Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map

George Vine - July 5, 1983

And what brought you uh, to Detroit from New York?

Well, this one must have brought me here, but uh, I had a, a Landsmann living here in Detroit, really. So I came to visit him. And I had a very bad job in New York. I worked in a, in a sweat shop and I hated it, terrible, with a passion; it was just a horrible experience for me. Very bad, and I came here and he says, "Look"--that's the Landsmann I told you we had about four or five--Irving Altus, and he said to me, "Why do you have to go back there?" We are Landsmann and we are close, stay here you'll live with us until you find a job, didn't push anything. So I move to Detroit, I live there and that's the story of my life.

That's uh, so that's where you met, you met here? Or you...

I met here and uh, and in about a year later we got married, maybe less than a year.

Wife: ???

About a year.

And then you became a citizen?

Five years later I became a citizen of the United States. Um, I should uh, emphasize here which is very important, that I came here to this country as a refugee uh, now we are known as Holocaust survivors. At that time we were put together with, with various different refugees, groups from different nationalities, 'cause that's the quota that was uh, set up. If I remember correctly, I believe that president uh, Truman uh, on the presidential authority, I believe it is, had sent out uh, uh, or signed I think a, a law that let in 100,000 refugees. And I think a lot of the Holocaust survivors, at the same time, Nazis too, came in on that uh, quota. Um, this country has been good to me, gave me a uh, future, marvelous wife, a family, and of course I will always be grateful to this country. And I will praise it and I will criticize it, as a good citizen should. And uh, that's pretty much my story.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you. Unless you have anything else that you think is pertinent?

No, I think that's it.

I think you have it today.