Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Eva Cigler - March 17, 1982

Immigration to America

What brought you to Detroit?

We was living in uh, New York, but everybody was coming back from the World War II and there was uh, very--wasn't too much work. Especial uh, immigrants who was coming out, they take advantage of you. You have to work for twenty-five dollar a week or thirty. If you make thirty dollars then you uh, do right. And uh, and housing was very bad. So a friend of us said if uh, we try Detroit. So my husband and my brother-in-law came here and they stayed 'bout three month and we remain in New York...

Mm-hm.

let them find a work here. But they find work uh, a little bit uh, better pay than in uh, New York. And uh, and they rent a place and they, we lived together with uh, my sister. And after that we find a place separately. She uh, already do, was doing better and then my husband find a better job. So uh, we could find a empty apartment so we moved from each other.

You just randomly picked Detroit or you had heard there was...

No, not random, because a friend was uh, here.

Oh.

If the friend took to California we would have been better off. [laughs] But the friend was here and he said if you come here I help you find job, better job than in Detroit so that's how they uh, we picked Detroit. That's how we stuck here.

Well, thank you very much.

Yeah, you're welcome. The same here.

I appreciate very much.


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