Tamara Sessler - February 4, 2008
Learning about the Holocaust
These questions about, "Why the Jews?" must've bothered you before this. Had you, you thought it before--even in England...
Yes, yes but not to this extent. After seeing what they did to the ??? af...in the Holocaust, it came much more sharp the foreground because we knew they were dispersed all over the place, yes? We didn't know about the gas chambers. We didn't know that they were tortured. We didn't know these things. I thought my grandmother was living in Poland because I got Red Cross letters from her. I've still got them.
While she was in Auschwitz?
Not while she was in Auschwitz--before, before.
Was she in Theresienstadt as well?
Theresienstadt--from Theresienstadt I got it. And now there's a kibbutz here--what's it called? ??? I think. They've got a lot of things about Theresienstadt and from them for the first time I got the date of my grandmother's birthday and when she was sent to Theresien...to Auschwitz from Theresienstadt. That was the first time I ever knew her birthday now on the 12th of February.
So you were going through some real soul searching.
Oh yes, oh yes.
Question of identity and all that.
By then I was also not quite as stupid anymore. I was, I was a late uh, uh, adult life came not as early to me as to some people--took a little bit longer but um, I was very impressed with this ideology of people on the farm--very impressed. And uh, you know, it's like even today lots of people turn to religion to give them something more in life then they have up 'til now. Some very famous people have done it. I've got my agreement with the one above. I'm not at all religious anymore. Maybe--let's call it a little bit of tradition. My children certainly know what's what because my husband used to like going to shul. My husband came from a very religious family but he also wasn't religious anymore. My husband was also a Kinder but from Berlin.
So, he was in the original Kindertransport.
From Berlin yes. One of the last ones. He arrived in England in August before the war started. ???
When did you come to England?
To England? July '39--no sorry, May '39. May or March, I'm not quite sure.
Well, in March the Germans came into Prague.
No, it must've been May or June to England, May or June. I've got it written down somewhere ???
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