Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Ilya Martha Kessler - November 1, 1982

And uh, when you went to Israel uh, where did you go once you got there? You went there in 1947?

In Israel, I went... Still I wasn't just sixteen years still ??? so I operated. I was in ??? And then I didn't want to stay. ??? So, I ???

And how long did you stay there?

Mm, in, in Tel Aviv?

Yes.

Until I married.

You met your husband in, in Tel Aviv, in Israel?

In Israel.

Was he from Israel originally or is he...

No, it's something that sometime, I was married before this man.

I see, okay.

Yeah. So, we are not talking about this.

I see, all right.

Because uh, I knew a boy from the same orphanage and I... So we used to be friends, so we went to Israel. We didn't have nobody... I didn't have nobody. In 1950, I met. I married I have '52 ??? and uh, I have a son. And uh, he wasn't, he didn't... He liked to play cards. And he wasn't, he wasn't for a father, he was too young, I was too young, and uh, we signed a divorce. And I divorced uh, '56... '55 we separated, '56. And then I knew my... this husband then.

[interruption in interview]

So, in '56...

I married the second husband.

Okay, you were still in Israel.

Yeah, in Israel, sure.

Okay.

And my husband, he came to America in '57 to, we wanted to start a new life. Nobody knew us and, and we three of us. And uh, my husband came to his sister--he has two--and he came here '56, '56. Fifty--seven, I came, yes, because we couldn't come together. We came like a preference quota. He had two sisters and we came to a husband and a...

I see. I see. Uh, was he from Israel originally? Or did he come from...

No, no, no. He came from a place where I came, not far, fifty kilometer.

I see, I see.

Like Michigan he came... I came from Detroit and he came from Lansing.

I see, okay, okay. But you didn't know him before.

No, there I... No.

Okay. What uh, what type of work... Did you and your, your first husband both work when you were in Israel?

Yeah, yeah. I worked in labor. I worked at... They needed ??? stocking and uh, all kind of ??? things.