Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Saul Raimi - July 7, 1982

The following interview with Saul Raimi took place on July 7, 1982 in Oak Park, Michigan. Mr. Raimi was born in Mława, Poland and was in Auschwitz during the war. The interviewer was Paul Canchester.

My name is Saul Raimi and I was born in Poland in the city of Mława. I'm fifty-seven years old and I reside uh, currently in Oak Park.

Uh, could you tell us first a little bit about your family.

Yes, we're family of eight people. Parents, four sisters, two brothers. Out of those, I survive uh, from the--going to the concen...ghetto, concentration camp. And also my brother who came here before the war in 1938 he came here. I went through the whole--the war from the day the Germans marched in, in our little town to the great end in 1945 when I was, when I was liberated by the American army in--on April 23, 1945 in Germany.

Uh, could you tell us um, what did your father do for a living?

My father was a businessman. He had a uh, grocery store. And also, he very important. He was a very Hasidic and Orthodox man.

And uh, the children, were they, uh... What, what were you going to be?

Yeah, well uh, I have two year to, to uh, make up my mind what to be, but in meantime, as children where I went to cheder and yeshiva. And uh, my whole life revolved around religion, home and uh, the cheder, you know, the cheder and uh, and, and uh, of course religion, God, and so on.

Uh, and your brothers.... Your brother and your sisters?

I uh, my sisters also they went to school and went to school in uh ??? is for the ??? And uh, of course that was primarily our uh, whole life and uh, family--I mean uh, reli...I mean, same with ??? uh, religion, family, respect for your fellow men, and observe the uh, gods and the ??? and of course, we never realized that some tragedy like this will, will ever befall us.