Felicia Shloss - February 9, 1983
Conclusion
And what, what did she feel about that?
I don't know. I, um...
What do both daughters think about that?
My other daughter is entirely different. She thinks--she um, I don't know. She doesn't like the Germans. I imagine she doesn't like every German, but the Nazis and she knows that the German did it to us when they were on the peak of their civilization. She said, "The Germans uh, we can't, we can't hate Arabs, whatever they do, because they are in their infancy. And the Germans when they hurted us they were on the peak of their civilization, that's the difference." I imagine her heart--I never taught them, I never told them hate people, but she knows and she sees what's happening. My husband never wanted to talk--we never talked about it and we were busy making a living. It was hard to make a living, they cut off our--when we supposed to go to school and learn something. I finished here designing school. I educated myself here by going to school and working and uh, and raising a family. I was pretty busy. And making myself clothes; whatever I wore, I made. So I was pretty busy, but uh, show whatever they see on television everything and we went through. And she married an American-Jewish boy, and I heard sometimes how she explains to him what the Germans did to us.
What does she do?
She's a biology teacher. [cries] And she's not teaching now, but she's a nice life. Her husband is a doctor. They're in Texas. They have two beautiful children--two little boys. And my uh, little boy is asking some of his uh, classmates who are Jewish. He's asking about Jew--here I want to run away, not to be a Jew, because I was afraid for the future generation. And my grandson is asking now, "Are you Jewish? Are you Jewish?" Some of the kids in Texas they don't even know what Jewish means. But uh, she is now, a very nice life and I am very happy for it.
And your other daughter?
My other daughter is um, she's working a hospital. She is a social psychiatry worker. She has her Masters from Ann Arbor; went to school all six years in Ann Arbor. A very smart, clever girl, and very uh, how do you say uh, nobody will tell her anything. If she would be a German, she wouldn't hurt Jews. She would have a mind of her own. She would uh, she's good. She's nice, but she wouldn't--she's not a sheep, she wouldn't follow.
You are proud of both of them.
I am very proud of both of them. I, I guess I lived for them because they are my life, my kids.
I think they we'll stop here.
Okay.
This interview was conducted this morning uh, February 9th, 1983 at the library at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. The interviewee was Mrs. Felicia Taif-Shloss.
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