Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Hanna Ramras - January 26, 2008

Um, you've been Yad Vashem.

Oh, yes.

Do they have your book there?

Yes.

What do you think about the museum? I mean, there's been in the last twenty years or so there have been museums all over the world that have opened up--in Washington, for example--movies that have won Academy Awards about the Holocaust, books that have won prizes and are very popular--what do you think about that? Is it a good thing? Is it...

It's a good thing, it's a good thing. And for my personally it is a victory because I have my eldest granddaughter--my son's daughter who is Helen and born in Brazil but came here and started school in Israel--they're really Israelis. Helen studied special education as a Master's degree in her profession and after having worked for a number of years she realizes that she doesn't get the satisfaction out of uh, teaching uh, that she had hoped that she would get out of it. She was--she's been teaching for quite a long time and she's very good but teachers are not respected nowadays and you feel this in every way. They're not properly paid. The youngsters--it's a different age, it's a different time. When I went to school and the teacher came into the room we got up and then we sat down and said good morning. And that's over with, this is progress. So, Helen walked out of a job because her principal didn't know how to appreciate someone who was trying very hard to help children to go forward. So, the principal used her as a substitute here and a substitute there and, and, and did not respect her as she deserved to be respected and this is from a teacher, right? A headmistress. And she said, "I can't go along with this," and she stopped work and she and her husband moved from Petah Tikva where she was living to Jerusalem. They now live in Jerusalem. When she came to Jerusalem and she said, "I want to be a guide in Yad Vashem. I wish to guide in Portuguese. Help me with my Portuguese." This is what she asked me to do and she asked her father to do that. So, my son's Portuguese is tops.