Hermina Vlasopolos - April 9, 1984
Starting a Family
How long did you stay there?
Oh I uh, until I, until they, they fired me because I asked for a passport. I mean uh, well, I remarried uh, after five--well, this was in forty-five years. I remarried, my fiancé had left in '43 and now he was taken to Russia in '48. I met my husband and uh, I, I married and I had my child. And uh, my husband was a, a college professor and he made the jokes in the classroom and he was reported by one of the students. In between we had the Communist War, you know. And he was a year in jail. He came out of jail, half of his wages he had made. He was about eighty pounds when he came out of jail after one year. I from Auschwitz I can tell you one thing. I mean, terrorism and uh, totalitarian regime has the same terrorist methods as the Nazis had.
Yeah.
And uh, he died after, three years after he was out of jail, I mean. He was very weakened by the whole thing. And I applied for a passport because this was his desire. Although we were very much, you know, for a new world and for equality and so on, we were young and we thought we are going to work, and so on. I uh, I earned quite a lot of money in the movie industry. It was also a trade which only eight of us knew in the whole country...
Sure.
...you know. So we were pretty well paid. He was a college professor and he was the Director of Planning and the Minister of Commerce. And after they arrested him for two stupid jokes, he didn't get any jobs and he started to tutor mathematics. He did quite well, he made as much as I did and we were tutoring. It was very good for our daughter because he was much more--I had to, to be the one, not uh, not to--well, for one year I had to, to, I mean, to take care of, of everything which I did. But in between I had translated the play and they played it and I had the royalties of the play, which helped a lot.
Yeah, sure.
And uh, I didn't go to them, they called me and asked me to make it, I mean, to read it and to refer about it and then if I think. I, I told them what the play is about. But uh, my husband started to tutor and he was a lot with our daughter so he arranged his hours so that he would be with her more. And, uh...
When was she born?
...when he died...
When was she born?
In '48.
In '48, yeah.
In '47 we got married, in '48 she was born. And then he, he died in '57. And I applied for a passport and they--I had three jobs at the time because I was teaching at translators' school and uh, and I was working as editor in an institute of technical recommendations, something like this. And uh, I was fired from everywhere after I applied for the passport. So I had really good friends there because I continued translating and so on, but they lent me their name.
I see.
It was very, very dangerous. Dangerous for them, it was dangerous for me.
Sure.
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