Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

What kinds ofconversations went on in your house during this time?

Well, they didn't talk a lot. My parents weredepressed at this point, but my father definitely was the one who, who said-mymother wanted us to go to Galicia with her relatives 'cause she thought thatmight be safe. But my father felt that all of Europe wasn't safe. That weshould get out as far, as far away as we could.

Did your family knowany, any other Jews that were similarly depressed, suicide that you knew?

Uh, no one committed suicide that we knew, but weknew a lot of people who took different avenues. One of my father's colleaguesdecided to stay there in Vienna with his wife and daughter because he felt thathe could manage. And they all died. And a friend-a patient of my mother'sstayed there because he couldn't imagine himself living anywhere else. And hesent his wife and daughter away. And he was a U-boat, a, a uh, undergroundperson and they didn't catch him until the end and then he went toTheresienstadt. And I saw him in '58. He came to see me. He wanted to knowabout my mother, how she had fared. And he, he said, when I asked him how hemanaged on a couple slices of bread a day, which I read they got, he said, "Youeat too much anyway." His attitude, but he survived. And he had a wooden leg.He had been a World War I veteran. But he opted to send his family out and tostay. My parents knew ??? and he did commit suicide. ??? The lawyer, ???.

Tell me about him.

Well, he was a fellow who would always take uh,unpopular causes. And he was a dramatic lawyer. And he was much hatedapparently by the Nazis because he had defended communists and all sorts ofpeople. He was very ingenious in his... O...over there you don't, i...in legalproceedings you don't ask questions. You, you present the whole thing yourself.The lawyer does all the talking. And he was very good at it. And when they cameto arrest him he jumped out the window. He knew what they were going to do tohim. It was very colorful.

Um, how did your motherfare? You said that they was depressed, but..

She was uh, my mother uh, felt terrible aboutseparating from the family. She didn't want us, she did not want to beseparated from my brother and myself. And they considered me too young to beaway from the parents. You know, at eighteen, in Austria yo...you wereconsidered not really old enough. And she uh, was very close to her own familyin Lemberg. And so that, that really bothered her to leave them behind andknowing she would never see them again. Because once you go to America, welln...neither of them left it again.

Um.

But mainly she was afraid for my brother. Becauseat one time the Jewish community believed that they would only take the males,because they had done that for awhile. They arrested mainly the males, so theythought the others were safe. So if you had only one affidavit or one chance tosend someone you sent the youngest male.

Were any of the-any ofyour friends-non-Jewish friends did they surprise you with, with their supportof the Nazis in.

Uh.

the discussions of thatsort?

No, one of them did uh, he and his father went outon the Crystal Night and attacked a passerby whom they thought was Jewish andthere were, he felt proud enough of that to mention it. But the surprise camethe other way that at the crystal night when it was very dangerous to come intothe Leopoldstadt, one of my friends did come to see how my parents fared. Andthat was uh, really an act of heroism. No, most of them had been very candid intheir support. Those who were pro-Nazi uh, were clearly pro-Nazi classmates.None of them, none of these remembered now.

And how about yourparents friends? Were any of them supporters?

There weren't too many. No in the older group theywere more inclined to be oh. Well, they would say something like that uh, "I'm,I'm in favor of it. I don't like his policy with the Jews but he has given mepride." It was that kind of thing. Like when he took the war-the part of Germany.That gave uh, many people a big boost and sort of uh, emotional charge, "I'vewon again" type thing.

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