Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Ruth Federman - February 13, 2008

Preparing for Escape III

But did you think you were going to England at this point?

She said, she, she first choose England because of the education. Because she said, "You will get good education there," which I didn't get here because I had to work. I got my education from books or from uh, I had a very intelligent husband who also didn't have a education because he was 15 when Hitler came to uh, to the regime in Ger...Germany, yes? But he was very--I could ask every question. I still now say, "Oh I must ask,"--his was--name was Shmuel and we called him Samo--"Oh I must ask Samo," but Samo's not here.

So he was German Jewish?

Yes.

He's from Germany.

His parents came from Poland.

Do you know where?

From ???

Oh.

And, and Sosnowiec.

Sosnowiec.

The mother. If you know the...

Yeah, I know...

And they were thirty years in Germany but never got the German citizenship. They still had the Poland citizenship. They didn't want--it was--they lucky, so they could leave in time.

Do you remember the farewell when you got on the train, with your mother? Of course you didn't go, but was it...

I--my mother was a very strong person, so I didn't feel--look, what I'm saying, we were not the, the--how do you say? Heroes. The parents were the heroes, not we. For us it was a adventure. I go with the train, I go with a, a ship, and I didn't feel that my mother--I don't remember. I only remember one thing, that I went to the window and all the children were at the window, but I was tall, and I made like this and I cried, shouted to my mother, "This is my hand." That's all I remember. And I remember that I had a Mogen David and the Gestapo took it from my--from me because they looked if you--if we had jewelry or something, and the Gestapo men went with us. We were 16 children, with a couple who were not really a couple. He--a man from Palestine came to Czechoslovakia to marry young girls to bring them over. So the girl, the girl was 17, he was a invalid, and he must have been uh, good over 20. I--his brother was one of the, uh, of the leaders of the movement. I was in Czechoslovakia. And you know, when these, these couples came to Palestine, they divorced.


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