Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Martin Koby - April 20, 1999

Pretty strong.

I mean, this what didn't happen in one year. This took several years before we chewed it all out. So you can--you know, you don't want to dwell on an unpleasant situation. He's accusing my father and my mother of being mistreated, because if they were not authoritative, he would be still there. How would he get out?

So did you resolve this?

To some extent.

Do you correspond with him?

No, he don't--doesn't write. They don't write. Israelis don't write. They love the telephone.

Oh, they call you?

God forbid!

Oh, okay.

Pinhaus um, every once in a while. You see, his first wife died, okay.

Uh-huh.

Now he's living with a woman. They both agreed they're going to live together as husband and wife, it's fine. ??? I have no criticism of that. When we were there, they sounding it out--sounding us out you know, that uh, all the other relatives in Israel, the--her relatives and his relatives and his brother and sister-in-laws and all, resented his living with her and not married. Oh, we're here, he ??? he was already accepted.

Sure.

So you know something, I said, "Pinhaus, you're old enough, you're understanding enough, you have your own kids, you are boss on your own. Whatever you do is fine with me, as long as you don't get into trouble."

Hm.

"You see, uh, the only trouble I get is with this woman." "So that's okay."

Hm.

"They don't like it, it's too bad. What do you want?"

So you've been back since.

Oh, yeah, we're on good terms.

Good.

But we straightened it out--I think we did. Last time you know, it was last year, at this time, I was in Israel. Yitzhak wife jumped on him, huh? She says uh, "How could you--how could your parents you know, neglect small kids like that?" Said, "What are you talking about?" I said, "Do you know what it--what are you saying? Do you understand under what situation we lived? We didn't know where they were. They did--we couldn't go outside and look for them. You dead. If you go and look for--who are you going to ask, where does a Jewish boy live, right? Where--how do you go and ask somebody where..." "Well, your parents could have done it." "Same thing, you cannot go. You..."

Certainly they must have known that.

Who?

Yitzhak and Pinhaus.

Nah, Yitzhak is my b...is my brother's age.

Yeah.

So if he was born sometimes in '32, '33, '34, at that age, in '41, how old was he, six years old?

Uh-huh.

Or s...seven years old.