Hannah Fisk - January 24, 1983
Applying to Move to the United States
How did you decide to come to the United States? What made you decide to leave Germany?
Well, I uh, went to the Europe. My brother, Israel. Remember, I didn't--because when they left--I was born, in 1924. My auntie--my--the family--my mother's family, went to Brooklyn--no, no, Bronx, New York. And he knew the name, Schwartz. So, what happened, that I went over to the Europe and I put down uh, um, ???. That we are looking for family, and that we are so and so--their names, you know, my mother was this and this and this name. And uh, what about four or six week, we got back a letter that we should tell them exactly our names and our ages and where we are born and what was our mother's name and our father's name. And sure enough, they took my two brothers. They send him an affidavit and he went to New York. I remain in this village was my husband and my son. Well, they weren't too rich or too uh, that they could take all of us, so, this one here was a carpenter and he wanted to go to Israel. He says, "I don't want anymore. No more hear the word Jew. I want to go to Israel." He goes, "Whatever will be will be." And I figure myself like that, if I go to Israel, I never see my brothers--probably once in two, five years later--ten years. So, at night, I took the blue--we had a green car. And I took a bicycle and I went to Landsberg. And then I took a bus and I went to Munich. I came into Munich and I start crying. And I told them the story, "I would like to go to America 'cause I--all I have found after the war--we were ten children and I found two brothers. And I don't care where I go as long as you send me to America." And I didn't say a word to him because he didn't want to go. About maybe a month, six weeks later, they calling me to the ??? Landsberg. He says, "What the hell I have to do with him? I'm not going." I says, "Benny, you have to go, they call us." So we went to Landsberg. Sure enough, I have an affidavit to Oklahoma City. I says, "How far is Oklahoma from New York?" He says, "It's very far." I says, "But it's America, isn't it?" He says, "Oh yes, it's America. You're, you're closer to Texas and California. It's nice there, no winter." I says, "I don't care, send me wherever you want." So, Jake went February, Israel went March, and I went November. Not with my family, but the German brought me to ???.
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