Lola Taubman - December 22, 2009
Having False Papers
So now you're, you're in Frankfurt.
Yeah.
And how long were you in Frankfurt?
A long time. [pause] I came in '46 to German...back to Germany. I was in, in Weissenburg then I was in Zeilsheim. Uh, I worked there from middle '46, 47 to '49, two years.
And when did you come to the States?
Forty-nine, after everybody was here already. They, they dissolved the camp and I, I made out false papers for--to go on the Aliyah Bet. You know, for cigarettes and for guns we bought boats. And, and they either went through Marseilles or, or through Italy. So we gave them false papers and because they went through the Aliyah Bet. And among the false papers I knew a girl to whom I gave the papers, I took her identity. I thought I would, I would get here sooner. I could have stayed on my own name and I would have gotten here.
What was her name?
Goldstein.
Same name.
Yeah--oh, you mean the lady's?
The lady.
Mueller, M-U-E-L-L-E-R.
She was German.
Jewish. They were, they were Jewish too.
Daughter: So this is why she never applied for reparations.
You've never applied for reparations?
For a long time. Only towards the end. The, the Russians, Russian Jews were working in New York and the uh, what is that called? The uh, Claims Conference.
Daughter: But that as of, you know, now, recent times but the whole time, you know, for forty years...
I already got maybe for two years. When I talked to the Russian, I said, "Are you, are you Jewish?" Know what he said? "No, I'm Russian." And you know what they did with the money that came? They would give it to their families and friends, and not to me. They wanted to know how much money my husband made. I was entitled to the money.
Daughter: The first thing they asked was that they needed him to submit his W-2 form...
Yeah.
Daughter: ...his tax forms to them.
They were pretty--they had uh, have a checkered history.
Daughter: Yes. They were very interested in everybody's Social Security numbers for various people. They didn't say why they needed them.
Well, they scared away a lot of people.
Daughter: Sure, they did. And so as a result, first she didn't apply because it wasn't her name and she was always afraid of being caught. And she said the woman who was really her name was certainly applying under her own name, ??? Mueller from Israel.
Israel. I was afraid they're gonna meet.
Daughter: And she wanted to apply under how own name. But now all of her records are revealed as Lola Goldstein in all of the Auschwitz records and everything that are being released now. So maybe in the last, I don't know, ten years, she's gotten a little bit like, you know, some Swiss thing, some other thing but nothing of any...
They did find a little insurance that my father had.
Oh really?
Yeah, a little...
That's a surprise.
Well, you know, what is it called? Yesterday I saw the paper.
Daughter: It ends in an "i" it's an Italian company, like um, something ...li".
Generali.
Daughter: Generali.
Generali. I know the girl whose father sold the insurance to us, so...
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