Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Jack Weinberger - February 6, 1983

We are a lot worse than they are. Those animals were not doing what human people do, what human people can do. That is true. If I would see again, on just some tape, on the, on really what happened, what's happening in Germany. I myself say it's not true, it did not happen. Fifty years from now I'm gonna be six feet underground. I'm don't blame those people fifty years from now, they will say this never happened or how many years from now. See we do believe that Jesus Christ was killed, one person, one man. He was also Jewish. He was killed, the whole world knows about it. We believe in that. But what happened to millions of people, nobody will believe. See the difference?

Yeah, yeah.

So therefore many times, I don't know if I'm right, if I'm wrong. I am not an educated man, I never had chance to get education. I never had a chance to go to school like American kids have, like my son has, or maybe you if you have children, I don't know if you have children. It--like now they're talking about disarmament, these big powers. The world deserves to be destroyed, I will say that. The Russians, the Americans--don't think the Americans are better, Americans are S.O.B's just like the Russians, just like the Germans. Because we are b...as long as we are building the bombs we are just as guilty as the other guy who's threatening us.

Yeah.

Cause a man, if he goes out he's only looking to get food, nothing else. Doesn't bother nobody else. We are looking for something more.

Was your cousin with you, the whole time was your cousin...

Yes. See, my cousin in Cleveland, going back to my cousin. This is ???-- the day, oh see I cannot tell you the story, it's, if I would be writer I could start. It would take years and years to, to collect, to recollect everything what happened.

Sure.

This not just ten, five minutes of telling. My cousin was with me all the time, just like I mentioned before I gave him the shoes. In 1945, May 1945, May sixth, when we were liberated, I was... they called Revier. Revier that means like a hospital, the hospital was strictly for the uh, in line to go to die. He was still in the, he was among the healthy people. I was so weak. When he came, when he--after, when the war had ended he came to me, he knew where I was. I couldn't go to see him because I was weak, I couldn't walk. He came to look after me, he found me. And he was already, he was walkin', talkin', he was healthy. He said to me, "???, I'm glad I'm seeing you, but I'm ready to go home." He was ready to go back to uh to leave the camp. But I couldn't even think about the camp, I couldn't ev...I don't know, maybe I'm gonna live in there too. But the mean time they send me in a sanitarium to recuperate. When I came back from the camp, they brought us back to Ebensee by the Americans, to that camp. I thought he left already for home. But the mean time I saw somebody else which, you know, people knew each other. He said, "you know your cousin Moishe is still here, he's very sick, he's ready to die." I said that's impossible because when I was ready to die, you know, he was healthy. He said yes he's ready to die because he went in the city, he over ate, you know, for--we were so hungry, he over ate. He couldn't take ??? that's it. Now he's in the ??? hospital, he's in American hospital. I went to look him up. He couldn't talk, he was, he was ready to die. But somehow he recuperated. Now he lives in Cleveland.

Did he go back home with you?

No, because I, I let--see he wanted to go home before me. But I actually, I went home before for him because I left him there.

Did you go with friends or were you by yourself?

Oh, we were a lot of people. See everybody was friends uh, everybody had enemies, everybody had friends. You see there was everything ??? just like I say animals, there was no friends. Everybody for themself, no friends ???. Just a little piece of bread, whatever to, to survive.