Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Regina Cohen - April 18, 1982

Liberation

Mm-hm.

...you know, just show us who we are, don't kill us. But they didn't bomb. A day later we didn't see any of the Gestapo or SS women or, or men coming around to--they would be daily there in the building in our locale--room. Uh, they opened--the doors were open. And a few of us just went out in the street, just, just literally out. Uh, we have no money, we have no nothing. There was a, a railroad there. We always were by railroads, it's funny. It's probably for shipping reasons. And there were a few cars and we went into those cars, uh, railroad cars--train. And they were passenger trains at one time and there was a, a, a mailing uh, box car and there were packages and letters and we opened letters and we found money. And we just take the money out--we looted--what we did is we looted a train that didn't get out. Weirdest thing I did, just a little above that railroad track there's like a little yellow--you go up and there's a street and there's a bakery. And I stand and there's a few women--civilian women, German women and an older man and a uniformed young German soldier--uniform soldier--the, the Wehrmacht--the regular army were lining up. Here I'm wearing this number and I--that look of concentration camp, and they're all looking at me. All of a sudden it hit me, they know I'm free and they're--because they looked like they're scared of me now.


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