, Salonika it was nothing you ???, you know. And if it's not in the news, you never know.
Uh. Was there...
Uh, ra...is radios, like uh, the, now. I don't leave--my uh, my radio is the, my survival. I don't like television. He passed away, I took the cable out.
Was there a Liberty Square in Salonika? Something called Liberty Square? Plaza? Central...
Uh, we have the Placa.
The Placa. So the central square of the town. And did they ever round up Jews and collect them there?
Yeah, they dug--it, it was in the... Oh God, this area was poorer than ours. Uh... Oh God. ???. It was north.
Oh.
And this is where the, put everyone. But we were not taken. We were taken...
In '43?
all to...all together.
Um, wasn't there a very old cemetery in Salonika in the...
Yeah, I have the picture from it. But, you know...
fifteenth century?
I'll find it and then I'll call you. They took it apart, piece by piece.
Yeah, tell me about that.
Uh, well, the Jews are not like in all over the world. It's not only in Greece, even here we're not like. They don't like us because we are too smart. We come here, in five years we bought this house. And he was just a shmeer. A paint. Five years. And having three kids. And then a surprise package.
One.
Four. So like I says, we are not like. We are a smart specie. All the neighbors here, they show they like me. They didn't. You come here today and I was born here and I can't buy a house. And he was Jewish. You know what I mean. So when you improve as a Jewish person uh, you're not like.
Yeah. [interruption in interview]
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