Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Zwi Steiger - March 27, 1982

Did your brother know you were coming to Israel?

Did my brother know? After I got to Vienna I sent him a message that I'm coming. And that was uh, he knew that I want to go out but uh, I couldn't get a passport. No way. I wouldn't have even tried to get a passport. I couldn't even apply for a passport.

So you made it to Israel in February of 1950.

Nineteen fifty, yeah.

And what did you do there?

What I did there? I went to, to work in a government hospital in, in Jaffa. And then after awhile I joined the ar...I served my stint in the army--my uh, regular tour of duty for a year and a half. And afterwards...

As a doctor?

Yeah. That was in--from '43 'til '45.

Fifty-three to '55.

Fifty-three--that's right, '53 to '55. And then I went back to work and I wanted to come to the States to, to take some uh, training in chest surgery. Eventually after the Sinai campaign in '56, in '5...uh, 7--in May of '57 I came to the States.

Did you serve in, in the army during that Sinai campaign?

Yeah, yeah. And then I, I came to Chicago to take some training and eventually I was in Detroit and I met Amelia and decided to get married in this uh, this is my reason in staying in Detroit because Amelia didn't want to move, she has her family here. So I stayed in Detroit. You wanted to ask me something? I'm sorry.