Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Alexander Karp - June 22, 1983

Can you describe your first encounter with the American soldiers?

Well, as we came we didn't speak anything--we didn't speak any English. And uh, the one--whoever found us, you know, was, was very nice now. We didn't know what he was saying or what he was communicating and uh, he gave us food now. We had to be very careful because we were so exhausted and we were so weak that even after being freed now--after being under American occupation people started to eat suddenly, you know, many of them have expired just from that, you know. And uh, I'll tell you, it, it was something that it's hard even to describe what it was--can't say because many times you say a dream may come true, but this really you never thought of--that ever will happen or ever would happen. So really can say that you were reborn that day.

Do you know the name of the little town where you were liberated?

Yes.

What is that?

Mittenwald.

And how long did you stay there with the American Army?

Um, we stayed there about uh, a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks we stayed there. From there we went to Munich.

What made you decide to go to Munich?

Uh, that was the la...that was the big city of the time and uh, we didn't know where we were gonna go. Waited two weeks, I think, after being uh, liberated--waited two to three weeks, and that's the time when we got into Munich--that, that was the concent...the area where people could concentrate and go.