Alice Lang Rosen - August 5, 1991
Moving to the United States
What made your father decide to come to the United States? Was there an option to go to Palestine?
Uh, no, it wasn't an option. It was definitely that they were talking about coming to America, it was just when. In fact, my older sister Ruth, after they were married, she expected them to just drop everything and come to America and when they didn't she filed on her own and uh, she had uncles here in America from her father's side and she just left and came to America by herself. She was here almost two years in New York before we even came. And Margo stayed back, you know, with me.
Husband: Margo was engaged.
And Margo met a young soldier, a Jewish GI. And they fell in love and he came to America when he was eight years old, with his parents. He was actually born in the city of Auschwitz, in Poland. There is a city of Auschwitz, not just the concen...he was actually born there and he came to America when he, when he was eight year old and he grew up here. And he was in the ROTC and he was drafted at the tail end of the Second World War and sent to Germany. Ended up in Heidelberg and uh, my sister Margo met him, and he always came to the house and he left--his tour of duty was up about a year before we came to America. He lived in Chicago, so he went home and they wrote to each other every, every day, stayed in touch. And when we finally did arrive in America, he came to meet the boat in New York with his parents, and they eventually, of course, you know, married.
What was his name?
Uh, Leo ??? Leopold ???
Did this, um, affect your dreams about going to Palestine? Remember you said this was your...
No, that was swept away.
Swept away when you met--when you, when you rediscovered your father.
Yes, yes. It, it was.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn