Ruth Federman - February 13, 2008
Family
How large was your family?
Pardon?
How large was your family, in Prague, before the war?
It really wasn't--we were not a family. My, my father died in '33, when I was 7 years old. So I had a mother and a brother. That was it. And there was--the bigger family was in Moravia. And my grandfather was uh, in a little town near Pilsen but fortunately he died. He was 85 and he died in, uh, '38, so he was lucky.
How, how large would you say the family was, including the Moravians with aunts and uncles, cousins?
I had a uncle--I, I visited them every year, so there was my uncle and my aunt where I was visiting, with two daughters. Only the aunt and the two daughters survived. Then there was a grandfather who also died before the war, or in the beginning of the war. Then there was a brother of my father, with his wife and, and son--all three perished. You do say perished, yes?
Do you know where they died?
Uh, I don't know. I, I, I have somewhere, I--they were sent all three to, to Buchenwald because that was a family camp.
Not to Theresienstadt though?
No.
Buchenwald was--yes.
Yes. My--the aunt who survived and her two daughters were in Theresienstadt and my mother and brother went to Theresienstadt. In October '44, they went to Auschwitz. So that's the family. That--I have a whole--I will show you, I wrote a book--I have a whole list of family but uh, not very near family, yes? --who also perished.
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