Charlotte Firestone - March 11, 1982
Deportation
Um, could you tell me a little more then about the day that uh, that you were taken away? You were home and, and then...
We were home just ready to eat or we started to eat. The Germans came in and they gave us, I don't know, five minutes or ten minutes, there was a big open truck, you know and they gave us a couple minutes to get ready. We knew already that they take you, they're going to take us away. We didn't know where. It was so, we were so naive, you know, I don't know to call it stupid or really naive. We didn't know nothing. But ahead of time, I went--ahead of time uh, uh, weeks before then, I figure in case they going to take us away, or they going to deny food from us--that was before even we went out from the ghetto, I took a kilo Of sugar and a liter milk and I was cooking that--I figured they take us away. My child was at that time, eighteen-months old. I figure if only one teaspoon a day. I let it cook for hours and it was like a jelly, you know and I put in jars and I figure, if I'm not going to have a--if they going to drop us in the woods or anyplace, until I'm going to be able to do something. If I give only a tablespoon from that milk and sugar, it would have enough nourish... nourishment for my child, even if just one spoon a day he's going to have. I'm going to be able to, to keep him alive [pause] and when they came in, I grabbed that two jars and I had a sleeping bag. Munkacs was very cold. I had a buggy and, and uh, when we went out, I put that child in that sleeping ba...in that bag, you know, it was lined with fur, the inside, so that he should be warm. I grabbed that sleeping bag and I grabbed for the child some clothes, because that was most important thing and they took us straight to the train station and I took the babe--my mother took the baby and I took all that stuff. I stuffed it in, in that sleeping bag and we went to the station and that was so dear to us, so precious. Just a child stuff and an extra pair of shoes in case, you know, he's going to wet the shoes or something. I should--all my mind was just the child, you know, just for the child and, um. [pause] We went to the--yeah, I remember, yes, when we would--before the train, they checked the coat and everything. We dropped everything and my father, should rest in peace. One Hungarian, Gendarme, he had a big stick and my father was a sick man. He couldn't, not be so fast, you know, from taking out everything to pack it. He took that stick, he, he gave a big hit with the stick over the head and blood was coming. My father said the Hungarian for whom I was bleeding, they are hurting me. As we emptied everything and I had, in the clothing, I had to shake out and right away in the, on the train.
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