Surviving Auschwitz you had to have guts.

he is announcing that all the jewish

people are going to be sent away

everybody is entitled to bring one bag

or suitcase or whatever they have of

course we had no suitcases because we

never traveled

so we sold up some burlap bags for one

per person

because that’s all we were entitled to

bring so the next day

we are told that we need to go to the

farmers market which is the center of

town

and they’re going to take all the

information for there was also a note

saying

any anybody that has any valuables money

or jewelry

to bring it with them and they’re going

to keep it for us and give them back

give it back to us when we come back you

know what bs means right

so my father said to me and my two older

sisters by the way i had two older

sisters and an older brother

and three younger sisters and a younger

brother my father says to my two sisters

and me

come with me i put a few pieces of

jewelry together

i want to hide it and i want you to know

where it is when you come back after the

war

so my father already had an idea that

maybe

he knew what was going on me i didn’t

have any idea what was going on in the

world okay so

we hid it in a corner between the

ceiling and the wall

so i am wearing this chain on my neck

this was from my father’s pocket watch

i wear this every day seven days a week

12 months a year

the minute i get out of it this is the

first thing that goes on my neck

this way i feel he’s with me all the

time okay

so we go to the center of town where

they told us to come

and they take our names put us on

oxendian wagons and

they must have put in 30 or more people

in each one we were squeezed

so tightly i could have walked it faster

that’s how slowly this oxen wagon was

going

so so we get to usharot and they put us

at the train station

they put up some pens big tents and they

put many people in each tent

and this is the end of april 1944 little

by little they’re shipping people away

and the reason they put us there so we

should be ready to be shipped away in

the trains

so finally it came our turn we go on the

train

and it’s a cattle train it’s not a

passenger train no

seats no windows just a sled maybe four

inches by 12 inches on each side of the

train

and so they squeezed in 70 80 people in

everything you couldn’t even move around

that’s how horrible it was

we’re going and going people are passing

out people are dying people are

complaining you have no

no imagination the train was took two

and a half days to go

from usher to uh poland or auschwitz

poland or

krakow poland and the train did not stop

once there was no water in the train

there was no place where you could

relieve yourself so

the train opens and a man in a striped

uniform comes on the train to help us

with our luggage and we are in auschwitz

poland so this man came on the train and

he

he comes to me he asks me how old i am i

said i am

14 years old he says tell him you’re 18.

