Benjamin Fisk - November 8, 1982
Finding Survivors
...I don't like to talk too much, you know?
Um, how did you find out what members of your family were left alive after the war?
Well, I tell you, I didn't know that my brother was alive. When we came from Poland, she found out that, that her brother living in--first she found one brother was living in Gliwice...
Wife: Gleiwitz.
In Sosnowiec when I met her already she found, you know, there was a fellow came--he said, "You have a brother that lives in Gleiwitz," and so we went to look for him. He was in ?ód? already, you know. He went away with a--he had a, he had a bakery over there. Then, in meantime, we went back to the part of Poland took from Germany ??? and we got married over there--her brother wasn't even there. He wasn't there when we got married.
Wife: No, he wasn't.
And then we found out that--we went to the American zone, they wanted to draft me in Polish army. I said, you know, "No way. I was in concentration camp, I don't want to go in Polish army." ??? when they gave me the hat--I never want to wear a Polish uniform anyway. They gave me the hat, I didn't--I sold my suit. They gave me the suit--I didn't have a hat anymore. So, we left--we went to the American zone, you know, and then I came into a brother, you know, and they said ??? he said, "We play cards together. You have a brother his name is Robert ???." I said, "Yeah sure." You know he showed me pictures of my brother, you know.
Now, is this the brother who lived near Merin?
Hmm?
This is the brother who lived near Merin?
No, he's in Israel.
No, I mean before though--before the war.
Yes, I worked for him, you know, I worked with him together. I learned to be a carpenter from him, you know. He's alive. I went with this guy to concentration camp, you know.
Okay. Now, when did you--you went from Sosnowiec to the American zone? And then what did you...
No, we went from ???
???, I'm sorry.
??? to the American zone.
To the American zone.
From the American zone we lived in to Stoffen, a little village by Landsberg, you know. One Jewish family. ??? It was how much later when we came to America?
Wife: Three.
Three? Really?
What made you decide to come to America?
Well, I don't know. Her brother went to America, you know. My brother went to Israel. I had already--I give already ??? or something to go to Israel, you know. She said, "We going to Israel one day." She picked up--she went to Munich you know, and she, she registered to go to America and, uh...
Wife: He didn't even know...
I didn't even know about it, you know. So I said, "If we go to America and we don't like it we can always go back, you know, go back to Israel," so when we came here and then we got stuck--not stuck but, you know. We went to visit my brother in Israel. We went to visit a couple times my sister--she comes here. My brother never come he don't like to fly.
Okay. So from your whole family, who was left after the war? Tell me once more who was left after the war?
My sister and, you know, friends and my brother in Israel. That's all. Three of us, there were seven of us, you know, not counting the grandchildren. I was an uncle when I was nine years old already, you know. I was babysitting when I was nine-and-a-half, ten years old, my sister's boy. And the other sister had a girl and my brother had two children, you know. [interruption in interview]
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