Ruth Federman - February 13, 2008
After the War
Beautiful. Um, were you frightened at any time...
No.
...during...
No. I married when I was 21. You mean in, uh, in the war?
Well, during the war and after as well.
No, no, no, no, no. I married when I was 21 and, uh, that was '47, and '48 I had a--my, my son was born on the 15 of May '48.
Oh, mazel tov.
And we had all the people here, our leaders. The leaders is Sochnut. They're leading, you know, there was Golda Meir here, there was all these people, and they gave the name my--to my son because they saw me alw...uh, pregnant and, uh, he--when he said that, must--his name is Israel. So I said can't be Israel because, uh, uh, they, you know, they were so happy, the children playing from the street because there were no cars. And the mothers were shouting down, Yakov, ??? come home and, and the Po...Polish Jews used to say Srulik, not Israel, Srulik. And so I said, I'm not going to give him the name, uh, Israel and then shout Srulik so his name, Ami Israel.
That's his name?
Yeah. Ami is my, my, my nation. Ami, Ami Israel.
And what's your daughter's name?
???. That's already...
Of course I know her.
That's already a modern, uh, name.
Any grandchildren?
I have, uh, how many? Seven, and four great--grandchildren.
Mazel tov. Um...
But uh, but uh, a lot of divorces in the family.
Well that's a--it's an epidemic.
Yeah, terrible.
Um, wh...when do you think you first heard about what had gone on during, in Europe during the war? Was there a moment that you finally...
After the war. I got, I got uh, I got a official--what happen to my mother with dates or when they went from Theresienstadt to...
Auschwitz.
...Auschwitz. Maybe a year after.
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