Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Erna Blitzer Gorman - April 26, 1984

And, and the soldiers were already nicer, you know, um... They, they were always wonderful too, especially all I can... I don't know how they were to, to the rest of the family, but they were just, they were fabulous there. They tended to my hands even though, you know, when, when they pull off your bandages the skin sticks to your, you know, and the pain um, okay. That was then. They were, they were, they were feeding us and they were taking us behind the sun. We were walk... going up by them. Yeah. And, and these two already make camps where, you know, they used to light fires and they used to sing and dance around the fires, I remember that. And they, they, I remember they used to try and make me sing and dance with them. I... They, they were just... I, I, I was a very quiet, unhappy person or child whatever you want to call it. But they, they always, there was always this one man that was really nice. He was still... You want to know that too?

Yeah, tell me about him.

He used to put me on his lap and hold me and blow on my hand and hum with me. He was nice, he was kind.

Did he speak to you? He spoke only Russian, or?

You know, I, I've ac... Yeah, I spoke Russian fluently but then later on I, but I... See all of this must have taken a good number of years because the time I le... The war finished, I spoke Ukrainian, I spoke Russian and Polish fluently. So, I don't... so I'm just remembering particular times but there was a span in between which I have no recollection at all. How I... You see, how did I learn? I don't know. It wasn't important. I... They talked to me or whatever. I... It just came. It, it was not priority, again, you just... But they were kind to me. They used to try and make me dance and sing and, uh... See I don't see my parents in that little sequence. It's just all... I'm talking is about myself.

How old was this man?

I don't know.

He was a grandfather figure or like a father?

Well, I... He, he looked like a man like my father. I don't know uh, I can't um, I can't... Isn't it terrible that I... He was, he was just every time, he would do that, he did that a lot. I u... I used to sit in a corner all the time and um, he used to take me very nice, very kind. Okay, to pass this over. Uh, I should follow it a sequence right? Then... Okay.