Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Esther Posner - March 11, 1986

Being Held at the Schouwburg Theater III

All right, the second time we went to the Schouwburg, it was again my mother, father and I and we were again there for three days. This time I didn't go across the street to the, to the nuns, where they, they ran a home for the children. I had gone the first time but I had been scared that something would happen to my parents because I wasn't with them. I always felt and my parents felt the same way that we were better off, whatever happened to us, that we were together. That whatever would happen, if we went on--had to go to concentration camp, we'd be together. And uh, the first time they had sent me over across the street during the day to be with the children. The second time I refused to go and, and the nuns came to get me and I, you know, and I just didn't want any part of it, I stayed at the Schouwburg with my parents. And this is a story that someone just told me a year ago when I was in California visiting an old friend of my parents whom I had um, not seen for many years who came to the United, United States around the same time we did. And she was a very close friend of my mother's sister, my aunt. And she said to me, you know, "You and your parents were supposed to go on transport, but there was a change and your aunt and uncle took your place." And my parents have never talked to me about it, and I really don't know too much about it, but I assume it's true. I remember waiting again to be put on transport and all of a sudden my aunt and uncle and cousin were there and it was his third birthday and I was playing a game with him, and he had this peppermint candy--kept dropping it out of his mouth on the floor and we kept picking it up and he was laughing. And then they--when they called the names they called my aunt and uncle and cousin and they didn't call us. And again, we were told we could go home.


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