Sonia Nothman - January 4, 1983
Ainring
How were you treated in the uh, the camps? In Ainring, ???. How did the army treat people?
Many times I was disappointed. When I was in ??? Kaserne. I didn't have shoes. I didn't have money, I didn't have clothes. But clothes, okay. I didn't have shoes. There was captain, a Jewish guy. He made a party. There uh, Jewish women and Gentile, all mixed. That was--I don't know what kind of party. For Jewish people. I didn't go. So he asked my sister. Because it was a few. All together it was eighty women, there was maybe ten altogether Jewish people. But I told him, I don't have shoe. I would think oh, he's going to buy me a shoe. But after the war it was easy. But a man could go and buy. But we couldn't do it. We'd never live through it. Never, never. So I remember my sister. The guy who came and brought us the news about my brother, he brought me the shoes. The captain played with the German, with the women, with the--I know. This I remember.
Was it hard to get papers to come to the United States?
It was hard. It was hard especially, I was with a baby. And I have to say--I hate to say--but I have to admit, I said so. When I come to United States, I'm going to go to the government--I thought it so easy--and I tell them what kind of people they send there. I have a baby. She was a little girl. They told me to calm down. And they sent me home. I remember she was--a whole week, I went in, I stayed--a friend in Munich. Every morning I have to take a car and come there. Show up and they ask questions. And it came to me, what's the point? ??? It was...winter--January with a baby, a little baby. I have to go home. And I stayed with a friend a week. Finally, she have a rash here on the...Because I wasn't calm, he sent me back home. Very rude, very rude. No consideration. I was disappointed.
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