Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Natalie Zamczyk - January 30, 1984

Yeah.

But you ask me about anti-Semitism, so you see, you know, so. That's what it is. Because they were German people and they, they were... Listen, I was working here, when I came here I was working for my relatives. They had a big factory, you know, my relatives. They had two in Windsor and here and I was working there. I had a good job, I was a leader of the thing, you know, but I was working hard. You know, and I heard enough about this because they were Jews, you know. They were nice sometimes to people, you know, they--I wasn't a problem, you know. I heard lots of things when they said, oh, those Jews, those Jews, those Jews, you know, those stinky Jews. I heard enough. Sure. But don't hurt. Very. I tell it, sometimes I tell it. But now, no, now, no. I don't know. Not now, already been fifteen, twenty years, you know, I know. I, I know that this is a free country and I am standing for it. No, I am not ashamed of that. No, I'm not ashamed that I am Jewish. I don't have to advertise, but when I hear that somebody's talking about Jew something, so I get in.

Yeah.

I get in. I stand up. I stand up. Yeah, yeah.

Your son went to school here, you said to Wayne State?

To Wayne State, yeah, to Wayne State. He study in music, major in music, yeah.

And he teaches now?

He teaches music, yeah.

And you have two grandchildren.

Yeah, I have two grandchildren, one is fifteen and one is eleven. And I don't talk too much to them. I don't want to... Actually, they know, they know, they know lots, you know. But uh, they will know more when they are older. They don't understand so that, you know, with their mind, you know. You see, when I came to uh, to... Oh wait a moment. I forgot to tell, you see. I had in Poland very nice friend after the war, very nice friend. But my son and his cousin, they were throw stone on them in, in Podgorze. You know, when they start first school they didn't go to school, both of them, you know. The other is one and a half year younger than my son, you know, he lives in San Francisco. When they start the school, you know, my son was coming home... You know why they found out that they are Jewish, because Zamczyk is Polish name. Because the name was known there, the people know the name Zamczyk, was a business, was a lawyer. It was, you know, they know that was Jewish family. They were, you know, my son was sitting alone in the, in the bench, everybody moved out from him like it would be a, you know, some uh, contagious. And every day when he... I didn't know about it. After maybe month I found it out, you know. He was sitting alone. The uh, lunch what I took him, he, he, they throw on the floor, that he didn't have the lunch. And they were putting different uh, uh, design. One, that's what I, I found it, a Jewish mother with a big nose, you know, written. And dirty word under the bottom, terrible wording, you know. And I found this once and I said, what is this? And he started to cry. He was this time already uh, twelve years old, you know. And he started to cry. See mamma, we come to that again, you know. And I send him even for uh, catechism, you know for religious, they had religious hour where the priest was coming.