Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Rose Green - May 21, 2008

So tell me about your courtship and your marriage to your husband.

My courtship was so short, you wouldn't believe it. We knew each other for a very short time and we hit it off so fast, like lightning. He was a wonderful man, my husband. Smart, handsome, very sophisticated. Well read and everything. It just, just was a wonderful marriage, wonderful, wonderful marriage. I was very lucky that I found him when I came home--was very, very lucky. And then we had another son. We had two boys and uh, my younger son lives in Los Angeles. He comes home often.

What was your husband's name?

Alexander. Alexander ???, yeah.

???. And your two sons? Ivan and...

And Peter.

Peter.

Peter, yeah.

So, they have Russian names.

Well uh, the first soldier who came into the camp, his name was Ivan. You know, I--the girls--there were a few girls from the camp--we were together in that hospital and they asked me, "When your baby will be born? What will I--going to name your baby?" I says, "I don't know." I didn't know if it's going to be a girl or a boy and I says, "I don't know." Then I said, "Well, if it's going to be a girl, it's going to be Kathy, Katyusha." They had a--now what do you call it, like you shoot with. You know, the Katyusha? They had a gun, the Katyusha.

Yeah.

Do you remember those?

Vaguely.

Vaguely. But I remember it, because I was with the Russians. They, they, they saved me, the Russians. And it's going to be a Kathy, Katyusha--a Russian name, Katyusha. And if it's going to be a boy--so whoever comes first in the camp--the first man to come to the camp I'll ask him what's his name, and uh, so the first boy who came to the camp, a Russian soldier, he came in and I asked him, "What's your name?" I asked in Russian, in Russian, I said ???. And he told me, "My name is Ivan." So, his name was Ivan.

That's very nice, very charming. So you, you were married. And before you were married, you were still in Czechoslovakia...

Yes.

...when the Kristallnacht took place?

Yes.