i had no idea what he was talking about

okay and then he goes around

to see other young kids that he could

tell them to lie about their age

so um we go up the train walk for a

couple of minutes and then

we are stopped five in a row and there’s

three ss soldiers

uh separating us and i believe one of

them was mandala

okay my mother and my three younger

sisters and brothers went to a different

line

my father and my brother goes to this

line and then he asks

tells my two sisters to go to this line

and he says to me how old are you

i said i am 18. he let me go with my two

sisters

otherwise i would have gone with my

mother and my three sisters and brothers

the gas chamber i never saw them again

okay so a lot of people were saved this

way too we were told to lie about their

age because

they did not bring us here to have a

good time they brought us there for

slave labor

so here we are waiting for further

orders finally they match us into our

building

i should say and it’s a big room and

they told us to take our clothes off put

it on the on the side there

and then they shaved all our hair not

only the head everywhere so

all our clothes that we came with and

all the clothes that we brought with us

everything went to

germany for their families anyway so um

i got a dress and no underwear no

nothing no shoes clogs one dress and

pair of clothes wooden clothes and the

dress was down to the floor

so after this all done they marched us

into our auschwitz

barracks okay there were three camps a b

and c

so there was a check camp a hungarian

camp and a gypsy can

so we were in the hungarian camp anyway

so here we are we go to sleep

and we ended up on the top bunk there

must have been 10 12 women on the top of

tom

bank and we get up the next morning and

they’re serving us coffee black coffee

for breakfast uh

every 10 12 people get a bucket of

coffee

it tasted like black soot that was our

breakfast so after this is done we go

i go outside i told my sisters i want to

see where we are and what’s going on

i go outside and i see all these

electric fences 12 foot high electric

fences

and i see people holding on to the

fences because people didn’t

a lot of people didn’t know this was

electric they would put their hands on

there

20 seconds later they were dead you see

blood coming out of their nose

and they were gone okay so

so especially a lot of the people that

just came in the day before like we did

we didn’t know it was elected

i mean i’m just walking and looking i’m

not touching anything

okay i see dead bodies around me like on

the bottom of the electric fences

the body is holding on because they held

on so closely

didn’t let go even dead

because from the electricity you have no

imagination

how horrible that looked i mean it’s

unbelievable to even like to explain it

okay and there so i’m walking and i’m

looking around to see where i am and i

see all kinds of

people on the ground on here or there

it it’s unexplainable how horrible that

place looked

at that time so um and

while i’m walking all of a sudden

somebody calls my name

rosie rosie that was my jewish name it

was my father

my father and my brother were selected

to go to a factory to work

and they were there temporarily because

this was an all-woman scam

okay and my father he had like a

two-inch beard

uh always wore a suit a hat and a tie

well dressed

by the way he was a tailor he had the

tailor shop in the middle of town he was

the best sailor in our town by the way

my father is he don’t you recognize no

shaven

no beard no glasses no suit no you know

in a striped uniform you have to look

twice he said don’t you recognize my

father

we hugged them we kissed and the first

thing he said where is your mother

i said and at that time i really didn’t

know because this was the first morning

we were there

i said i’m here with my two older

sisters helen and judy

okay and we are in better 26.

