Sally Tuchklaper - March 2, 1983
Life in Displaced Persons Camp
Was it your intention to remain in this small city?
I stayed there for a year. I stayed there for a year. But your future were not--no more in Poland, so we went back to, [pause] to Germany. We said to be, you know, closer to get through--get away from--and down there we stayed in, in some camps--there were camps too, for a while, big camps that we stayed.
Are you talking about a displaced persons...
Yeah.
...camp in Germany?
In Germany. That, you know, that time we were get--got already from the American UNRRA, which it was called, that they provided us already with food and, you know, with barracks, with single homes, you know, whatever they took away from them. That's where we stayed down there.
Near what city in Germany was this?
I was in Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria.
Did you have any contact with your sister in Sweden?
Yes. When we're [pause] I don't recall if I had it--maybe in Poland. I don't recall. Because through the Red Cross we told them to give a message that me and my sister are alive to her, you know, we could not write. But after when we came to Germany already in camp then we already received an address where to write, so we wrote. We were already in contact with my sister.
How long did you uh, remain in this displaced persons camp?
In that place, I stayed there 'til 1948 of January, but before that I met my husband there. We got married.
What were the conditions like in this displaced persons camp?
Various types. There were big barracks and small. We were assigned a piece in a big barrack and we put the--already close it up ourselves. Or there was not individual rooms, but some of them had, not all of them. 'Til they gave us an individual room, you know, to be together already. And we tried to make the best of it.
And you were married in what year?
Nineteen forty-six.
Was your husband living in a displaced persons camp?
Yes. He was there, too.
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