Berek Rothenberg - May 20, 1984
Attempting to Get into the American Zone
How'd you get there?
By train. You know, we didn't need no nothing. We walked. Only what happened--I went to the Pilsen--so over there was the Americans. So I thought I can get over to the American side. So on the boundary--American and Russian boundary--right away they came up to the check and we had to show 'em uh, some papers and I didn't got no paper to show. They took us down from the, from the train and they sent us back to Prague. And finally I run away again and I went to Sudet...uh, Germany--that's uh, occupied by Czechoslovakia--that used to belong to German, calls Rosenberg, Rosenthal. And I went over there and then I went over to the American side. And I--through a forest, through a railroad uh, tunnel and I made it over to the American side.
You were all alone?
Alone, on my own. I went with a group to Pilsen or they, they went through and, and I had to go back because I didn't have no papers to, to show. Everybody did something. They didn't tell you, "Okay go to this office and make yourself a paper and that you are a Polish citizen or you are a Palestinian citizen or you are an English citizen or you..." or everybody did without uh, telling somebody else. So I didn't make it so they sent me back. So finally I went over to the American side and, and I was with the American soldiers and I was working the kitchen. And I made cocoa in the garbage cans, you know, and I ba...helped them baking bread and I work in the me...in, in the kitchen--in the place where they're eating. And then so was a rabbi over there and he was a captain or something.
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