Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Sam Seltzer - November 29, 1982

That was purely coincidental that the two of you met each other?

Yeah, yeah. He didn't know I was in Feldafing, see? He, he was, he knew I was in Germany, but he didn't know I was in Feldafing, see? So I wrote a letter do...to Poland. There was a little community, Jewish community--committee you know, in Mysłowice. So I wrote a letter to Poland and uh, let them know that I was in Germany. Yeah, yeah. So when he came to Feldafing he end up uh, had bad ulcers. From Russian he brought a lot of--1946 they let out all the Polish citizens from Russia. So he came, he knew I was--so he came into uh, Feldafing and we met each other there. And uh, that's--you know, then, then he, I, I got him into the town where uh, there's a big story about soccer playing now. While I was sick, laying you know, I couldn't walk and I couldn't jump and I couldn't do nothing. The doctor--Dr. Mayer asked me whether I was a sportsman. So I said, "Yes," I was. I played soccer which I played in, with the uh, uh, Christian uh, teams, the only Jewish guy. And they both were fighting over me, they want me to play for them. I was playing as a junior, somebody else's passport, but my picture. You're not supposed to play until you're seventeen in junior. So I was fourteen and a half and I played in the junior already. And they both were fighting for me, the whole lot of them. The Christian boyfriends you know, they, they, they were crazy about me 'cause I was a, a good sportsman. I was the best skater too. So, Dr. Mayer says, "Well, how are you going to do it? You have to build up your muscles to walk, otherwise you'll never walk." So I said, "How am I going to build up my muscles?" He says, "I'll tell you what, if you were playing soccer then I'm sure this is--your muscles disappear, you have muscle atrophy," he says. "In muscle atrophy you have to build up healthy muscles in order to walk," he says. "You'll never walk. So I'll introduce you to the boys here, he says, in town, in Feldafing." So introduce--to the Germans--introduce me to them. They had a team. They were male nurses in the hospital working and a lot of townspeople. So they were, they had a team playing soccer. So I went there and start--I couldn't, I couldn't jump. How, how am I going to play if I can't jump? So I said, "Can I, can I play with you." And says, "Yeah." So, so I start playing in goal. I was a goalie. Playing in the goalie. I played uh, I was--I became so good as a goalie that other town teams were pro...protesting that I wasn't theirs you know, I wasn't one of their--so uh, finally comes a team uh, uh, no--there was, there was a guy there visiting on a Sunday, the hospital--somebody, and he was the captain of the Jewish team in Wahlheim in Germany. And uh, he kept walking around and he says, "Who is this guy, the goalie, who is he? Is he a, a DP, a displaced person, or is he a half a Jew, or is he, is he a, is he one of our people? Is he..." So one of my boyfriends heard that and he says, "What are you talking about? He's a Jew. He's Jewish." "He's Jewish?" And he says, "Yes, he's Jewish." So he say, "I'll wait for him 'til he's over." I said, "Let me, I, I want to talk to him." So he waited for me and he talked to me and he bought me. Yeah. He took me over to, to the city of Wahlheim. And I, I uh, played, with pain, all pain. But the doctor said that I have to take that pain.