Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Anna Greenberger - August 24, 1982

That was the end of the war.

That end of the war. We were liberated and my mother wasn't even--yeah, so that was still in ??? we were liberated. And uh, that was English army and they give us eat, but people were so fighting with each other that nobody could get into the meal and, and uh, they were standing with guns. They never saw something like it, you know, people were killing each other for food. And I had already--I was very sick. I had typhoid. But my mother wanted so much a candy or something, so I went down the street. I could hardly walk and I stopped a English soldier. And uh, you know, some girls had affairs so they got everything. But I didn't want to have affair. He wanted to give me everything but uh, I said, "Thank you, no." So I went back and I told my mother that uh, they wouldn't give. And they were very polite, the English army. They didn't rape, they didn't touch nobody. But they wanted women and some girls had everything, everything. Jewelry and ???. So my mother went to the sanatorium and uh, I--we went to that ??? and there I was already very sick. I couldn't walk around and I was just uh, vomiting. And uh, and my sister who is in Toronto, and she caught a doctor someplace on the street who was uh, running away from the Russians because the Russians were coming, and she told him that uh, she has a very sick sister. So she--he came and he told me that I die--that 'til morning that he can't do nothing for me. He said, "You will die and there's nothing I can do for you. You have typhoid and it's no medi...medicine for it." Before that I got from English soldiers maybe aspirin or something, I don't know what. I was screaming from pain because I have intestinal typhoid. And uh, a German woman she felt sorry for me. They were probably some who, who, who didn't--they didn't know. Uh, so I didn't finish what happened with the soap. So even after liberation they were throwing stones and they were yelling "Jew" and all kind of thing. But I took the soap and I went to peddle. And I went from farm to farm. I wasn't afraid because I was blonde. My hair was growing back very nice blonde, wavy hair. And I went from house to house on farmhouses and they still said "Heil Hitler." And uh, they thought that I am evacuee from someplace and I sold the soap because they couldn't buy in store. Uh, I got everything from her soap uh, salami and bread and butter and lard and everything. So uh, I sold that and uh, I brought home for my sisters.