Mala Weintraub Dorfman - September 15, 2005
Finding Sisters
So, you got married in Łódź. Who was there?
My uh, father-in-law. I had a, one friend I went to Bais Yakov together with her. She was there in Łódź and her husband. And some cousins of Henry's were there, that's all. And my uncle gave us, he married me. He was a very Orthodox man, he married me. My father's brother. And that's it.
So, you were married in 1945.
In '45. Yeah.
Had you heard from your sisters yet?
No, no.
But you knew where they were.
I knew where they were. And uh, from, through the Red Cross I got the address where they ar... were, but I couldn't call them. They had no phone or nothing.
Were they in a DP camp?
But I wrote to them, I got the address and everything, I wrote to them. They were in Marburg an der Lahn that I'm coming to Germany and I'm going to come to them. But when I arrived there, it was at night-I'll never forget it-and the M... uh, the MP. So I was, and they arrested, they took us away, they said, where are you going? Because there was a curfew, you couldn't go. So, I told them that this is the address, and my sisters are there. And they took us in a Jeep and they drove us over there. And when my sister opened the door, I didn't recognize... They had no hair, both of them. They were in Auschwitz, so they saved them, shaved them. And my cousin Mickey was with them already. So, they were like strangers to me, complete strangers. I'm cl... I was closer to my friends that I lived through the war with them than to my sisters. And, and we stayed with my sister and then uh, Henry got in right away in business. He worked first at the MP, the uh, for the Ger... for the Americans.
Just like a new life, you start...
Yeah.
...you had a different family.
Yeah, that's right. He worked there and then uh, while he worked there he start looking for business and he got into the meat business too. And he was delivering meat to the camps, we did camps in Germany after the war.
Did you talk to your sisters about...
Oh yeah, many time, yes, yes.
After awhile, I mean, did you...
Yes, oh yeah, sure. Once I got there, I got a ride there at twelve o'clock midnight, I was dead tired traveling. And then when I came to uh, this was uh, Oswiecim when I was going to Germany. So, the NKVD caught me and they ask for the papers. So, they saw I was a Weintraub, born Weintraub. So, a woman in NKVD came out and took me in and I had to get undressed. And I had birthmarks here and that would save my life. They were looking for a Weintraub, which was in our camp, it's true. Her brother was a Kapo. And I don't know why they were looking for her, this I don't know. And she said, no, get dressed. It's not you what we're looking for. And just before, yeah... So, and then we went to Germany. You know, we got through. We went to Germany, we went to Marburg.
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