Bernard & Emery Klein - May 23, 1984
Leaving Israel
This is another good place to stop.
B: Okay.
Okay, when you left Israel, your father, his new wife...
E: Right.
...who he married in Czechoslovakia, and the two of you came directly to the United States?
E: No, correction, I did say to Detroit, but really, or uh, we, while we were aiming to come to United States, we couldn't get the visa because we had to wait for the quota and ended up coming to Montreal, Canada. B: From Israel we went to Rome where we were supposed to get our visa.
E: Canadian visa. B: Our Canadian visa, because the American visa was long in coming due to the quota. In those days, the event of the quota was still intact, and it wasn't discounted for the tremendous number of people of Czechoslovakian origin who would not be able to use the quota. It was later on adjusted to that fact. So we spent in Rome seven months waiting for our Canadian visa, which was a little difficult for us.
E: Namely, the Canadian uh, Counsel was an anti-Semite, and he would just not issue any visas to anybody from Israel. B: He was trying to find all kind of excuses not to issue the visa. That's why we spent seven months in Rome.
E: And they really did not issue it until around... B: Mrs. Friedenburg, here in Detroit, found a very high contact, which literally sent...
E: In Canada. B: ...sent a telegram, which I happened to see with my own eyes because I got friendly with the clerk at the consulate, issued visa to the Klein family without any questions. And that's how we finally got the Canadian visa and we came to Montreal.
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