Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Edward Linson - November 10, 1981

When you came to, to Detroit did you tell anybody what you had been through? Did you talk to anybody about it?

They knew. Sure I talked to, to different people. Uh, I went to the--the first of all they give us to the ??? Clinic, if you remember a ??? Clinic here? You don't know.

I'm not from Detroit.

So the ??? Clinic was every newcomer got to go and see if he is really good or he is--or he belong to, to the crazy house. So they did us uh, we got to sit down over there and wait four hours, five hours. One day I come in and she says, she say--the, the, the social worker, "We cannot help you no more, you got to look for a job." I says, "Go to hell. Look yourself for a job. I give you the job--you got--because of me you got the job." So they sent me to a psychiatrist. So the next time I got to go, somehow I got to go because of the German government. They got to know uh, because I apply for a--they call 'em ???.

Mm-hm.

So this Dr. Krystal. He's uh, he is one from us. So he asked me, "You ever saw a psychiatrist?" I says, "??? meshuge? Why I should see a psychiatrist?" So okay. One day a German lawyer in Germany he wrote me a letter that I will get the ??? from that twelve Mark with fifteen cents--fifteen ???. So he says, "Mr. Linson, uh, you better sign up. Nobody can change this and better than nothing." So I was uh, he wrote me three times, so I figured up maybe he's right. And I did a mistake. Everybody after awhile was uh, the good money and I got twenty-seven dollars and eighty cents or twenty-eight dollars is how the money fluctuate. So I was angry. One day I figure up I will save money and I see my cousin--she is in Paris. Uh, see the kids and so I went and I says to myself, "I will jump over, it's not far." I, I went to Kiel, if you know where Kiel is.

Mm-hm.

Not Kell, Kiel.

Kiel, yeah.

This is uh, uh, not far from, from Bremen...Bremenhaven. So I went over there and I talk to this guy uh, I come in and a girl she ask me, "Kann ich...kann ich helfen?" I says "Yeah." And I introduce myself, "My name is Edward Linson, so and so." So she says to me, "???" "The boss is not in." I was waiting. The boss come in and she says to him and he gave me a hand and he talked to me very nice. And I know they're nice people, very nice people. They're nice killers--nice people. I talked to him and I ask him and I hold this set...this--they call 'em settle, this ???. I says, "Can I live from twenty-eight dollars?" He looks at me.

[interruption in interview]