Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Sara Silow - August 8, 1993

Liberation

Um, what did you do on a daily basis in Bergen-Belsen?

In Bergen-Belsen?

You weren't working any more, were you?

I was not working in Bergen-Belsen.

So, what did you do?

Nothing, nothing. We were waiting to, to, to--the death is coming. It was just terrible. One soup a day. You were in the streets and finally we were liberated from the, from uh, not the Russians, from the...

British.

British, yeah. British Army.

What did...

You know the British Army give the, give people cans with pork and they got sick from this and they die. They were sure they were doing them a favor. They were not used to, to food.

Did you see that happen?

No, I was unconscious with the typhus.

So you--the day that you passed out from typhus, they...

Yeah, yeah. The same day we were liberated they took me to a hospital, yeah. And later on to, to Sweden. In Sweden that--they were so nice, the people, so wonderful. Every ten years--every ten days, a girl was coming to give us pocket money. And they got over there where we were got a canteen. I don't know what we--and so we can buy papers to write with stamps and cookies and chocolate and candies. Yeah, pocket money.

How--you were in a hospital?

This was not...

In Sweden?

This, this was--it was not hospital. They cleaned up schools and give us over there to live like a hospital, yeah.

And how long were you there?

Six months I was in Ber...over there. Yeah, and I was writing so many letters. Finally, I received one answer from one letter and they make out papers and I went to Belgium, yeah.

What--and you met your uncle there?

My uncle. I went to my mother's uh, brother, yeah. Over there, I was married and Charley was born in Belgium.


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