Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Simon Goldman - June 6, 2003

Searching for sister

Bergen-Belsen. To find your sister you mean?

...to find my sister. The, the name. At least I was going to follow. What did I just say there?

Bergen-Belsen?

Bergen-Belsen. No, no, no. Bergen-Belsen, yeah. And uh, so I went to, that was close to border because uh, on the train, taking the train from Linz to uh, Salzburg isn't too far. But he said if you take the train here the Americans are real strict. They're taking everybody off the train going from this part into Salzburg because you gotta cross the border, the Russian border and, or whatever. And they said they're taking everybody without, without papers, they're taking off. So I decided to stay. That's where I met the lady and uh, she put me up for a little bit and fed me. Okay. And then after that, I ate breakfast and I walked out into the street. As I walking down the street, here comes my cousin with three other friends. So it, it was, it's, it's coincidence, but it's, you know, but it's ???. I just walked out, there she is walking. And with her being there then I felt more at ease and more at home already.

And what about your sister, did you pursue that at all?

No I haven't pursued any further because there was no way for me to, to go there to Germany. But like I said, I uh, checked the names at the Holocaust Museum and I couldn't cross-check with any relatives, nobody.

But she was listed as being in Bergen-Belsen.

Well it, it was listed as, the, the name was Ari Goldman. You know, Goldman is not a, it's a popular name, but. There was no "h" on it, nothing on it. I mean, not that I would go by the "h." But I couldn't, somehow I couldn't get there. And, uh...

And you never heard from her.

No, never heard from anybody. Well, she didn't know, if she was alive, I don't know. But I had a feeling that probably she didn't survive either because she had a, she had a, she had a baby, so that's part of it. But I never pursued that.


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