Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Esther Feldman Icikson - October 23 & 29, November 5 & 12, 2001

Ulm

Einstein was born in Ulm.

Okay. Now we are in Ulm in a DP camp and it's called Boelke-Kaserne. Now I'm already bigger and I remember because we were there for two years. We were there from '47 and '48. We got there in the beginning of '47, yeah, it had to be right in the beginning of '47 because we were there for two years. Or maybe even, uh, we were nine months in Chelm. We got there in '45. So we had to leave '46. We left to Chelm '46 towards the end. So we got there in '47. Took a few--a mo...a couple of months to travel.

To Ulm, you had...

Ulm.

Yeah.

And we were in a DP camp.

What was life like in a DP camp?

It was already a little more humane. Uh, we, we stayed in a Boelke-Kaserne which was a army base and everybody--we had a big room. Uh, there were twenty, I think twenty-three people in my room.

Hm...

Um, there were two young couples. My sister and another couple, they were married. So with you know, in Europe closet are not built in, there are separate closet. So with closets they kinda closed off, like, little area for the two young couples so they have a little privacy. And the rest of us we just slept in beds. I slept with Gula, my little friend, the lady that hooked up with us in Chelm. She was about four eleven. She was a seamstress, very sweet lady. Uh, she was always with us, and.

Did you ever crave privacy?

Uh, yes, but you don't have it, so. And in Ulm, there was a shower. What a treat!


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