Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Rose Wagner - August 14, 2002

So you came to Detroit and um, were you happy here?

At, at first I was not happy. I was very unhappy, very unhappy, you know. We didn't have an apartment. I mean, we had an apartment, but it was, the apartment was terrible. It was on Twelfth Street.

Near? Twelfth near where?

Around near Clermont, on Philadelphia, on Philadelphia. And the apartment had rats were running outside--I shouldn't say it. So eh, my husband went out and he bought a little car. The first thing he bought a car. He could not take the busses in the morning and go to work. So then we moved in another apartment. The other apartment was okay. Not great, but was okay.

What did he finally wind up doing? What was his business?

My husband was, he was trying, he was working by cars, car factory. But he was trying to get in as a plumber and he became a plumber. He became a master plumber.

I see, um.

And he was doing quite well with another, with a partner, with Richard Kregerman. So--at first he was a junior man and then he became a master. And then he give it up.

He gave up the plumbing?

Mm-hm.

For?

He was a building ??? you know, with Lou.

I see. What an interesting career.

Yeah.

And both you and he know each other's story. You've talked about this from...

Yeah. He talks about it, he does. He doesn't talk too much about his--he knows more things you know, he went--because he had a big family. You know, four sisters. He had four sisters and he had another brother.

And he's from Częstochowa?

Częstochowa.

Yeah...

[interruption in interview]