Sidy Weiss - January 7, 1987
Being Taken Away from Home
All right, they came into the house. Tell me the rest from there--what you remember when they came in.
Well, you wanted to, to know...
We'll come back, it's all right, it's all right, we'll come back to that. Um, they came to the house.
Husband: Yeah.
The Hungarian police was it? Or Slovakian police?
The Hungarian police.
The Hungarian police. And what did then--then what happened? [pause] Just, just tell me about what you remember about when they took you away, and where they took you and where they took your family.
Well, my father [long pause] it was the--how you call it? Right there, and, uh...
[long pause] Did they beat you? Were they, were they rough? What did they say to you? Like, um....
When they took me?
When they took you away.
No, they, they came with the--how do you call that? They came with the, open--how do you call that?
Trucks?
Open, open...
Wagon, yeah. Did you know they were coming?
No.
Oh, so they just came?
They just came and they uh, how do you call it? Got us together, and they...
They put you into the wagon--the, the whole family?
Everybody, everybody went together but uh, what I want to say that--how do you call that? He had a big store over there my father and they, they took us away and he went to somebody and uh, he told them to take [pause] I don't know what are they doing.
You father went to a neighbor, somebody he knew?
About what?
Well you said your father went to somebody, for help with the store?
Yeah, they broke in.
They broke in.
They broke into, into the store.
[long pause] Let me ask you a different question, and then we'll work backwards, okay? When they took you away, did they take you to a, a railroad station? From the store? From your house? Did they then take you to a--to the railroad?
Yeah.
To box cars? What do you remember about the box cars?
What I remember about the box cars?
Yeah.
I remember everything about the box cars.
Can you tell me about it? [pause] It's hard to tell about it.
They took us in the box cars and uh, how you call it? It was, I don't know what happened to me. You know, last night [pause] when I came home, something happened to me.
Were you worried about telling the story?
I wanted to tell the story but I tell you what, what happened yesterday.
Okay.
I felt that uh, everything was--you can, you can open this if you want to. I came home, I came home yesterday, I was uh, working part-time and I came back yesterday and I started to shake when I came home. And the, the--how you call it? The electricity was shocking me. I don't know for what reason.
All night was this going on?
No, it was, it was interesting that what happened, not the whole night, but I went to sleep. My, my husband was watching over here the television and I wasn't feeling good and I, I went in the bed and certain parts I was sleeping and then it was shaking me and it was--it stopped and then, just for seconds and then it was going on to, to [pause] later I felt that the breathing is easier and then after the breathing it was like my the--how do you call it? Was going out--my whole heart. SB : Have you ever felt this way before?
For a long time.
Last night this happened before?
It--this happened last night.
Did it ever happened before last night?
Not like that.
Then what happened, did you feel better later?
Later I felt better and I fell to sleep.
Were you worried about telling the story, is that it, do you think?
I tell you that uh, how you call that? Not because I didn't want to tell the story, I want to tell the story, that what had happened, but uh, I don't know what happened and people were on the telephone and I didn't even, even come out, but I remembered that when I was in--how you call that? In, in Krakow-Płaszów, they took out, uh...
Can you say it in Hungarian? Or Yiddish? Would that be easier? [long pause]
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