Lily Fenster - November 8 & 10, 1994
DP Camp in Germany
Who was in charge of the camp?
I do not know who. A man that was...
The Americans?
I don't know his name. A Jew.
American?
No, no Americans support us with the food. I, I remember one American came there and we make a picture of me nursing Sonja. I just see that. I mean, I see it so good and my friend, she had a boy and she lost her milk. I told you that story and I remember they pumped milk from me, because in Europe, if you didn't nurse a child, it was a disaster you know, you didn't have the fresh milk. It was so difficult. So, I remember I was laying in the hospital, it wasn't a hospital actually, it was like a little house and my midwife was like that and like that. If I didn't kick her to death. I just, I just didn't believe that moment. And then, she didn't have the milk. How can you not help a friend and I had enough, I guess. I was about nineteen you know, young, in spite of everything, I was pretty healthy. Never had diseases, except typhus and that made me sort of stronger, because look at that. All those years when I was with the Goyim, I never was sick. I walked with wet schmatas on my feet, a piece of bread and soup, it was luxury. And I never was sick. Once it got so wet, 'til somebody gave me a pair of boots I remember. There were holes, so I put like a piece of paper I found it, mit a rag, to cover the hole you know, and it was, my feet were so, always cold. I was so cold. I always forget that my dream, a warm bed, with a ??? , you know what is a ??? It's a comforter from with down feathers. That's the way Europe has it you know, to cover yourself up. A ??? and to keep a little warm and I had a chance by the Goyim, they used to have an oven, like the cats used to lay on it you know, you're too young to remember when they baked the bread in those old fashioned ovens. There was a place. You always see cats there, I say oh, wouldn't God make me a cat that I could lay there and keep warm, meat I'm still ??? a piece of bread, you know.
And so you made it to this camp?
This camp. They gave us a school room divided by eight. Eight families. It was a room like a school room, very big, it was in, in ??? Bergstrasse I don't remember exactly. I was on the first floor, because I had the child and it was tough. We had the iron bed or we had two, I don't, I think we slept me and Dave in a small bed and I had a little bit of bed for Sonya, but she was already at that time maybe two years, two and a half. I came in '46, I don't, I think it was spring and we left Germany '51, so we're talking about five years. The camp was liquidated in 1949.
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