Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Hermina Vlasopolos - April 9, 1984

Visiting Israel

To Israel.

...and moved with her. My daughter didn't have a child yet then. And uh, my friend emigrated to the, much later than--I was in '72 back in Romania and she was already retired, because the women retire at fifty-five and she was older than I was. And uh, she told me... And she had had also cancer operation. She said, "Well where can I go, should I go to Israel and do what?" She said, "They're not going to give me a pension, here I have a pension." She was a fantastic, you know, specialist in movies. They used to--there you can work six months, you know, with the same salary you had if you--and uh, you can work, you know, one month and one month take off, or two months, or all six months together. She said, I have my pension and I'm always working when I want to work. I have to, to want to. And her daughter entered university. She had very late her child because he father was killed by the Iron Guard, you know, her first husband. And then she remarried. And had entered with a very high score, you know, university there, which was very seldom with a Jewish name. And uh, her husband wanted to go to Israel. He had three sisters there and he's saying, he's saying. And finally when I heard that they are in Israel I was really surprised. So I went to Israel the first time, I don't remember he came, I think in 1975. And uh, I was in Israel, I was six times in Israel since because I had a lot of relatives and friends there. And I uh, I was in '77 and I, I stayed with them and then I went in '78 in summer and again I stayed with them. And uh, she came with me to the seacoast for a few days. And uh, I decided, it was in '78 in, in fall. And uh, I liked them very, very much. They were very good friends and we understood each other very much. And her daughter was married already. She was the only one I ever--so many times when my relatives, everybody insisted that I come to Israel, nobody gave me any kind of information when I asked. She gave me the, all the information I needed, and I felt that I retired with my pension and so on, I would be able to, to move there. And come here and see my children, you know, once or twice a year and that they can come and see me.


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