Helen Jutkevicz - November 10, 1982
Thoughts of Returning Home
Did either you or your sister have any thoughts of returning to Łódź?
To where?
Back to your home.
From the first time I don't want to look on this. I want to go back once, I want to go back.
Now you want to.
Now I want to go, you know why? To go on the cemetery to my father and brother. Just this, nothing more. Like, I was this year--we was in Israel--we make a trip to Israel and from Israel I went to Germany to be just one day to be with my brother's grave and this and that. I went...
What made you decide to come to Detroit?
I don't know. I know here is a better life for us than Europe, than in Paris, Paris or ??? Paris, Paris, Paris, Paris. Yeah, Paris is nice to just visit, but not to live. Is a very hard life in Paris.
Did you become a citizen?
Yes.
Where did you become a citizen? Here in Detroit?
Yeah.
When you first arrived in the United States, did you encounter any problems? You said you had some family here already.
Yeah, my sister.
Were there any problems when you first arrived?
Nothing, no, nothing--not from Paris and the embassy not.
Did you encounter anti-Semitism when you come here?
No. I not see this in Paris and nowadays more in Paris. I not when I was living in Paris, I not see anti-Semitism in Paris--no good.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn