Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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George Korper - March 26, 2007

How did they tell you were going?

They just told me and I was delighted.

You were delighted?

Delighted. Another thing, of course, which continued is because my parents, my, my parents were slightly older than the average parent. They were, they were not--they--my mother was not a usual Yiddish mama, but, you know, you ??? I wouldn't have dare to come--if I said that I'm coming home at night--9 pm tonight, I had to be there at 9 p.m., not five past that.

What were your parent's names?

Schick--Martha ??? which is, which is short for Maria and Miriam and my father Miroslav, which has no equivalent in English, which is a purely Czech name and they called him Mirda.

Did they think about sending your sister as well?

No, because my sister, even though only two years younger, so she was eleven-and-a-half around, when I left, she was weak and sickly. Thank God, today she is uh, she is pushing 80 [laughs] well, alive and with no sickness since then and in very fit condition. But she was very sickly as anyone in Europe and they wouldn't let ???. She was fortunate that my father and I--my father managed--he was in charge of a canteen in--a, a, a sort of eating place in Theresienstadt and so, again, with his contacts and so on, he managed to get her into a, a group of young people who were looking after a vegetable garden--vegetable growing--what do you call it? Garden ??? uh, for the, for the Czech police who, who guarded the perimeter in Theresienstadt. The Germans had gotten Czech police to guard the perimeter. Of course, they didn't dare to, to help the Jews because anybody caught was shot on the spot. You know, they, they, they didn't bother about laws and regulations. So, he managed to get her in that and that is how she was saved. But she wasn't sent for labor because when they were deported they went on the last terrible--very last--they went on the last transport to Theresienstadt which was October 1944, and they were finished in '45, right? In October '44, those people went straight in to be gassed.

You missed the last trans...

Last transport.

...the last trans...train which was in October.

Yes.

???

Okay. So, so, that's how, that's how my sister was saved and I told you that she was one of the first to get to Prague stay in our, our own apartment. Then, when my aunt and two cousins came back, they came to live with us and the two cousins who came back also came to live with us the first uh, couple of months or three months and, and they found their own places.