Hermina Vlasopolos - April 9, 1984
Attempting to Escape from the Ghetto
Mm-hm.
So they said stay at the window and we are going to show you, you know, to make a sign or to appear there to let you know if we got out, you know, they talked to the people who had their windows, you know, on the other side from the ghetto. What they did instead to do a very discreet sign they started to make, you know, big signs bearing ??? that they got out. And they got caught. And they had to declare what happened, you know, at the very end. I mean, they were probably tortured so badly...
Mm-hm.
...that they--well, this was one thing, and the other thing was, this is, I said the beer factory, people came out of there, you know, absolutely, I don't know--you know, like you see them in the movie, where they take them to be broken, you know, from this uh, places. And I said, "Well if you take it right to say from the beginning everything instead to, to endure such torture, you know...
Mm-hm.
...and to have to hide it. Because you don't know if you ever find it again and it's not important." So, only an old lady, she was over eighty, very, very smart and very wise and she said "Well, you can torture me, I will tell you everything I have and if you think I have more than you are wrong." And they let her go. She told them everything and they, they did let her go. But she was there with her son and two daughters, you know, and two grandchildren. And this policeman--as I told you I was sitting one day just looking out of the window because we were, I mean, it was only first floor...
Mm-hm.
...house, the whole thing. And he came by, two, two gendarmes, these were the fellows were behind him and he showed me just like this, you know. At the two o'clock uh, he will, he will come. And this was at nine o'clock in the morning or something like this. I was, you know, I saw him and--because he was in front of them, they couldn't see him and he showed me nine ???...
He just pointed to his watch, yeah.
...??? yeah, pointed to his watch and he showed two.
Mm-hm.
And uh, he went down with them. Now, what, I, I was at two, at two, you know, that, that, I don't know, hide or it was such a, such a torment that, of course, he couldn't have time. But he never came. So I went to his girlfriend and I asked her what happened because he, he succeeded in getting into the ghetto and get to her and he used to take mail from other--you were not allowed...
Mm-hm.
...to write, you know--and he used to take mail and send it out. Now, they caught him one day and she told me when he got, and I said, "My God, what will happen to him now?" She said, "I don't think anything will happen because, I don't know, he saved once Horthy's life in a way or in another," you know, from uh, and he had, I mean, he showed me once, that Horthy will always grant him one favor whatever he wants when he's in need. The favor he wanted was to be able to marry a Jewish girl because he wa--they were not allowed to marry. But I suppose he had to use it in order to save his life or something like this, because uh I'm sure that otherwise they would have killed him. You know, coming into the ghetto, having a Jewish girlfriend, taking out mail from the Jewish people there. It was quite uh...
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