Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Harry Praw - June 30, 1982

Mm-hm.

So I lived until 19...eh, I lived until 19, eh, 45. Got out of there 1945 I lived there for about three years around the comm....around Frankfurt. Then the good, the good Americans issued a note that we have to leave--to vacate the place. We had, we had to get out of there. We had it too good. So we had to get out and we had move to a camp--to a DP camp.

???

So again whoever had to go--if couldn't afford it had to go and move to move to a DP camp. If you had a few dollars you moved into the city into a German fa...you rented a place with a German family. I rented in a place in Frankfurt and I lived in Frankfurt until I came to the--my--came to come to the United States.

What made you decide to come to the United States?

Would you believe it's funny? Actually, you know, the funny part--everybody wanted to go to Palestine. At that time it was Palestine. Go to bed everybody wanted to go to Palestine. But we had the, the American HIAS or you had the Jewish JOINT Distribution Committee and they really came to the DP camps and they offered you the world. They offered you the America on a silver platter. They really offered America on a silver platter.

Mm-hm. They made it very attractive.

Very attractive. They told, "You had nothing to worry about, you'll have a job, and you'll have an apartment, and you'll have this and that," but they didn't tell us once we get here we'll be on our own.

Did you have any family that was in America?

I had families. I had family in New York so they sent me to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Uh-huh.

So I had, uh...

What year was that?

In 1949.