Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Nathan Nothman - November 30, 1982

Did you have any close friends or did your parents have any friends who were uh, were Christian?

Good question. No, I don't remember that my parents had close friends, but I do have plenty--I have plenty. I went to school, lived--and in the same age with us, we didn't care about Jew or Arab or anything. We were friends. And they were good. Whatever--if I went to their house, that changed--they're different, they're completely different. Like I talk to my friend, he said, "Well, you know, I'm Jewish, I don't care if you're Jewish, you're my friend, I like you." But when he went home to his father, he, he, he replied different. He acted friends. He didn't give me the warm wel...welcome when we were together outside. I mean, it was--but first thing, I would not drink from the place because they didn't have it clean, I mean, didn't have uh, I mean, the father was uh, I remember he was working in that railroad station one, and one was working in that, in that streetcar. But uh, I never eat nothing by them. Never, never--not even a glass of water because I couldn't stay long enough. I mean, I didn't like the other people that were, that uh, were that uh, parents.

Mm-hm.

I do remember, I don't remember how many years before the war, maybe a year. My friend knocked me down. He was taller, older. But my father with his father, they were good friends. I mean, friends, they know each other, we lived next door. So my father went to his father, "Listen, look at what your son done to my son." So his father called his son, but the older son said, "Daddy, don't mix it, don't interfere." So my--so his father went with my father out and they talked together, they said--my father explained "What can I do?" I wouldn't do it, but, you know today is different. I can't--I can tell my boys--five feet tall I mean, he was maybe about nineteen and the, the younger was maybe about eleven, twelve. So, but that's, that's the only thing. I mean, it was a good life. Not, not...