Regina Cohen - April 18, 1982
Yellow Star
Did you all have to wear yellow stars?
Yes, that's funny enough, we did wear a yellow star. Uh, we wore the yellow star a little bit earlier before the ghetto...
Mm-hm.
...while we were still in our homes. Yes, we had to.
Did you have to buy it?
We had to make our own...
Mm-hm.
...yellow star out of specific fabric, like a felt or similar. Felt, it had to be. And a certain shade of gold, and put on, on any outerwear. Anything that you wore. Coats or if it's a suit, or whatever outwear you had on, you had to show your star.
That must have been an incredible experience. Or was it just another thing that happened?
No, that, that was, that was the time that we already knew we had become nothing--less than nothing. Um, a dog didn't get treated like that anymore. I mean, even the dog was allowed to run the street without anymore than a kick or, or something like that. That was uh, it was as if um, you're put in a--I don't know--in an area and were--you're being pointed out as something strange, something weird, something odd. Don't forget, by that time the Jewish--the wealthy, any of the good, outstanding Jews, we all became a nothing already. We're already stripped, so you get to look less of the human being that you were. And you're getting to look like--a little bit like what they're calling you. The dirty, poor nothing Jew. This, this is the, this is the, the uh, the area where you become mm, uh, dehumanizing. Um. You know, it's, it's almost--it's hard.
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