Zoltan Rubin - January 12, 1983
Deportation of Parents
How?
They came to my house, I was in the house and when they came uh, the Hlinkas came, we knew what it is already, so. We had a sukkah in the house. Uh, built-in sukkah, it's in between the roofs, you know, you open up and it's, uh...
An attic?
Like an attic, yeah, you open up the door, I'm sure you, you're familiar with it. So uh, my father says to me, "Go up, hide." And I went up, hide. I hid between the two roofs because there was two roofs. And while they're taking them, they told them what they should uh, take, a few little things, my mother says to me, in Jewish, "Kim nisht herinter." Don't come down, I shouldn't. And that was the last thing what I heard from my mother, "Kim nisht herinter." I shouldn't come down. So, they took away my parents and they took 'em to Žilina . This was one of the camps which was in Slovakia, they were concentrating them over there and from there they deported them already to, to Oświęcim to, to, to Treblinka, Oświęcim. No, actually they took them to Oświęcim. While I was, uh...When they took them away, I came down from uh, that attic and I had my papers. I don't know if I mentioned it to you already that I had my Gentile papers from a friend of mine who was going to school, we were going to school together, he gave me his papers. As a matter of fact, he gave me his father's and mother's papers for my father uh, but my, my parents didn't want to go and live under the Gentile papers.
Even in 1941, they wouldn't take them?
Um, that was already in '42.
Still didn't want to.
They, they didn't want to. My mother, she rest in peace, she said, "I'll go where my children go back." And we were sitting one Saturday afternoon, we were under the tree, sitting, another picture I'll never forget. The three of us, only the three of us we were this time, sitting, and she says, "I'm tired". Yeah. Yeah. She said, "I'm tired, I would like to go there where my children go there." But when she was in Žilina yet and uh, I was trying to get them out, when I went to Bratislava, and I tried to get this white paper for them, the white paper for money, and I did get the release, I had the release...Before this, I got a message from her that she would like to come home from Žilina yet. Okay, but I came with a, with a release, I came to Žilina and this Jewish man in the cahoot, when I had to ask him how much money to take, he says to me uh, "10,000." No, was it more? I don't even remember exactly the amount. Anyway, I had a couple hundred dollars, in dollars, and uh, and I needed the money so I went to this, I don't know, this is again another story...
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