Adele Sandel - [n.d.]
Introduction
Testing. Okay, please state your name, where you were born, and where you were during the war.
My name is Adele Sandel. I was born in Czechoslovakia in a little city; Medzilaborce is the name. It had about 6,000 population--about 800 to 900 Jews. I don't remember exactly how many.
And where were you during the war?
During the war, I was in that, in that city.
Uh-huh, okay.
Part-time. In the end, about a few months we had to leave the whole city and go into another part of the--of, of Czechoslovakia because it had to be uh, Judenfrei. That means it had to be left of--without any...
Jews around. Okay.
...Jews in that city.
This is a rather general question and uh, if you have any difficulty we can go into some specific questions, but can you describe at all your life before the war?
Yes, sure.
In general.
Right.
Okay.
Well, I had a beautiful childhood um, a loving father, a loving mother, a sister, brother. My father was rather well to do--comfortable. We had a nice house, not a palace but comfortable. Uh, a maid. We did all the sports. I played the piano um, we went on vacations and it was just beautiful to live there. It was a combination Czechoslovakia of this country and Switzerland. We were left alone. We were given all the rights. We were respected. We were respected citizens. My father was um, president of a bank and um, everything went fine 'til about 1939 or '40 when all that uh, things started.
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