Anna Greenberger - August 24, 1982
Finding Work in Paraguay
So she found for me a job--the SS German woman to sew. I was glad. I, I had something. I went there to sew. She didn't--she was a seamstress but she, she was a woman who went with men, but she covered herself because that wasn't allowed that she sewed. So she left me to sew the whole day, whatever I did--whatever she left me. But I made so little money that we couldn't pay one room. So we were in hotel maybe three days and that lady said, "You can't remain here in the hotel. It's not good for you because you don't have money and hotel costs money. Maybe you can find something." So what can you find? Rosh Hashanah we didn't have what to eat. We went to shul. My mother was crying. And uh, we were standing there and I wanted her to sit down, you know, she was so unhappy. She said, "What did you do to me? Why did you do it to me?" And a woman comes and she says, "You want to sit down? In concentration camp was better for you?" Imagine. In Paraguay. Wealthy, wealthy people. So we were standing there and crying. But God always sends somebody. There was a man from Czechoslovakia. The same lady went there for money, but he was making black market, so he wasn't so poor already. And he was very happy that he met, met us in shul and we had some stuff on the boat, you know, we had to think about. We didn't know where to go, what to do. We didn't speak Spanish. He said he will help us everything, we shouldn't worry. He take out the back--the whatever--not suitcases. We had big wooden things. Like a ??? they call ??? in Israel. And there was in hotel a old maid-- a girl who made black market. He bought--she bought from people who came from overseas, you know. And she bought everything to sell. She, she lived from it. So we had a coffee maker, stuff. You know, in Paraguay it's a horrible and very primitive country. So she said she will find for us a room. So she went to a--it's a long story. Uh, everybody tells me I should uh, read a book uh, write a book.
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