Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

And it was at that time that I was interviewed for, for this—for that program and also when they, they—the Woman's Hour decided to do a, sort of, a feature on it as well. I was interviewed by the Welsh BBC and they said, when I sort of got—when I uh, answered their questions as I've been an...answering you, they uh, they asked me—they said to me, "Vera what did you do the day war broke uh, the war—there was the end of the war. What did you do? Did you celebrate?" And I said, "Oh yes, we celebrated," and I said, "but you know, I can't exactly remember, but because this is such a special occasion, you being here, I'll tell you exactly." And I went upstairs and I opened the box, which held my diaries, which I hadn't opened for forty years. And I took it down, I found the relevant date and I translated it exactly, and they were sitting there and tears were streaming down their face, and said, "Vera, we studied the Holocaust but this is something completely different—from you we've learned the feel of it. You've got to have those diaries translated, you know, you've got to. It's a—it's—it, it—you, you promise? Promise you would." And I said, "No I won't promise." They looked at me shocked. I said, "I am a literary translator, you know." So they said, "What you waiting for?" And I said—but I explained it would be very hard for me to go back for them and really—because, because of what happened with my parents. But you know, it was very ther...therapeutic once I started writing. I used to write through the night in my study overlooking open fields, the moon above, and I felt absolutely close to them, and that's how I wrote the book.

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