Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Abraham Mondry - June 15, 22, 29 & July 13, 1992

Then you went to New York. From Bari, you went to New York, and you lived uptown.

I was...

72nd street, you said.

Yeah, I took an apartment. What was it called? ??? Hotel. 72nd, yeah, I remember. I would like a, a bedroom and a little living, living room, you know, and a little kitchen. And it was $60 a week. I had some friends, they left before, they went before, you know.

So, you and your wife together lived in the...

You see, I made up my mind. If I come to America I go on my own. I don't want nobody. I don't want nobody help, nobody. I make it or I break it.

So, you didn't look up your cousin.

Yeah, he knew I'm coming. I'm the type, I don't like no favors. Neither do they. I like to pay whatever. I don't want no favor from nobody.

So, did he offer you a job in the smelting company?

No, I got mad on him. We had an argument. I think, why, why they want to send me something to another state, to Cleveland. I said, no, I don't want to, I want to stay here in New York. Here I got some friends. So he make the remark, "Why all, all, all the refugees come over and stay in New York." I say, I say, "Are you feeding them?" I ask him. What I say, "are you ??? help, what you came, why did you come to New York?" I just asked him like this, you know.

Hm.

I had a friend that eats over a room. ??? He was a putz. He was a Yekke, a German. He married my cousin. They stood, he stood in ??? and he stood at ??? May, a religious school. They call it, Dr. Rosenheim, a rabbinical school, you know, in Frankfurt, before, before the war. And he make up his mind, he say it's coming, and he want to get away from it.

And then he moved to Israel. Right.

And he had two daughters. His daughters moved first.