Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Ilya Martha Kessler - November 1, 1982

So then, they... The Russian came and just they... We went home. And then we went home, we realized nobody home. And, and time went on, nobody, nobody home. So, my father had a brother, two brothers was in our city and this was July already. So, he came and I went to ??? you know, ??? And uh, that was um, that's I think the ??? gave him money for the younger, from America. And they give some dresses, something to wear. So, we was there two years. Two years and...

This was where?

In Czechoslovakia.

In Czechoslovakia. In a, in a displaced persons camp or were you in with your bro... with your uncle.

No, no. That's was just ??? this was like a city, that's a city. The name is Kassa.

Kassa?

Kassa, yeah. K--A--S--S--A.

Okay.

And uh, we, we were there. So, they give something to eat and until eighteen year, like orphan, the three of us orphan. And they told us, the best thing to go to Israel. And I, I said, "I don't want to be Jewish. I don't want to. I, I never want to be Jewish." Just they... So much, so many speeches they give. So much. And they said we going to build Israel and we're going to have a home and uh, and nobody going to kill us anymore. And so I said, "Okay, I go." So, they took us. I was in, in France a half, a half a year. Then they took us to uh, Cyprus. I was there seven months too in Cyprus. And from there, in 1947 they, uh... Because the English gave a hun... a thousand five hundred uh, certificate to go to Israel. So then, came my line and we went. So, I went to a ??? hospital because I was not quite seventeen year old.

Okay.