Alice Lang Rosen - August 5, 1991
Being Taken to a Jewish Children's Home
Did, did that remind you of the night in, in Mannheim when they had dest...destroyed the beds?
Yes, I, I would think so now that you bring it up, yes. I would think that was more or less--but you see she never told me that they were looking for me because she didn't want me to know I was Jewish because um, I mean, I could make the mistake and tell someone and that, you know, I mean, she was really, truly hiding me and really trying to save my life, which she definitely did. So I had, you know, I lived there, it was home. I was just like any other child, playing, working, helping out, going to school. And uh, then again, one day this--it was on a Friday, I will never forget--I came home from school and she was sitting at the kitchen table with a lady. And she said to me that this lady came to pick me up and she was going to take me uh, to ??? which is near Paris and there was a children's home there and she was going to take me there. And so I got very upset and I didn't have much clothes. I only had one dress and when she washed the dress I couldn't go to school, I mean I just didn't have anything else to wear. And uh, but I didn't want to go and she said I had to leave with her, I had to go away. So it was always in my mind that whenever I was settled and started to be happy and lived in, someone came and took me away. I mean, this was my whole, you know, story of my life at that time. Whenever I was comfortable and happy again, someone came and took me away. So, I had to leave with this woman and by train we went to children's home. And what it was, it was a children's home that was just opened up by a Polish rabbi and uh, they were...
Husband: Orthodox?
Very Orthodox rabbi.
What, what year was this? This was still during the war.
It was still during the war. I think it was about '44. I'm trying to guess now how, how the years went by.
But the Germans were still there. This is still occupation.
Yes, but I think they were already out of uh, Paris.
Of Paris.
Yes, I think they were out of Paris.
So it would have been the liberation army.
Yes, but uh, and in fact, when I got there I was the first girl there and there was a couple of young boys, um, and they were just scouting the area looking for Jewish children that, that survived and put them in that home. And it was a very Orthodox home with a rabbi with the long black coat and the big fur hat and the payes and everything. And...
Do you remember his name?
No, I don't remember his name. And um, now I'm sorry at all these things that I don't remember but at the time it was just happening...
You were just a child.
A child really, exactly.
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