Michael Weiss - October 7, 1994
Arrival of the Germans II
To Budapest?
To Budapest. And that's it. They had there enough followers. And they had, they had million followers to do the job, whatever they wanted to do.
Were the Germans in Kascony?
Now when I came home to Kascony, there was no Germans as such in Kascony. Erev Pesach, Erev Pesach, about a half a dozen officers came to Kascony. German officers. And by the way, they stayed in a Jewish home. But things changed drastically. For example, that was the first time I was told in history that there was no services at night, Pesach night, Erev Pesach and Pesach night in the synagogues. You know? And that was the last time for me being home for a holiday with my family. That Pesach. But we are saying, "Pesach. Pesach is a holiday. Pesach we sing, we drink, we eat. Pesach we make the Seder. Pesach is the holiday that we got liberated. Pesach is the holiday that God seen that the Jewish are saved for 400 years. And he told Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh and tell him that he should let the Jewish people go.'" Pesach we celebrate that God himself let the Jewish people out of Egypt. That's what it says. And here this Pesach, there was no services in the evening. This Pesach we were saying, we were saying, we were saying uh, uh, uh, the Seder, the Haggadah, quietly, quietly. Was, it was--we had a new pharaoh. There was a new pharaoh. [pause] Don't you know I, I, uh, uh, could talk more about this Jewish people. They been through pogroms, they went through pharaoh, but this is the biggest tragedy, bigger than anything. Because when God took the Jewish people out of Egypt, and the Jewish people we had seen uh, uh, uh, miracles. They seen how to see, uh, um...
???
??? Now when they went through the Seder, and they came to Moses, and they told him, "Why did you brought us here? Isn't there enough uh, burial places in, in Egypt? We should be buried here? Eh--take us back to Egypt." That's what they told Moses. Can you imagine? It doesn't matter how bad it gets for a Jew in any country, who would say, let me go back to Hitler in Germany. So that proves to me that this is the biggest tragedy what had happened to Jewish people all during the centuries.
When the six Germans came, what, what were they there for?
Well, I don't know what they were there for. That I couldn't tell you because I really don't know. I don't think they consulted any of the Jewish uh, uh, leaders or the--that I don't know.
But what--did anything happen while they were there or just after they were there?
N...no, no. The only thing we were scared an awful lot. We were scared more than ever to see that uniform. But nothing really happened.
Were they polite? Were they, uh...
Well they didn't talk--I don't even--they were polite, the place they were because they were in a Jewish home. They stayed in a Jewish home, and they were polite to them.
So you knew the people that they were staying with?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Did anyone talk to them and say what...
Oh yes we did. They were very polite. They ate and, and we had matzos. And uh, we told them, we told them it's the holiday and they were polite and uh, yes that's what...
They were there for the Seder?
That's, that--I never thought of it like that, but yes, they were there for the Seder.
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