Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Helen Lang - February 23, 1982

Sending Word to Brother

While--so you, you contacted her from Lübeck?

No, from uh, I went from Lübeck--see, we stayed in Lübeck 'til the last minute--'til they accumulated all the girls who wanted to go back. I tell you something else. My sister met there a friend--she was from ???, not far from Munkacs. She was going back already, you know. And my sister wrote down--wrote a letter "To whom it may concern."--we didn't know who was alive, who is not alive--"I am here with Helen and we're all right, love Shari." That's what my sister wrote with this girl who was going to Czechoslovakia. That girl arrived in Teplice Sanov where my brother lived and my uncle--he should rest in peace, he came out after, you know, the war, after--and my brother and my uncle, all the people who lived there--whoever came from Germany--the girls--they were always standing by to see who's coming home. And whoever didn't have anybody, somebody took in that girl and, you know, you know, like a Jewish family that--to help her out 'til she finds somebody. So my brother he was always standing there by that bus, because the Joint--there was that organization. They told them when the bus is coming in from Germany, you know. All of a sudden a woman--this woman come down and she said, "Is there anybody from Munkacs? Jump out." So my brother says, "Yes, it's me." So he, he--she says, "Well, there is two of your sisters are there in Lübeck." And my brother looked at my sister's handwriting--I'm sorry--he fainted, you know. He fell down and fainted. And so my uncle took that letter. So--and my brother-in-law--my sister's husband--he was in Prague. My brother was a soldier there, you know, they had those Czech army, so they volunteered and they fought with the Russians on--but on the Czech side you know, and my brother--so right away my brother, you know, they stopped--all of 'em saw him, you know, they stopped to pick him up and tried to, you know. So he let my brother-in-law know that we are alive. So, don't ask. They knew it that--and my--I had another brother, he was in Karlsbad, so he let 'em know too that, you know, we are alive.


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