Joseph Gringlas - January 14 & 22, March 18, 1993
Brother's Marriage
He was married in the kibbutz?
Yeah, he married in Landsberg in the kibbutz. They made a wedding for him.
Somebody he met there?
Yeah, they met in kibbutz, in Warsaw and they went to Landsberg. After that they went back to Germany, so they got--they were married in the kibbutz. And then when uh, where as I told you that we were ready to be--go to Italy and to go to the, the Aliya Bet. So they put me on the first on the list and the uh, the and then I said, "No, I'm not going to go alone, I want my brother and sister will be with me. So the other group from the kibbutz scream, "Okay, Joe fine!" I like--I can go, but I did some work, yeah, I'm a Halutz. But not my brother because he wasn't, he wasn't doing sort eh, you know, he was in kibbutz, but he wasn't Halutz and he shouldn't go. They want to go, they put on the list instead of. So I said, "If my brother's not going, I'm not going either." That's the way I stayed on. And I was eh, I was sick a very--a few weeks in Germany, very sick. And the kibbutz got away from Ger...Landsberg and they went, no? And my brother got out of kibbutz and then he emigrated to the United State.
And now.
So I was--still wanted to go to Israel.
But you were still in Germany.
In Germany.
You were--how were you sick?
I was very sick. I was sick from the bor...bor...where the border is the sickness came back to me.
It wasn't typhus again?
It was worse than that.
Oh, okay.
I got--felt better after awhile. I eh, went eh, in that, to--what, I was still young, I was eighteen years old there. And what are you going to do with? There was something they show--they were, you can eh, for uh, rehabilitation eh, you can learn a profession. So there's letter or radio. I went to radio electronics. And my brother was a tailor working at eh, Landsberg uh, just for himself and then he went--they tell him, told them that he needed, there's a--the Americans were taking people into United States. So he emigrated to United State 1950. And I was still staying in Germany, going to that school at, that school, that radio school. And eh, I wanted still go to Israel, but then I said if I go to Israel and he was going to America, who knows if we're going to see each other. So after awhile I felt better and, and we went to school and learned the radio. I came--I was--I went to United States.
Did you and your brother discuss going to Israel or to the United States?
From United States?
Did you talk to him before he, he made the decision to come?
No, he made the decision to come he knew that going to Israel at that time, it was, it was, country just starting and fighting with every. If I were to be maybe sent with group I would have been maybe on the front fighting there. So that's actually. But uh, maybe I was lucky not to go. Who knows. So my brother. He told my sister...in...law, my brother, he said see it's not eh, we're not--we would have gone with you if the other group wouldn't say anything, you would have been, who knows. He said, who knows if you would have been living or what. Because mostly the groups went right away to...
To fight.
...to fighting.
Can we stop here for a second...
[interruption in interview]
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