Herman Marczak - May 12, 1982
Arrival in Sweden
Well what did they do once you got there?
You see, we came into Sweden a strange people--ninety-nine percent of them never saw a Jew in their lives--with a strange language with strange habits, but anyhow. That care what they took of us, that is--we came in, they took away all the clothing we have. You don't need it no more. We thought it, it, it--they told us to put it in--to burn it up in the boat, you know. A Swedish woman from the Red Cross came with caps and with buckets and took us to a bath house and bathed us.
A bath house?
Yeah, they gave us new clothing from the underwear to, to, to suits and dress shirts and working shirts and everything. They emptied out all their vacation spots for the whole summer and they put, they put our people in there. They took the sick, the sick people and took them to their hospitals and healed them for months and months and months, and ninety-nine percent of 'em got healthy. After they got up, they gave us money--pocket money--every ten days we got a few dollars in our pocket to go out and spend.
What city in Sweden were you in?
I came into Helsingborg.
Helsingborg?
Yeah, that was a--on the southern edge of Sweden. Then we stayed there, everybody had a medical check-up--a completely medical check-up. The people who were sick or need operations were the first to take care before their own people. Or they have neglected the ??? the years in the camp, they were taken to hospitals and healed. We stayed--after we went through that medical check-up and all the tests came back, they sent us to ??? which is one of the most uh, finest vacation spots by, by the Baltic Sea. We stayed there in a hotel for six weeks or something like that.
Wow.
[interruption in interview]
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