Hannah Fisk - January 24, 1983
Thoughts on the Holocaust
...you know, big one, when she passed away, oh, ten children made ??? from it, you know, with the chain. And uh, my father, I remember, had a gold watch, I don't know what's happened to that. You know. 'Cause everybody in Europe had gold. And uh, I do not know 'til this day what's happened because I never seen him dying or anything but we knew we were sitting shiva. That's something I feel good about, too, even if they don't have no grave, you know. They poured the graves around and planted potatoes on. Do you believe it, to eat potatoes from a dead person? Well the soap, the soap is good because it's all fat from human bodies. You know. But uh, one thing I can't understand--I was living in Germany before the war. I was speaking German, too. They supposed to be the most cultural, the most knowledgeable, the most finest people. Now what's happened that they could turn around like that, that one--like you say, one painter--he was a painter, Hitler--could do this to a folk? To a German? You know, a big nation like this, it's unbelievable. Because they are really the finest people, the cleanest people. I know, I been living with them. Some day I really think about it, you know? I says, "How can..." but when I was--just like when I came to the village in 1945, I used to have many discussions with them because I was living there. And I says, "I don't believe it that you folks let yourself in like this. You could see what's happened." And that was not the war. Usually, you have a war. You go against the people what fight with you, right? But this was not a war, this was just to get rid of human beings. That's all. Because he figure, first he gets the Jews, then he gets the Gentiles. Even the Polacks, you know how many people, German people were in the concentration camp with my husband in Auschwitz? Who don't believe in Hitler? Quite a few. And, and they were there from 1940, mind you, because they didn't want to go to his regime, to his preaching, you know. So I used to talk to them and I used to tell them, I used to say, "How can you people be so--why didn't you open your eyes and see--you could see what's happen." Well, I understand that there was uh, the situation was bad. You know, they were really in down. They didn't have what to eat. You know? And when you low down and you don't have what to eat, then you're a ??? one or the other.
Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
It's the truth. It's the truth. The stas...the statistics says this, too. We could never dream something like this could happen. Children? All right, mind you, big people, they going to be mixed up in politics and stuff like that. But children?
Yep.
A million and million of children together? I mean, it's unbelievable. You ever come to the, to our uh, what we have at the memorial cen...the center, I mean uh, every April we have a Yizkor.
Yeah, sure.
Have you ever attended?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I've been there. I stayed by the door. Probably seen me.
Probably.
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