Barbara Schechter Cohen - May 1, 2002
Visiting Camps
So that was in Austria that you looked for her. Um, and did you visit any of the camps while you were there?
Yeah, we went to Auschwitz. We went to Theresienstadt. Um, I think we went to Treblinka. Those, those...
How did you react? Silly question, I suppose. But was there anything that went through your mind when you went to those places?
Well, Auschwitz was a shock, it was...because in, in their museum [crys] you see those piles of suitcases. It just--you know, it just--I wanted to connect with my parents, what they went through, even though they weren't in a camp, but with my people and that was like a real shock to me. Seeing the actual um, belongings of, of people.
The shoes.
The shoes and the suit...the suitcases. Yeah, that made a big impression on me.
And Westerbork?
That was a different trip. I went on an Elderhostel biking trip and we just, we biked through there. We didn't go through the museum, but we were--we had a little discussion about it, about Anne Frank uh, being there waiting to be taken to Auschwitz.
It's very hard to get there, to Westerbork. Either you have to rent a car or you have to take a bike or whatever.
Right. You take a bike.
We tried to do that but we couldn't get any public transportation. So you went to the Anne Frank House
Uh, it was being um, in Amerstd...it was being restored. So we didn't, we didn't get to see that.
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