Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Baruch Spergel - February 4, 2008

Joining the British Army

And when you were in England had the two of you seen, seen each other?

ZF: Very seldom.

BS: Hmm?

ZF: We met each other very seldom.

BS: Seldom, seldom because she was far away from London and I...

ZF: And you worked in London.

BS: War time, war time. It wasn't easy for arrange things and uh, well, I...

ZF: I couldn't come to him.

BS: We came from a different world.

ZF: He had his world, he'd found a world.

BS: I had friends who were philosophers. We philosophized and uh we'd talk about politics and philosophy and everything but I liked them. They were nice guys but then I joined the army-the British Army in 1945-beginning of '45 I joined the British Army and I was sent to-they wanted to send me to, first to Burma but then I said, "Look, I speak German. Why not make some use of me? Send me to Germany," and that's what they did.

So what did you do in the army?

BS: Hmm?

What did you do in the army?

BS: I was...

ZF: He was an interpreter.

He was an interpreter.

BS: Yes. Well, I was in the uh, what's its name? In the infantry regiment Royal West Kent and afterwards I was transferred to a, to a-what's its name? The intelligence section of some uh, of some kind of uh, and I was sent to Berlin and I was in Berlin in the same year 1945-end of 1945 I was already in Berlin. I was also-after that I was stationed in Holland, some place-all kinds of places but it was-I wasn't particularly happy in the there or unhappy. The, the, the army was okay. It was good for me. It gave me some discipline.


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