Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Charlotte Firestone - March 11, 1982

To Prague you came?

Yeah. When I came home, there was a German girl, a German woman. She has three children. She had three, all from different men, different soldier. Those kids were so dirty. I don't know how they call that sickness, you know, they had it from the dirt. Head full of sores, all over. One was here, the other one was there The woman had a mirror and a lipstick, to make herself beautiful. When I saw that, I couldn't believe it. I took a child who was so well taken care of, who was so clean, who was so beautiful and here that bus Führer he kept me there and when we arrived to the border, German, German and Czech border they were serving coffee and rolls. The Czech were really so nice and there were three women came up and they took those children and they took them to authority. They give to the woman money. They adopted the children for money and, uh. [pause] She sold her three children for money. And then we arrived--yeah, it was already close to Prague. I saw a woman from the same town that I come from and I, I said to that bus Führer, "I think I saw a woman from the same town." He stopped the bus and he came get me, she went into the post office. And I ask her, tell me, she was so happy to see me. I says, "Tell me everything." "Somebody arrived from my town. Did you see somebody?" She said, "you remember, ????" that means a solider, "he is here in Prague." Then we went back to the bus.

Was your sister with you?

No, she was on the bus. He wouldn't do it for nobody. Just a ???? so he took me down and He was a Czech. He took me down he took us to a place and he said--to a hotel actually and we got blankets there. We were sleeping on the floor and he said to me, "Listen, there is a place it's called Inka, it's like a restaurant. All the people, all those refugees moved there. I'm gonna come tomorrow morning and I'll take you there." I was not going. That night, that night, my sister went, I think to Inka. And uh, they told her my husband was alive and he was ??? She should come tomorrow. They asked me to come. I didn't want to go. I couldn't go and then the next morning, around five o'clock or six o'clock, I got up and we were sleeping just on the floor, floor on, on blankets, it was summer and we, uh.... And I was standing outside in front of that, of that hotel and all of a sudden I saw a boy in uniform. I use to go with him and he saw me and he hugged me and kissed me. "Chari, it's so good you are alive. You're alive. Your husband is here, we are in the same regiment. I'm gonna tell him that you are here." It didn't take ten minutes. Now he was my neighbor, here he was a cab driver in Detroit afterward. He picked me up and hugged me. "Charlotte, you are alive, you are alive, you are alive. Who else is alive?" I says, "only my sister." She was upstairs sleeping. He said, "Shlomo will see you're alive." He is a rich man, he has a beautiful home, he has a nice store." And I said, "What about my mother and my child?" "I don't know about them." We were walking around and the bus Führer then that bus transport Führer came with my sister. It was around eight and as we were walking my girlfriend's brother, older brother. He was also a soldier. He came to me and he says, "Charlotte, you're alive, you're alive. Shlomo is here, he's alive. He's a rich man already, you're gonna have everything. Who else is alive?" I said, "my sister." "Who else is alive for me, who did you see?" "Your brother is alive too, your husband told me he's alive. They are in the same regiment. You know what, I'm gonna be here in the afternoon, I have to go away for business. Then, I'm gonna be here in the afternoon. They're gonna play soccer. I have a ticket. Shlomo has a ticket, you're gonna sit next to each other. You're gonna come with me." Maybe I go there--I met there a couple people. In the afternoon he came, Bagger was his name. I met him in Israel. He came and he said, "Here is my ticket, I have business to attend. Go there, it was a soccer game.