Nathan Nothman - November 30, 1982
Life After Liberation
Uh, after the war then, when you wound up in the American zone, you left the uh, the march--the forced march, how long did you stay uh, in the town of...
Laufen...
...Laufen?
Well, I stood in La...I have a room in Laufen with my friends, and we lived by the German. He was a German. He gave us one room because that time, he was, he was a wealthy peasant. He was photographer. So he have too many rooms. So we said to him we would like to have one room. So we paid him for the room, so much, so much a month. And we had a contact and we--most of the time we went to Leibernau--it was a Jewish camp there.
Mm-hm.
That's where they--that's what uh, my brother was uh, was brought in and he survived there and he better get there. And then we went to Ainring. Ainring was not far from Freilassing. So there was a camp. There was a German camp but the Jews took over that with the consulate from Leibernau to Ainring. So we were--I met my wife.
Good.
And, you know, we got married in 1947 there. My choice were two things: Israel or United States. Not to, not to live in Germany.
Mm-hm.
But how--somehow my, my sister or my wife's sisters and my brother went to United States, so we applied to United States. But there was no life for Jewish people in, in uh, in Germany, because even the good German--he was nice to you because he was afraid.
Mm-hm.
But deep in his heart, he hate us. Because I know one thing now. When I see that movie, everybody raised his right hand, you know, in praise to Hitler. But now there's nobody there. Everybody nice. Everybody was good. So I decided there's no place for me to be in Germany. Because I convinced my family and people with me--my brother-in-law and my sister was in Sweden. That time I told her if she's applying to United States, let's be together. My sister came to United States, my mother came to United States.
When you were in the camp, the DP camp, um, how were you treated there?
Terrible, we are not human beings, we're not even dogs, we are completely worthless garbage. I mean just, just, it's unbelievable. It's so many things...
[interruption in interview]
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