Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents

Bert Dan - November 17, 1982

And everyday we went out to the rail stations and we waited for all the trains whenever they arrived. And we were making announcements, you know, in Hungarian and Romanian: "If there are any...anybody who wants to go home to get off the train." And we are here to help 'em. And through our office--we had about sixty thousand people that went through our office, which was again a very fulfilling uh, thing what we did over there. It was very, very beautiful, beautiful work what we did in Czechoslovakia. And uh, unfortunately, in uh, the--right in beginning of 1946--first of all, at the end of '45, my wife and her sister and a whole group of other people--they're working very hard and my wife was left already after the liberation, you know, the British took over and the Americans and so on. And uh, as I told you before that I went out to the rail station on a daily basis and so on. And one day I got a call that there is a train coming in from Bergen, from that part of uh, Germany--that there are a lot of Hungarian and Romanian refugees that will be on that train. And we went out there and I waited for the train and saw that they had a leader who was in charge of the whole group and he was already dear friend of mine. He's in New York now. His name is uh, Dr. Solomon. At that time he wasn't a doctor, but now he is. And uh, when he saw me, he said, "What in the world are you doing here?" And I told him. He said, "You know who was here? Clara and Irene." And at that time we were engaged already, you know.

Before the war you were engaged?

Yes, before the war we were engaged. And she's glad it wasn't before the war--because before the concentration camp. And at the time when I was home, you know, from ??? that's when we got engaged. And uh, said, "Clara and Irene are here," I said, "I don't believe it." He said, "Yeah, they are here." And he started running up and down, you know, screaming and yelling, "Clara! Irene!" And when they said, "Yes, we are right here." And I walked over there and I ran in that, that car where they are staying at. Clara look at me. And she passed out right there. You know...