Rose Wagner - August 14, 2002
Łódź Ghetto II
But it was in the new cemetery.
Right.
Yeah. Um, do you remember Rumkowski?
What happened in the ghetto--my parents were already gone--we had to go from the big ghetto to the little ghetto. So we had an aunt. So we went to this aunt and we stayed with her. So we heard, "Juden Raus, Juden Raus!" So she hid us in the basement. You know, the basement you know, the kitchen, they had like an opening. And she put a rug and a table with the chairs and her children were there too. And what she did--and she hid somewhere, I don't know where, but she hid. After it got quiet, we all--we opened it. We, we pushed it, the, the, the, the table you know, but she was gone already. What happened to her, they must have take her away. So my sister and I after maybe we stayed with them another couple days. My sister said, "Let's go for a walk." So we went for a walk and she wanted to go to her office where she was working. While we were there--this was on ??? while we were there...
Somewhere here? In the ghetto.
In the ghetto, yeah. While we were there, we heard, "Juden, Juden Raus! Juden Raus!" So what happened, we hid. It was like a two story building. So we run upstairs and we closed the doors. And other people too were with us. And we put some tables and chairs against the door. But the Jewish police tried to open and they did open. So my sister and I, we jumped from a first story window. We jumped and that's where I--and that's why I have the problem. And what happened, they took us to a hospital. No. First we laid on the grass. So the German came to us and said, "Why don't you go into a hospital, you're going to be okay, you're going to be working there." And my sister spoke a very nice German. She said "No, she wants to go into a hospital here and get well." He tried to convince us that they, they should take us away--to take us away. So anyhow, the Jewish police took us to the hospital, but there was no room. So then they took us to the place--to my aunt's place. When we got there, nobody was there. The German must have take the kids.
The children left.
The children--everybody out--away. So we laid in bed--I would say we laid in bed ten days. We couldn't, we--if I wanted the bathroom we had to call. That's how I was pain. After ten days, the Jewish police found us. And they took us again to a hospital. In the hospital we were maybe ten days.
[pause] After the ten days, the, the, the whole commander, the black uniforms, they came, they took everybody out. And they took us to Marysinia I don't know if you heard of Marysinia. Where--this was a train station. And they put us in the cattle you know, like animals. In the cattle wagon. And there was a man--see I could have stayed in the ghetto, but I couldn't walk. And that man was a friend to my father. And he was a policeman, he was a Jewish policeman. So he said, "You know, I'm going to help you." And he gave me a bucket of coffee and my sister and I started to walk and I was limping. And he said, "No, they going to shot you, they going to kill you." So I went back on the wagon with my sister and we went to Auschwitz.
Okay, back, back up for, for just a second.
I'm going too fast.
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