Erna Blitzer Gorman - April 26, 1984
Ghetto
Was there a ghetto?
Well, I don't know um, I don't know if it was a ghetto or not. My sister said that it was near Ch... it might have been a ghetto, it was near Cho... a camp or something with ??? which I'm not, I don't even know where that is, but um...
Did you wonder why they were doing this?
I don't remember that.
Nothing to do with whether you were Jewish or not.
Oh, I, I... All I remember of myself was that I knew everything that was happening. I knew that I was, was not supposed to say anything or cry or, or be loud or... I just knew that I should sit in that corner and be quiet. Um, I just knew. I always knew everything. I didn't... I, I never cried. I never cried as a child.
Did anybody in your family ever sit, talk with you about it?
Not that I remember. No. I don't, I don't even see my parents doing something like this. I mean, I now as a modern person, you know, would explain every little bit to a child, but I don't see my parents to be that kind of people. Maybe others were, but not my parents. Not that I can recall. They might have.
Now in the series of pogroms um, each one you went to the same place.
No, because I see different places.
So, you didn't always stay in that one...
No, I only remember two in that place that I remember. Then there were... I, I remember, what I think of four different periods, you know. My sister says there were more, but I don't remember. I just remember these four different periods. Maybe they were the most traumatic to me, I don't know.
Where... Do you remember where you were on the others?
No, different houses.
Different...
Different rooms, different houses, yes, they were different, different, yeah.
What uh, what kinds of uh, food were you eating?
I don't know.
Did people go to work still, do you think?
No, my sister tells me that we all ca... were, were wearing a star, which I don't, have no recollection of the... I just found out this, this last, well, on my, my last trip to France, which um, was just recent. I, I, she met... See in our ho... Since the war, we never, never talked about this. Neither my sister, neither my father, neither I. We just never talked about it. It was something that was to be forgotten. And I, I didn't even want to know my past. I just... So, any of this... My father died since. Any of this, really, I feel it's, it's a bit too late. I should have done it years ago. I would have more answers for all these questions that come up now to me.
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