Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Rose Green - May 21, 2008

And what did you hope to do next?

I didn't know what to do. You couldn't telephone, you couldn't--there wasn't no, no such a thing. You couldn't travel because all the roads were bombed, ruined everything, you know. Go, go with a small baby. They told--he told them in this letter they should help me--anybody wherever I go they should help me. Who's going to help me? People didn't have what to eat. People didn't have any uh, car. If they had a car they didn't have gasoline. You know, gasoline was--the cars were hanging--my husband's car was hanging--car in garage. When he came home it was hanging there. The, the chickens went on it. So, so that's how it was. So who's going to--so I thought to myself, I'll stay until I'm strong enough to walk if I need to, you know. And uh, we'll see what's going to happen. But my sister--this one here, who lived--who used to, used to live here--this one here, this Ella. This one. She, she lived here in Detroit. She just died four years ago and uh, her sons live here, her sons live here. So she was the one who could sew and they made those pajamas and children's clothes and cleaned up the children. There was a nurse between them too, between those girls and they took care of it. They did a lot of good stuff.

And she found you.

She found me the first place she stopped over. She knew that I was in ??? because I was with my sister-in-law in the other camp before they took me in--oh, it's so involved, you know. And uh, so she know--she knew that uh, I, I am in Zittau. And uh, so she went to Prague and in Prague there was a minister of health and whatever, I do not remember what it was. He was a good friend of ours, you know. The families--we knew each other from, from way back. And that minister--I knew him very well, I used to dance and you know he was a nice young man and he was, you know, socialize together. And she went to him--she didn't know that that was him, she just went there and she said that she needs help. Her sister is in the camp and she knows where I am and she would like to go. And so right away he arranged for a car and a chauffeur, and a social worker--a lady went with her. They went to look for me.

Hmm.

You know what that meant? Do you know that you couldn't get gasoline for diamonds for anything, and she went and bought some children's things. And she didn't know if I'm still alive or not, you know. If you know, she will look for me. So she came to the border and she came to ??? and she went into a hospital and she said she's going to, she's going to, she's going to ask...

[interruption in interview]