Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Rose Green - May 21, 2008

Childhood

What do you remember most about your childhood when you were growing up in Michalovce? Anything stand out in your mind?

No, not really. At school the teachers were decent, were very good to us. I don't know, maybe, maybe because we lived in a small town, my parents were very respected.

And you had a house.

We, we...

Your own house.

We did--actually we didn't have our own house because uh, my uh, my father wanted to have his office at a certain place, you know, at the good place, and we could have had a house out in the suburbs somewhere, you know, in the outs. And he wanted to be there when we were eating, when we were doing, so he wanted to be close to the house. So we always tried to have a house, a big one, so the office was with the house together, or at least very close-walking distance. So we always had a house or apartment uh, close to the office. That, that was always a priority for my parents, that father would be there always with the children. We ate together breakfast, we ate together lunch, and we ate together dinner.

Tell me something about--did your father ever tell you stories about Franz Joseph, the Hapsburg Empire before the First...

[interruption in interview]

Uh, he talked about all kinds of stuff. We, we talked about all kinds of stuff. So, he might've done but we learned about those things uh, in school it was close because it was very uh, very recent history, you know. So we learned about it.

And you said you were married, what in 1940? Is that...

Nine...1940 on uh, uh, New Year's Eve was my civil ceremony, and the 1941 was my real wedding.

How did you meet your husband?

I met him through friends, through relatives.

And, and he lived in Michalovce.

Yeah, he was born there. My grandfather lived in Michalovce. I knew some of his uh, relatives--my husband's relatives. So, the family knew each other. I didn't know him. I know one of his sister's but I didn't know him. He was much older; he was twelve years older than me.

Your husband, he was twelve years older?

Mm-hm.

And what did he do?

He was in the meat business, in the cattle dealing business. He was uh, delivered--he supplied the army with uh, meat for many, many years. He was, he was in good business, very good.


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