and my father told me he’s here with my

brother they were already selected to go

to a factory

to work they’re gonna be there just two

days because this was an old woman’s

camp

okay so uh we talked and we talked and

then

then my father said to me he’s giving me

advice

and he’s telling me whatever you do make

sure you stay together because you have

a much better chance of surviving

okay so uh we humbly kissed and we made

up to meet the next morning

and i brought my two sisters with me and

my father brought my mother

and my his my brother with him we were

talking

and and he repeated the same thing

whatever you do stay stay stay alive so

you can tell the world what they’re

doing

and then stay together because you have

a much better chance of surviving

and we made that to me the next morning

but they never showed up because they

were there temporarily they were shipped

away

i never saw my father my brother again

okay because i never saw my mother and

three sisters and brothers either so

they left

and so here we are in auschwitz birkenau

after being there 10-12 days

i think we must have each lost 10-15

pounds because food

the food’s unbelievable it’s not edible

they come to alberta

we have to line up five in a row and

they’re selecting people to go to

factories to work so they

they don’t select me because i’m skin

and bone by that time okay

and so they select my two sisters to go

to a factory to work but me they put in

a different line

all the younger kids the skin and bone

people the people that are not

eligible to go to a factory to work they

put them in a different line

and that line all goes to gas streamers

okay

so of course when you’re there people

tell you what you need to do if they

don’t select you to go to a factory to

work with only

adult people try and get out of the line

make sure nobody sees you

because if they catch you they’re going

to shoot you on the spot so we went out

for three four times to get selected to

work each time they would put me in the

gas chamber line

so after going through selections three

four times he decided to

not to go because as i said there’s a

thousand women in the barrack

so you’re not forced to go out to get

selected we decided just to hope

that the war would end and we would get

be liberated okay this

so so this must probably be in may of

i was very sick after being there

probably a couple of weeks

i couldn’t even stand on my feet and

then after

being in auschwitz-birkenau for four

months

they came to alberta they needed three

hundred women to go to freudian thailand

in uh in the sudeten in germany so i

said to my sisters

go out front and keep a place in line

for me and i’ll see how i can steal

myself out of this barrel

so the buttock has a door in the front

and a door in the back okay

so my sister’s gonna get selected and as

i’m watching what’s going on in the back

but this lady who was sitting in the

back i didn’t know who she was so i was

afraid if i go she won’t let me out

but anyway then i see one of the

survivors who was helping in the food

department she goes out and i knew her

and she lets her out so i quickly chase

to the back of the bear

and then the woman who was guarding the

back door okay because we’re not

supposed to go out through the back

she says where are you going you’re

supposed to go to the front to get

selected to work excuse me so i said my

mother just walked up i want to go with

her

how this came to my brain to say that i

don’t know

so anyway she let me out my sisters held

the place in line for me in the front

this is how i got out of auschwitz you

had to have a lot of guts and and you

have to do what you have to do

okay so so here we are we are four

months in auschwitz-birkenau

camp c so they sent us to camp in

fryingtown okay

we were 300 women i was assigned to work

on

masks things to wear today can you

believe that

who would ever think that you’d have to

wear a mask again right i

had to sit in a high chair pick up a

mess put it on my face put it on

12 hours every day so here we are we’re

working and they’re always telling us if

we don’t do good jobs they’re going to

send us back to our shoes but hello

so of course we tried our best so this

is going on for eight months or so

we had two buildings in our place and

two story buildings three hundred women

and they would always walk us to the

factory they would come and get us

and walk us to the factory okay so uh

nobody’s coming and it’s about mr benmez

sevens or six i’m really not sure what

day it was but it was almost on the end

of the war and so we are not supposed to

leave the building and i said to my

sisters

i’m going outside i want to see what’s

going on and everybody said you can’t go

you’re not supposed to leave the

building

i said i don’t care what it is i want to

go out i go out and i see the gate

the gate wide open and there’s nobody

there so i was screaming to all the

women i said the gate is open

everybody’s gone and there’s planes

going over us

and we can hear the russian language it

was unbelievable

so i figured if i go to meet the russian

soldiers

the way i am with here probably the same

lengths as i have now

regular clothes they would think i’m

german they would shoot me so

i decided to take a piece of the dress

of the of my dress up and i found the

stick

and i put it on the stick and i went

like this in front of the russians

which means freedom okay so i went into

the feed

back in the back of the building where

the corn feels well

the russians were there and they hugged

me and kissed me and they came and

liberated us

the russians were very good to us okay

so finally

we all came back to normal so we decided

to go on the train

so we were going to the train station it

took three days or four days to get on

the train

because there’s so many people coming

and going and in those days

trains did not run like today remember

that

so it took us about four weeks to get

home from my village we had maybe

600 people that lived in my village when

i came home

i think maybe there were 12 or 15 people

and when we came home we went to the

house my house

okay it was not livable the roof was

gone

uh the ss soldiers kept their horses in

our house

so um oh it was completely empty

all the jewish homes are completely

empty because all that

a lot of the uh non-jewish people

actually moved into the jewish homes our

home

the esses had kept their horses in there

so uh

the first thing we did we went in the

house it was empty and then of course

we found the stool someplace and we

found the little shoe polish box with

the jewelry

and then we divided the jewelry between

the three of us and i ended up with this

chain

which i said before i wear this every

day right after i get out of my bed it

goes on my neck

this way i i think this is how i’m

surviving by knowing my father is with

me

okay hardly anybody came home so i

we stayed another couple of weeks and

then we went to the train station which

is not in my

village but it’s in the moon it’s the

same place where we were

taken away to ourselves from the same

train station okay

we did have a train station in my

village but somehow it never worked good

so

we couldn’t use it so we went there and

we were waiting at the train station for

three days to get on the train because

in those days trains didn’t run to uh

and my sister judy says i’m going back

to serena

one of the boys uh came back from the

war one of the jewish boys

came back he got his house back and he

asked me

he wants to marry me okay and he says

my sister judy said i’ve been here three

days i’m not staying another day

so my sister judy left back home to my

hometown

and she got married i never saw my

sister judy again

because i stayed on the train station

another uh six or eight hours

and i got on a train finally so uh

i went to prague i stayed with my sister

my my sister helen she was living in

people’s

apartment okay so

sir we were there for 10 days and my

sister helen said

there’s a gentleman by the name of

savannah montefiore who is looking for a

thousand holocaust survivor children

under age 16 to take to england for

rehabilitation

okay so my sister helen said it would be

a good idea

if i sign you up for this program i said

i think i would love to do that

okay so she signed me up i stayed in

prague

till february 2012 1940

six i was in the last transport because

my sister lived in prague and i said

there’s no rush for me to go

so they found 732 kids and there were

hustles all over england scotland island

wherever

okay wherever they could find places so

i was in scotland for about

eight months in the hospital and the

hospital was emptying out because a lot

of kids are finding relatives in america

australia and new zealand you know we’re

all orphans remember

none of us had parents our relatives

left so we were in scotland for eight

months after eight months

the hustle was emptying out so tubal was

left uh

and so we went to bedford which was not

far from london

60 kilometers in london and there was a

hostel there it was mostly all boys

okay and then they introduced us to

those boys we were 12 of us from

scotland okay

12 so uh they introduced us and there

was this young man standing in the back

i said that’s the man i’m going to marry

and guess what i did

see this i’m not going to hold this

straight okay

uh so i met him of course he already had

a girlfriend you know

all these boys in the hostel the

non-jewish girls came from the town they

like

it was bedford england they like the

jewish boy they know what’s good

okay so

of course i took me a while but after a

while i got him

he started dating in 1948 we got engaged

in 1950 we got married

so and then my husband is corresponding

with relatives in the united states and

they’re offering us papers to come to

america

so we came to the united states in 1951

to new york

and family max’s family met us

they were wonderful people and i’m still

so thankful that they did this for us

okay so we came to new york we lived in

new york for five years and then after

five years

we decided to come to san diego this is

a wonderful place to be by the way

okay uh we have four children we have

nine grandchildren

one great grandchild and we are so

thankful to this country for letting us

come

to make a life up for ourselves okay

there is no other country like america

here everybody has the opportunity to

become what they want

all they have to do is go after it okay

remember that