Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Pauline Kleinberg - October 28, 1982

Start of War II

When your, when your family heard about the war, how did they react to it? What, what...

They reacted it couldn't po...the Germans had--they probably were poor politicians, because--or maybe they were too good of a people--they said, "The Germans couldn't possibly be all that bad." But we also--they had also some idea since Hitler had came, uh, got into power, there were so many uh, um...

Husband: German Jews.

...German Jews coming into--to our cities before the war you know because, Hitler took over in '36.

Husband: Thirty-four.

Thirty-four? I don't remember. I was too young for this. But I remember...

Husband: Thirty-seven they start coming to Poland already.

...so uh, I remember, people were coming--they were telling stories that they didn't--they were not allowed to take anything, just run. It sounded like people here probably ??? when I'm telling you uh, uh, the ??? I was in this camp and that camp, I lost my mother, I lost my father. Oh, what a sad story, and that's probably it, you know, that's, that's--or, when I look back to Jewish history and I read, you know, Jews had a, you know, sad history all along, and this is probably another page to it. But this not a page. This is a whole new story. This is pages--stacks of books. This will never be told all, because every day you could write a book from every individual, from every individual survivor. Like she said, she read this book, she said, "It was all strange to me," you see?


© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn