“I knew exactly how to survive [...] It was an art” | Ella's 101st Birthday | USC Shoah Foundation

June the 6th 1996 Cynthia maresky interviewing  Ella Blumenthal in Cape Town South Africa tape one okay my name is hella blumenthalma Frank for some reason in this  country are being called Ella I was born in Warsaw the capital of Poland I  was the youngest in a family of seven children there were four boys and three girls my father was a respected and well-known very  well to do businessman his name was naftali Frank he was running a business for the textile business supplying  tailors with everything that was needed   for the tailor like suitings Woolen materials for  coats and suits and everything else that goes with   the making of a garment from the material from  the outer material up to the needle and cotton he used to do the buying in the business which was situated in the center of praga where  we lived it was on the east side of Warsaw   he used to go out by train to  the center the business area in Warsaw where all the wholesalers were placed  and made purchases whatever required and parcels   carried onto afterwards onto a doroshka  which was a horse-driven carriage it   was Laden with parcels and then offloaded  with the help of the driver at at the shop my father was a religious man he was a hasid  the follower of the Hampshire novarebe who   work who lived in ottwards which was close  to water my father often used to go and spend   weekends with the rabbi asking him advice and  discussing family problems if there were any most of the uh Jewish holidays he also used  to spend with the rabbi except for Yom Kippur   Sukkot and pesach when he was  we spent with the family at home he was a very charitable man he never walked  past any beggar without dropping a coin and   when he had to walk again in the same street he  never missed again offering to them the charity   he never refused anybody who came for a  loan who asked for a loan he never refused   he was always ready to help people on Saturdays  when he came back from shul he often used to   bring with him or him we people who whom he met  in the synagogue who had nowhere to go for Shabbat old people sometimes sick people and he used  to put them at the head next to him because   he was sitting at the head of the table so he  could watch that the plates were always full   and got second helpings he used to respect the  people and make them feel very very comfortable he used to Daven pray in a small stable   and he used to enjoy reciting the prayers  conducting the service they didn't have a   cousin in that uh stable and every member of  the congregation used to conduct the service   I remember my father particularly liked  reciting the rashford and on a Saturday morning   after having a goggle model which is a yoke  of an egg wrapped with sugar vigorously to   get it very creamy he used to drink this and then  stand in front of the long mirror in the lounge   taking out his little brush  from the waist cut pocket   brushing up his mustache and his beard and  reciting and singing that prayer of yeh erotson to get it perfectly right he had a good voice and  he had a very good ear he was reciting and singing and when when he used to I can't carry on now yeah  it's wonderful wonderful he had some uh   distant relatives who were very poor people  they were shoemakers he used to check on   our shoes and boots if they were ready for  repairing for for getting new souls put up   and even when they were still in good condition  he used to carry them through to his relations   so that he could help them financially what about what about your mother I'm going  to talk about her he was my mother was looking after the business working together  with my father and she used to go out shopping   only from the shop from our business  to get some groceries and Provisions   we had made at home a Jewish maid from up  the country her name was Salah she was doing   the cooking and looking after the family and  seeing to to the whole order in the household   where was your mother from my mother was also  born in praga and her name was Hava Hava Frank she used to Friday mornings earlier donches to   get up and prepare the dough  for the challets and the cakes and winter nights or winter mornings rather she  used to put it at the foot of my bed between   the the feather covers the the undercover feather  cover and the top one so that the dough could rise   for the worms and when she finished  plaiting the colors the kitkas and   getting ready the cake she left the rest to  the maid and she rushed off to the business how did you spend Shabbat uh on on Shabbat   my when my father came back  from the synagogue in his black second robe it was called the kapota and all of us were dressed in the  new Shabbat clothing my mother with   a special dress and her shadow that she  only wore for for Shabbat and yamtovin   all Brothers we were all sitting together when  father came back from from shul with my brothers   he used to greet us all the Shabbat and sang  the prayer for the hostess for my mother and then we all sit around  the very long table the food   the aroma of the freshly baked kitkes and  the the gefilter fish it was mainly carbs   and the soup was get coming into the to the  room and in between the meals the dishes   that were brought in this the my father and  brothers were singing's mirot songs and I often   used to take part because I knew them by heart all  the songs and the all the Melodies and I knew the   words one of my brothers particularly used to  lean his elbow on the table bending his ear to   get to to to get out his voice  and to listen to the tune better   on Saturday mornings we had a chance which I used  to take on Friday afternoon to the to the baker   wrapped up in a in a newspaper tied down  with string after he was paid he stuck on   a ticket with a number and the other half he used  to give to me and Saturday morning I used to fetch   it from the baker papers Brown and crusty and was  breaking from the Heat and inside was a lovely   Brown kishka and a kugel a sweet pudding and  there was a goose usually on a Saturday served and we always had visitors always people for a  meal for the Shabbat meal afterwards my mother   used to sit and and learn read the translation of  the of the schedule in Yiddish and my father was always studying the Torah every free minute  in his life he spent reading we had a big   mahogany cupboard with glass windows in it   and behind purple curtains and this cupboard was  pecked in leather-bound holy books everything that you can think of was in this  cupboard as I said my father was always   studying at the Torah never used to sit idle you  always learned you always wanted to know more and   on his particular next Saturday morning he used  to get up also Dawn not to wake up the children   he sat at the window Before Sunrise and studied  and learned and later on my brother-in-law Samuel   rodstein used to come every Saturday join him and  they both set and argued and discussed the various   points of the of the Torah that they've just  learned the portions that they've gone through so that's a I can tell you  about my father and mother   and my family as I said we were four  brothers and three sisters my eldest brother was Ephraim but before him was my sister  Genia her Hebrew name was Golda she also worked in the business until  she got married in our family business   she got married to I mean  Samuel Rothstein who was a   writer and an editor of the Jewish Daily  Newspaper in Warsaw the city thugblatt my sister was selling in a in her business  she had her own business and she was selling   ready-made clothing like coats costumes  and suits for men and women only outerwear   and it was a business where people  accredit business where people used   to pay off it was a very uh affluent  business and she was doing very well they had four children the three girls  and a boy the eldest one was Roma   then it was regenca ustinka and the little  boy David my sister and brother-in-law   used to live with us after they got  married for many years it was a custom   for parents to allow to let their children their  married children live with them so that they can accumulate a bit of money to put them on  their feet before they went on their own so my   this sister Genie and her husband schmuel  were staying with us for a long time until   their first church my sister was expecting a false  child and then they moved to their own beautiful flat which was situated in targova 45 which  was not far from our home and The Business the next one in line was my brother he was also working in the  business before he was married and his wedding was in in scared near Lodge   he married a very attractive  girl in a very intelligent girl   Salah Mendelssohn they also stayed with her  parents for quite some time after the wedding and he started to gamble on the stock  exchange but you ask how did he have the money   to do it to afford it normally parents who could  afford it used to give a dowry to their child   when they married them off it was from both sides  from the girls and boys and obviously my father offered my brother when he married a large  diary so did my sister know who got it from   her parents but uh he wasn't doing too well  apparently although he used to write to us   every day and we used to feel with him when they  shares went down and he was very upset we we also we're happy when the shares went up when he lost  quite a bit of money he came back to Johannesburg   with his wife a little girl they also stayed  with us for a little while until they moved to   their own fled in the Jewish quarter in Warsaw  on geisha 12. their business was across the road   Geisha seven it was a wholesale textile business  and he was also doing very well this brother the next one was my brother oh I must  still tell you I beg your pardon they   had two children my brother from  him and sister nasala the one was   Ruth we call the rutechka  and a little boy moisture my brother eating nuts was after  my brother hey Nick I'll talk to   you about my brother henyak first who was just  after throwing he was completely different to   all my brothers he was not religious he was he was  a graduate of a dancing school in Warsaw he was a   very happy person and brought in a lot of laughter  with him he was very devoted to to every member   of the family and especially to us young children  and the my nieces and nephews everybody adored him he used to teach me to dance in a Saturday  afternoons I sometimes was dressed in the   Eastern special costumes that he brought me and he  used to show off what he taught me in the dancing   to the whole family he also bought me just about  a year before the war he bought me a beautiful   bathing costume it was a Woolen one with red  diagonal stripes and he bought it in a very posh Sabbath in Marshall koska the only very expensive  stores we're in the street he used to take me   swimming we lived not far from the  uh viswa that was the river Vistula   and we we swim there on the beach on the  River Beach on the riverbank in the sand   we basked in the Sun and played and swim in the  river and sometimes he used to hire a kayak and   swim and and and we drove down moved on to the  kerberger bridge from the ponyatovsky bridge   where we the the the beach was situated and  then we came back Upstream which was very hard he married a a Woman by the name of  Eda and they had a little girl Gala   my parents set him up in business  his wife and my brother he was   the main person who was running the business  it was also not far from our own shop and the next person was my  brother ignazi and he was   also a religious young men also after the studies  he worked in the in our in the family business and my brother that followed was loser his  Hebrew name was Eliezer he also was working in   our business then was my sister Paula who was two  years older than me she was a very beautiful girl when she finished the school high school  Harvard sell it they were already matchmakers   coming to my father and suggesting some  suitable young men but she was too young and she was married subsequently in  the ghetto which I will bring up later as I told you we were four brothers  and three sisters I was the youngest   and when I I was at nursery school and then I was  at public at the public primary school but when   the religious Jewish school opened in in our  vicinity it was betiakov my father enrolled me and we learned how much and we haven't prayed  in the morning they were only girls there on Saturday afternoons we used to meet  for Onyx Shabbat and sing and dance and then the high school was  Harvard salad where my sister was   this was in Wilson 22 and we had to travel by  tram to get to school over the bridge kerberger   I used to come down every  morning to my mother and ask for   Fair money but very often I used to pocket  the money and walk it was a long walk   and especially difficult in the winter  days when the River Vistula was frozen but I I enjoyed it and I've I collected quite a little  sum of money which came useful   and I tell you what I did with it  when my brother threw him got married as I mentioned before he married in izger   a town near Lodge and there was quite a lot of  members of family that were going to the wedding and I I didn't have a suitable coat I was wearing  the winter coat that was passed on to me by my   elder sister bipolar and it wasn't quite nice to  go to a wedding with such a to arrive with such   a was a bit worn down coat so the family decided  to leave me and also it was an extra expense there   was quite a lot of people going they were also my  brother-in-law's parents and their two brothers   so I was very upset and when there was a bachelor  party for this brother from him in our home   I was crying and poured out my  heart to my brother knows father and told him that I would like very  much to go I also mentioned to him   that I've got a bit of savings in the post office and he suggested look this is  what you've got the sum is not   enough for a full ticket you draw it  out and go and buy a half a ticket   you'll go through your parents will will manage  somehow and I did so and I confronted my family   with this ticket half ticket and I said I'm going  to the wedding when the conductor came into the   a compartment and looked around and he said  where is that little girl I don't see one   I was sitting in the corner curled up it  wasn't quite easy but my family fixed him up   the wedding was beautiful it wasn't just  one night wedding it went on for eight days   every day for every evening it was  like a party it was Schaefer Brothers foreign and it went on for long for the whole week coming back to myself I used to love reading I  belong to the library at school and to the public   library next to our home I enjoyed swimming  we had on the banks of the ristula river   huts where men were bathing separately  different Huts one for Ben and one for for   women it was enclosed but the water was coming  the fresh water of the river was coming through   but and the sun was pouring in  the top so it was open on top I used to like going there because   it was very uh it was a very nice to spend  an afternoon there I also enjoyed skating and in the afternoons winter time I  was at the skating rink practically   actually practically every afternoon I was very  proficient and very good at it and enjoyed it six years Ella tattoo you know we finished off last step you  were telling us that you loved skating   and that you were very good at it but  I know that you enjoyed swimming I we   I also learned and became  very good in swimming in those   enclosures the one was for women that's where I  used to go and the one next to it was for men only   that's where I learned to swim and  since then I I enjoy swimming very much tell us a little bit about your early days  at school I uh the primary school bettyakov   I was chosen to play in a Purim uh play that  was staged in a theater next to our school I was playing Esther hamalka Queen Esther and  after the the play there was a gymnastic display my father came to watch me he's  never been in a theater before   with his life because it was against his beliefs after the Jewish play of Purim where I was playing  Queen Esther the gymnastic display was going to   begin and when we changed into our special clothes  for this gym we were wearing long sleeve T-shirts   long white stockings and black satin skirts with  small slits on the side so that you couldn't   see any of our body everything was covered  unfortunately one of my garters was misplaced and I I couldn't manage to search for it they   just pushed me out onto the  stage I was in the first row that's where my place was and what doing  the the gym I kept on pulling at my stocking because it it kept on falling down I was in tears and eventually just before the  end of the of the gymnastic display I ran off   the stage in tears my father always used to  remind me of this incident he always used to   laugh and remind me how distressed I was and you  watched me tucking and picking up my stocking I'll tell you about the game about the yantovin   when it came to pesach of  course it was chaos in the house a the double windows were coming  off we had double windows for winter the winter months were very severe and they were double wielders which were kept inside the the inside the room on just next to the  uh the the normal Windows the windows outside   and they were and there was cotton wool special  long s of cotton wool that were tucked in for   winter in between the windows the the outer  windows and this was a job that my father used   to do always that was his his job well for for for  pace of those windows we used to come off and they   all the cotton wool that was placed in the first  Windows come out and we started cleaning everybody   helped the girls helped myself and my sister  we helped to clean the windows and mirrors and   everything in the house and it was the house  was turned inside out then when the dishes changing the dishes came the the paste our dishes  were kept outside the flat there was a special   cupboard and we used only smiratz matzah there was not the  machine there was I don't think even there were   machine matses in those days it was all handmade  matses we use those round ones in big round   paper bags with covers on it  it was kept on the Wardrobe my father was wearing a white kettle as well  as for for for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah and uh Sukkot we had um we we used to eat outside in the courtyard in  in sukas we dressed it beautifully always the   men used to put up the sukkah and the top  when it was ready we had to make it look   attractive with all sorts of uh pretty things my  father had all the meals my father and brothers   had all the meals in the indusuka he only  used to come up sleeping very late at night   but we women we ate only our meals there and  then we slept we stayed at home it was all in the   courtyard it was full of sukkas because there were  a lot of Jewish people living in this building now I'm going to tell you about the times when the war started we also  heard is there anything else you wanted   me to to tell you I wanted to take I wanted  you to tell me something about the children   that you went to school with well we I had  a different friends in the primary school   some of them my parents didn't approve of because  they weren't religious enough and bet Yakov I had   very nice friends and and in when I went to the  high school I have a salad all my friends were   living in Warsaw while we were living in praga  which was uh about one and a half kilometers   practically maybe two from from the school so  they were living there and we didn't really   visit very seldom did we visit each other  except sometimes on Saturdays that we used to go visiting them and we   not strangers we were not strangers to things  happening in the in the in the Big World we heard that Austria was followed by the  Nazi Germany that in 1938 that Czechoslovakia was sold to the Germans for the price of Peace  Chamberlain thought that he will that this will   satisfy Hitler's appetite we also heard of the  crystal Nacht we we knew of the of the sufferings   that the German Jews were going through the  burnings of their homes the beatings up of the   of the Jews we knew and heard of it through  the radio and papers in newspapers and yet when we heard that the Germans  crossed the Polish border attacking Poland we were taken by surprise had  there been anti-Semitism there was a   lot of anti-Semitism did you experience it  we did we heard very often words like Jew s my brother my youngest brother loser was  attacked and beaten up by Hooligans who   jumped up of the Florian Church there  was a hole next to the church and they   were hiding there he was wearing Jewish cops  a special Jewish cap that the religious Jews   were wearing and they've beaten them up and  he came home with a his ear almost cut off the the post were urging the Christians to buy in their  shops not to buy from Jews and they were notices in the Polish in the Christian shops polish or Christian shop we felt it we we we didn't have uh  friends in the in the in in among   the Polish Community because we were  living mainly with our Jewish friends when the when the Germans attacked the Polish borders  there was confusion turmoil fear panic people started leaving the city  in droves plenty of them day and   night you could see people going to East  they went They Carried their belongings on trucks and horse thrown wagons or  baby prams on horses on bicycles by foot people were in fear of the future in the meantime we also heard that England declared declared  war on on Germany and that France followed suit they promised to help us and of course there was happiness and joy   we sing outside the the English and  French Embassy Long Live England death to the German aggressors but it didn't last long few days later we heard already communicates  that through the radio news that   Germany that the the the the Polish forces could  not with withhold the well-equipped German army   and that the enemy was marching attacking water there was already in German language coming  through news on the Polish radio that   most of the western side of Poland like poznan  Lodge katowice levuff was in German hands the president of Poland with his government  is escaped to Romania but General smiggly   Ritz was assuring us that Warsaw will fight we  are strong will will fight to the last Soldier there wasn't much we could do the the bombardment of of water started and there  was shelling their bombs coming down and injuring   killing people in the streets was a building next  to the railway station that was completely crushed and fire was billowing from from it and our family  had a quick meeting and we decided that we are   living too close to the railway station it seems  that the enemy is trying to disrupt the railroads   and we had to move from our homes we went to live with my brother from him who  was staying in the center of the Jewish quarter in game as I said earlier on geisha 12. we  carried what we could what we managed to   each member of the family had a big bundle with  him wrapped up in a sheet and we took advantage   of of a break in the in the in the raids and we  went to Warsaw we walked through the kerberger   bridge a long time it took us to get there there  was no other way of getting there but by foot but unfortunately the raids continued also in  the Jewish quarter and they were more frequent it was shelling there was a shoe on  Geisha 12 in the courtyard which was a bomb fell on it and there was a a a fire   which was extinguished by my  brothers and other young men there was a shortage of food  some hungry people at techton   opened up a warehouse of pickled  pickles and and and and tomato soup there was some bakeries  that were still baking bread   but it was you could pay with your life standing  in the queue because of the shelling we were   sitting actually in the cellar of the building  not in the flats because it was safer to be below on Yom Kippur we we're all praying in shoes and  all the men in the white talayism   we're praying to God for for peace and for  the for the bones for the bombardments to   finish to to to stop but unfortunately  on the 27th of September Warsaw fell people came out of their hidings and sellers and we went back to our homes in praga our family there was no food and some people  even cut up horses in the street   that were killed during the bombardments for food the renew orders coming through we had to count I actually helped the Jewish community where  to count every member of of the family write   down who was there who was living where ages  it was all taken to the German authorities the German Army was marching through  the streets of Warsaw like there would   have been there all their lives we had  to reduce had to get off the sidewalk   when a German soldier was coming  through and we had to bow to him next we had to wear white  armbands with the Star of David there was a big business going on because  people as Jews were starting to manufacture   those armbands so the best and the most  expensive one was a plastic one which one   could wipe off and it was it lasted longest  but only the wealthier people could afford it we we had to um we had to decide on holding back my brothers   actually because my mother was very upset  my brother my youngest brothers were going   to go East with the rest of the people who  went on the Russian side to the Russian side and my mother was fainting when they left and   we had to call them back and all  in the crowds that were marching after the German Russian pect Poland was divided   the Eastern side was taken up by Russia  and the western side was claimed by Germany the people who were leaving   Warsaw and the surrounding towns preferred  communism to Fascism and they were leaving the borders were on the river book  and malkinia on the other side but lots of them didn't manage to get through  and some of them found it so difficult to stay on the Russian side  that they came back because   there was nowhere to sleep there was not  enough food they had no money to to buy food and they came back and they told us of  the of the of the difficulties they encountered   from particularly from the Russian soldiers  that they were robbed on the border and asked   for for everything they had they had to  deposit in their in their Russians hence well in the meantime there was   there was a lot of problems in in in in in  Warsaw when we came back from Warsaw to praga   my sister's shop was broken into by the polish  soldiers they left the army uniforms and they   dressed themselves in the Civil clothes we took  the goods the remaining Goods up to our flat   because my sister found hair flat that was that  was damaged during the shelling when we came back   from Warsaw from my brother's home we found  herflat was broken by shelling and all the   furniture was in in a in a big mess and clothing  you couldn't you couldn't live there it was Rubble   in the flat so they moved to our place and  the goods from her shop were taken up also   to our apartment but the Germans soon found out  informers told them that there's some lovely Goods   and athletes so they used to come and help  themselves and when they saw a nice piece of   silver or whatever of value they used to take  it without paying for it or without even asking   we took the goods out my sister's goods and we  took we we we replaced it with some relations   our shop was closed as any other  shop our own store but the Germans   some of them used to find out also  about the wooden shootings that we   were selling and this was priceless during  the war after the war it was unobtainable they came up to the to our house with the  informers and made us come to open the   shop and show what they wanted there  was one particular German that kept   came several times and I when I came  with my brothers to help them to the shop he took a liking to me one assessment and he  he he asked my parents he wanted to take me to   lodge because he was dealing in materials and he  was he would bring me back in the following week   and he kept on coming a few times when it whenever  he came for goods he asked for me but my parents   were hiding me and he stopped coming eventually we we managed somehow to survive because  we were people that had Goods   and we were not poor so we could  buy food on the black market and we stayed in in it in  our homes until October 1940. when we had to move into the getter how did you  hear about that well there were there were new   posters on the under the walls of the of Warsaw  and uh they were signed by the administrator   of of the Polish uh of the German general  government it was called the German General   German government and it was uh Hans Frank  who was in charge who was the leader and June 1996 tape three Ella the  Germans have now invaded Warsaw   and there are certain things that started  to happen can you tell us some of them   well there was a great shortage of food  with all the goods the shortage of goods all the prices went Sky High lots of people  were starving because they couldn't afford to   buy the food for those on the high prices  at high the high prices there were lots   of refugees coming in from the from outside  Warsaw and we formed committees to help them new orders came in all Jewish possessions were acquisitioned a person was not allowed to to to own more a  Jewish person was not allowed to own more than   two thousand zloties we had to stand in a queue  to withdraw long queues to withdraw 500 lotties there was no more there were no more people  that owned their own properties my father bought   a residential building in 1936 in grohof  on kodetskego 55 it was a ground floor   first and second floor it was bought in the  name of my parents naftali and Hava Frank   we were no more the owners of this property  the Germans were collecting the rentals I would like also to mention  that I have obtained recently   the all the numbers are pertaining their um this  building and uh at this stage right now it belongs   to the Polish state and I I can't repossess  it hopefully some days I will manage to do so the oh my my father my  parents actually also bought   some land in aretz Israel I've learned  after the war that it was bought in 1926. from the agudat Israel in warsa there were  many people who bought lent from from them   and they are good at Israel in Warsaw in turn  bought a very big portion from a company called in Frankfurt in Germany but we had no map apparently my parents had  no no papers no cushion no certificates   nothing to showing He did apparently  he did have a provisional one but   obviously we don't have any now after the war it  was all destroyed I did get in touch after the   war with a Advocate by the name of booksbaum  in Jerusalem who was acting on behalf of the   agudat Israel but he could give me no details  of he was working on it and time went on I don't know if it's correct but a road was  built eventually on this on this land and   I can't repossess it was he was a wealthy do man and a lot of people  were approached to buy land in Eris Israel   through different companies and he  bought it through the agudat Israel   were your family zionistic at all well my  family belonged to a good at Israel we're   very religious people they didn't really believe  in settling in Israel but in any case seeing   that my father bought land in in aretz Israel he  must have been thinking that it was a good thing   to buy a land there maybe one day we would all  go there I don't remember him talking about it what about some of the other things  that happened once the Germans the uh my   all public gatherings were forbidden and  synagogues were closed schools were closed the religious Services were still going on but in  private homes and I remember one Saturday morning the Germans walked into to a rabbi where the  service was being conducted was a Saturday morning   and he they got the rabbi out and beat him up  and one of the the people who came out of the uh   of the of the rabbi's home took his part and asked  the German to leave the rabbi alone not to hit him the German got hold of this Jew   and took him to the gestapa where he was killed  they brought his body back and all that it was   next door to us this happened all we were  in Brooklyn 32 and this was brookova City the whole of the district the whole  vicinity went to the men's funeral   and we realized that we seriously in big trouble   that the Germans are going to to to to  finish us off because this was the beginning   of the war we knew that we're in serious trouble  did your family ever discuss leaving Warsaw   we actually should have because we were wealthy  enough to buy a bus because we would have needed   a bus for for all of us some people did it they  went to Romania from there to England or to   most of them went to England traveled  to England but seeing that we   were a big family and we had possessions we  had Goods in our shop on which we could live   by selling slowly we used to sell it as  I said the prices went Sky High of goods we we we just simply stayed  on we didn't think further   it was the biggest mistakes mistake  the biggest mistake that we have made   we could have easily have left our whole  family but unfortunately it wasn't done   what were your brothers doing at that stage at  this stage there was just there was nothing really   to to to do we used to go out to sell Goods that  the polls were buying from us and they in turn   took it to to other people to sell we had to watch  our properties we uh our our homes and we uh we're   preparing we were prepared for the worst things  were not going very well in this stage and in 1940 in October we had to move out to the ghetto we left all our possessions most of them that  were looted by the polls we only took with us   what we could manage to take how did you move it well we moved it we carried a  lot of things because we had time but most of the   things we had to leave behind we took valuables  we took Silva with us we took Goods that we could   sell our own goods from from the business  uh and we moved to a to a place in in Warsaw   we moved into one room where the cooking  was done a large room and that's where   we stayed and some my SI my eldest sister  moved to uh to got another place in Pavia   with her children but her husband had left already  at the time her husband Samuel rodston went to   smuggled himself to to Russia he begged my  sister to come with her to take the children yes   he didn't want to leave them but he had to leave  because the Germans were looking for him they   were looking for the intelligencia and seeing  that he was a writer an editor of the paper   they had all they knew all about it they were  informers and they they came to look for him   while they were living at our place the concierge  the superintendent of their building came at night   in the darkness to inform him that the Germans  were looking for him and he said please leave   as soon as you can because they'll come back  to look for you they asked me where you were   and I told them I didn't know because  you fled was in Ruins you went away you   never came back and he kept on repeating my  brother-in-law and begging my sister to take   to pick up whatever they she could but she refused  first of all she didn't want to leave her parents   and brothers and sisters secondly she said she's  got four children who is going to give me Refuge   with a family like this you alone my husband will  always find a place any person on the Russian site   in bialistoc will put you up they know you because  he was a known person in in in Poland he used to   be the the editor of the Jewish  paper which was which was widely read   then she didn't want to she's had a lot of  goods that she was selling and living on and this is this this was the reason why  she did she she definitely didn't want to   go with him the day he was leaving when they  cut off his my brother cut off his beard and   helped him to pack up his things and we took  him to this they took them to the station   he still begged my sister please give me  at least my little son the little David   she said no I won't part with him where  will you take him you don't know you're   going to the unknown where will you sleep  where will you go he smuggled himself   through and he survived actually he went from  vilna from bialistoc to vilna and in vilna he got   papers for which he applied or to go to  Palestine or to America I decided to to   go to Palestine because he knew that he  could immediately on arrival to Palestine take his uh or send a certificate apply for  papers and send a certificate to his wife   and and children but in it by going to the  States you would have to wait for five years   so he he stayed after staying in vilna he went  to Turkey it was all during the war and from   Turkey he got to to Palestine and from there he  applied immediately for his wife and children   for papers through the British government and sorry and I'll tell you later that the  papers did arrive in the ghetto but I will   talk about it later the the certificate a during  his journey his voyage to Palestine from vilna   he used to send letters through the Red Cross and  they were arriving subsequently subsequently into   the getter he used to send small Parcels of  sardines they used to arrive from from Turkey please ask me um I wanted to say to you  your daily life in the game well before   you went to that was before the ghetto well  we were already moving into the ghetto where   I when I when I came to to talk to you we  lived in one big room I'm repeating and   there was a very difficult to to uh to find  accommodation because people pose who lived in the ghetto moved out and onto the onto  the uh onto the free zone onto the Polish   side and there was not many of them because  there was mainly this this uh region this   area was mainly occupied by Jews so it was  very very difficult to find accommodation   and we had to make do with one  big room it was my my parents   and two brothers and my myself and my sister  one of my brothers hennik he left already before   he decided to go to to live in the country he felt  they'll be easier it will be easier to to to get   food and to to to live instead of in the ghetto  so he didn't come with us into the ghetto he went   to Janu flubelski and that's where when  uh we used to send him occasionally   money by selling the goods from his shop and  he used to send us notes that came through the   poll that uh the poll that they subsequently lived  nearby they were not in a getter they were living   with a pole and afterwards they in in bialala  lubelska they were living with these Polish people   and subsequently they went into  the ghetto all the Jews were   that were living in this area were taken  into the woods and shot out that's what   we've heard afterwards that's that was my  brother his wife Eda and the little girl uh in in the indicator there was a lot of people who who didn't  find homes and my father used to bring   a people from outside from to and still learned  Torah and we begged him not to do it because   there was a lot of sickness going around it was   typhus and everybody most of the people  who were homeless were curious of Lies and it happened my father got sick he had typhus it was very difficult to get  doctors and medication particularly   he had a complication of leather but he survived he was much we he was much  better and got to Hell's he got healthy   talking of sickness before we moved into the  ghetto when I we were still in our home in praga I took sick the doctor was called a doctor and  he established that I've got typhoid   it was it was a big problem in those days  because every home that had any infectious   diseases were sealed and the inhabitants  of this fled were taken to a quarantine where they got more lies and more  more sickness when they came out   the flat was sealed and fumigated  and a lot of goods were stolen obviously my parents wouldn't  allow me to go to hospital so a doctor a Jewish doctor  was found who used to come   daily to our home and he was  dressed as a worker as a Tradesman and he took blood from my finger he sent  it off took it with him for analysis   and he established that it was this terrible  sickness my family had to move out of our fled   the only person that remained was my sister  the last one room was completely emptied   I was fighting for my life my sister was helping   me she cleaned me she washed me and gave me  the medication that the doctor used to bring at very high temperature but I survived and I came back  to health it was just a miracle typhoid was the illness it was a internal  typhus do you know what typhoid is typhoid is   inside your intestines an infection  inside it was a germ that you   have encountered in the food or that you  have eaten and it's very very dangerous so this was the the one first terrible illness  that I went through my mother was praying uh   in into this big water of where all this  farim where all the holy books were to   to save a the child the youngest child and I  survived I recovered and I'm sitting telling you   the story of it now what was the daily what did  you what did you do daily well there wasn't really   a much to be done when we moved into the ghetta  there was only two months that the ghetto was open   in December they shut the gates of the  ghetto because the walls were already   built up with glass on top of it and wires and there was no way one could freely move onto  the Polish side because it was still easy at the   time we could go out onto the Polish side  to the poles and sell our Goods in order   to obtain some money to buy food but once the  the ghetto was closed there was no way we could   communicate with the with the Polish  side except that polls particularly   polish policemen were allowed to come into the  ghetto and they were places where we used to meet   them and they used to buy at their  price the goods and they smuggled   them out onto the Polish site where  they used to sell it at a high profit the order also there was another order  that came in all on the walls of the   ghetto that all facults had to be handed  in and everybody in our family had first   very expensive and good first and we  have decided instead of handing it in   to rather burn it unlike the radius which  were handed in when we were still at home when we were still in praga we had to hand in  whoever had a wireless and we had one with my   Telefunken which my parents bought just before the  war with a beautiful green eye in it was going in   and we were so proud of it we handed it into  the I I myself took it into the police station   in praga but the first we said we're not going  to let them have and we were we rather burn them   you can imagine the smell of the  of the of the of this Burning   fur and and skins but this we we  we we just left for ourselves small Furs that were not really uh proper first they  were imitations we had to think of the winter days   the cold winter days that we're coming on did  you have any outside Polish people that that   still remain friends with you no no we if we  did lack the concierge that was or from from   our building the building that my parents had and  uh there were some neighbors in our buildings but   they were all hostile to us as a matter of fact  in our building a floor below where we were there   was a folks Deutsche that was living and obviously  even before the war we had no dealings with them the flats they fled next to us was occupied  by a German refugee that was still in praga   a couple an elderly couple German  refugees and they were telling us terrible   terrible stories that happened in Germany  they brought all very sad news to us now okay Ella Blumenthal interviewed by Cynthia marisky on  June the 9th 1996 this is part two and tape four the ghetto was overcrowded   refugees were brought in by German  escorts from Outland towns and villages they were coming in with families  in small bundles of possessions they were placed in in schools and in synagogues   there were also refugees coming  back from the Russian side they couldn't just make it there and some of  them were longing for their families therefore there was a lot of people coming in continually and food became very expensive and very  difficult to obtain there was a shortage there were 10 to 15 people living in a room   typhus was arrived among the poor elements there  was malnutrition starvation epidemics and disease my father also became ill he had typhus because he he  used to bring in people from outside to study   to learn the Torah and we were  very grateful for the doctor that   helped us and he recovered even after  a very serious bladder complication the children were begging in the streets in regs some were dying but the stronger ones have learned  art of smuggling of bringing food into the ghetto but unfortunately some of them  were caught and they were shot   you could see their little bodies hanging  on the wall or lying in a pool of blood the food was very difficult to obtain at one stage  we were getting only seven and a half grams of   bread but there were only the people who were  registered who worked for the Germans that were   that we're getting the coupons the food coupons  the others had to buy things on the black market the raids were continuing in the ghetto you  could see all of a sudden the German trucks   stocking could hear their wheels halting coming to  a halt and the Germans jumping off the the truck you the halt you this you stop people were running in all directions trying  to find ref Refuge some were climbing upstairs   getting into courtyards calling manhatt  manhatt they are catching warning others   the ones who didn't manage to escape we're  bundled into the truck and driven away   at this stage I would like to refer to incident  that happened to us before we came into the ghetto when we were still at home my father was unfortunately also  caught in the street one day   and had to report to work every day but one Friday  he did not return when we were already for Shabbat   even the the candles were already burning at the  tape on the table and my father was nowhere inside   but when we heard his footsteps on the stairs we  were relieved he walked in a completely changed   person it wasn't like my father he was Asian  Gray full of mud his color was ripped of his coat half of his beard was cut off securely he was  telling us with tears coming down his cheeks   that one of the men didn't report this very  morning to work two assessment came to his home   dragged him out of bed and  brought him to the place of work the men who were caught including my father were made to dig a trench   and the sick men was made to stand at  the edge of this of the of the trench   and shot Without Pity at the back of his  head and when he fell into the to this trench the other men including my father  were made to cover up to close up to   the the trench to with the sand it was the most terrible terrible experience to top it all my father was a Cohen it's  a Priestly Hood from the Biblical times we and those people were not  allowed to be anywhere near   are not allowed to be anywhere near a corpse he then told us that he only realized now that  we're in the hands of murderers I'm coming back to the ghetto  the raids were continuing and they were notices placards on the walls  of the ghetto they usually came in Jewish   German and polish they're announcing  that whoever will report to work   voluntarily will be given bread and jam and  some people who had starving children at home   fell for it but they never returned and then  people obviously stopped reporting to work the Germans then decided to cordon off streets   and later on hold blocks were cordoned  off and with the help of the Jewish police they caught whoever was whoever was at the time in this  in the in the in the street there were also people who who didn't want to believe that the rumors  that were circulating in the in the ghetto that   people were not sent to work but they  were sent to places like Treblinka and they were the guests and burned   there were some people that came back that  managed to escape a few and brought the news   back into the ghetto but we on we thought  in the beginning that were only rumors but only when the people who  were caught did not come back   into the getter to their families  we realize that it is true there were also placards announcing  that we should hand in silver people were bringing out lots of silver into the streets to sell to the  poles to polish policemen they were offering a   kilo of silver for just a few slotties there  was an abundance of it there was such a lot   of silver that the poles couldn't manage to to  get out to smuggle it out onto the Aryan side people bringing their possessions  the last bit of possessions   to the little marketplace  where the poles used to come in in order to save their starving families they had  to sell the last bit of possessions that they had in the meantime our family there were two brothers who were  not married my two youngest Brothers and at the rabbis apartment there were ceremonies  just for the nearest for for our closest family   they were both of them were married in  different times at different times then my   sister Paula married me at a crisp presbygar and  my family decided in case anyone gets caught we I can repeat that yeah the my  family decided at this stage   to divide the valuables the  jewelry among all the children they were diamond earrings and pendants there was um  gold jewelry and the most that we've managed   to acquire was in the beginning of  the war there was a black market   continually but particularly in the in the  beginning of the war there was a big Market and sale of gold coins which were needed by  people who had cash who had money because it   was small and it was valuable and it was easy  to hide and my family bought quite a lot of it   and when we divided the the jewelry the valuables  they were everybody had also some coins there were   some gold coins they were Russian  gold coins English American gold coins and everybody had stitched in  their valuables into their clothing   sometimes into the Hem or any other place in the  shoulders of a of a garment but the safest place   was the underwear we thought it would be best and  safest if we apart if any one of us gets caught   we could save ourselves by offering anything of  value that we have had even small children had   stitched in this uh the valuables I just  want to go back to your brothers and sisters   getting married what kind of a ceremony was  it or it was not even a ceremony it was just at the home of the flat of the of the rabbi  just the closest just parents and us children   that were present and and just try and tell me  you were a young girl you were 18 what were your   feelings when you walked through the streets of  the theater well it was it was it was terrible   for us for young people to see the happenings  those starving children begging in the street the the terrible side which was in the water  getter was in the morning when you came out   into the streets you saw corpses lying that were  covered with newspaper and held down by stones   their families put out their bodies their  dead at night they couldn't afford a funeral this was one of the most terrible  things to watch in the ghetto the I don't know if you remember me mentioning  that my brother-in-law my eldest brother-in-law   Samuel rodstein left the ghetto before  we moved into the ghetto he he left   and my sister wouldn't come with him she wouldn't  leave the family our parents and she didn't want   to take children for the unknown this is your  sister Paul my sister Genia the eldest one   she had four children my eldest sister  my brother-in-law had to go on his own   because the Germans were looking for him he  was an editor of the paper as I've mentioned   he he he got to BL stock safely  from there you stopped in vilna   and while he was there he applied  to to the British authorities   for a Visa to Palestine and he traveled  I don't know how long it took him   he went to Turkey from there he got to Palestine  but while he was traveling he used to send through   the Red Cross little Parcels to my sister food  parcels little the mainly tins of sardines when he got to Palestine he's he applied again for a Visa for his wife and four  children that were in the ghetto and my sister got it it arrived there was  a such a thing as red cross and it came   when she went to call for it at the post office  for this big envelope with the VISA in it   they had to ask for they had to mention  different addresses that were in   my sister as well as ourselves we had  to move from place to place from one   vacant apartment to the others to the other  because the ghetto was becoming smaller the   walls of the getaway were tightening  up and we had to move continually when the people were caught they  left behind vacant Flats with   Furniture in it in the whole household people we're working for for we  people who worked for the Germans   mostly they were employed at the workshop  called cabins Schultz or in a brush Factory at Kevin's insurance they  were sowing German uniforms and those people were safe because they they were not caught in the  streets they were working during the day   and they were supposed to have been  immune to the to to the to the raids there was also a a a workshop called I was working there we we did clear the  vacant Flats left by people who were caught   and we were bringing down to the  yard where there were German trucks positions paintings silver porcelain beautiful  linen fur coats whatever was available whatever   was left in the flats were brought down to  the trucks and then it was shipped to Germany   can we just go back to your sister receiving  the certificate yes what it what happened with   her then right when she got this certificate  she unfortunately had lost already three of   her children only one Roma her eldest daughter  was alive what had happened to the other three   she what happened to the other three  children they were caught when my right I will just explain as the  ghetto was getting smaller and smaller   and the rates were so frequent I already lost quite a few members of my family my one  brother was caught when he was coming down   from our apartment and as you walked in the  street there was a raid and we've never seen   him again and no his wife was my youngest  brother loser my sister-in-law whom we were   living with the hostess of gay shot 12. was  caught in the street as well she went to look   for her maid who went out on an errand and  never came back so they both disappeared and as we were moving from one apartment to another we were at a at a place in bolova number three   that was my mother my father my two brothers  one with the infant and his wife the other   brother's wife was already gone one brother  was also um caught my brother henik was in left the water getter and went into the  country to yanov with his wife and child   he thought it would be easier to live  there I think I mentioned it to to get food and they were hiding there the whole family I  was in a different place on Mila Street hiding   with friends of mine and one of my brothers from  was ill and the family knew that I had some rice which would help him so my father my sister again  the eldest one and my niece Roma were dispatched   to me to fetch that bit of rice  but as they got to my Hiding Place   this there was an one of the  biggest raids it was September   1942. where all the gates of the ghetto were  closed all the outlets you couldn't go in or out they they came as they were  getting to the building where I was   there was a raid and everybody was running up  into the hiding where I was and they were the last   ones that managed to get into the leather and they  came up and sat with us through the night when the   leather was pulled up you couldn't see anything  because there was a flip we were all in the Attic we set through the night there and the next  morning we went to look for our family for   the rest of our family when we got there  there were only three Rook sacks left   on the floor that's all everybody  was gone the one was from one groups   that goes for my father one for  Roma and one for my sister Genia so this was the rest of my family that I've lost and they were just this the  three members and myself and   my sister Paula who was with her  husband in the vet also working at   the veterans and in living in their  block but I belong to those people and some of my friends who did not believe  in working for the Germans we did not believe   that we would be safe when employed by them  there was a saying in the ghetto just hide this was the best Workshop hide  how do you say it in Yiddish that was just the only way that was the safest way and I'll give you an example my  father and Roma and my eldest sister   bought some permits to work for Schultz for the  workshop shoots where they were sewing clothing   and one day she came into the ghetto to get  advice from a family friend Dr Hillel zeidman   what to do with this Visa permit  for Palestine that she had and on a Monday morning after the weekend   she went back to shoots to the workshop  shoots which was outside the ghetto the the gates closed every Outlet  was closed again and there was an   enormous raid this was in  January not already 1943. she was caught and laid off with other people  to umschlagplatz which was an assembly point   from where the trains were taking the people  to various camps like treblinki Auschwitz we heard afterwards that my sister met a man  Platz they were waiting for the trains to return the empty trains were returning to fetch new people and she met a man there and he told  her that if she would give him the valuables   that she had because she must have been  trying to buy herself out from the place   he would help her to get out Blumenthal in Cape Town tape five we lift tape four talking about  your sister going to the um Platz I was referring to the men  who promised to help her if   she will would hand over her valuables to to him she did so she gave him whatever she  had to save herself to save her life but unfortunately he left her behind and he  saved he got out himself he bought himself out this man was pointed out  to my father in the ghetto and my father did approach him   and asked him but he refused to admit it he  said he knew nothing about it what did your   father ask him for he asked him why did he  leave my sister behind while getting the all   the valuables from her and promising to save her  what happened to your sister she was shipped out to Treblinka with all the other people she was left behind at um while the men  who promised to get out saved himself   with her valuables is that clear so  he denied this to you he denied it there's nothing we could have  done it was too late she was gone I could also mention an incident when my sister's husband my sister  Paula's husband saved three   children of my sisters who  were caught in the street and he managed to bribe the German God  and get them out from um bring them back   but there was some subsequently caught  on vulva 2 with the rest of the family   they were shipped out and caught in  shipped out to to umatz and send off to the to the camps so there were ways sometimes there was  luck if you if you had the money to bribe   and the people were willing to accept  it one could get out but not for long   they were caught again I want to show you  that even with the work permits for the for   the Germans one wasn't safe my sister who had the  work permit and produced it to the to the Germans   what not even they didn't even ask her they  didn't even look at it she was just pushed   down the road to walking to marching  to the to um Platz so we were right   that I was with the people that believed in in  hiding this was the safest just hide yourself there were young people who were preparing  an uprising our ghetto Fighters and they we even had pamphlets sometimes we got  hold of one where they were asking us   urging us not to submit to the Germans not  to believe them that people are going to work they told us in it that people are that they  were the Germans were killing the Jews nobody   is being sent to work because how can old people  or children that were called the how can those   they were not able to work don't believe  them only hide we are preparing a resistance   did you ever meet any of the famous places  himself with two of his friends came up to our   apartment we were living at the  time on Miller 19 I'm going to come   I will tell you about Mila 19 just  now and 11th came up to us and ask   for donations my father immediately  offered it he did not hesitate because   arms were being smuggled  in they had to be paid for all came in from the Aryan side sometimes the the  arms were faulty but paid with good money for it the movement sent messages through the  through to the Polish resistance uh   through the through the polls who were in the  in the resistance movement on the Aryan side   to advise the world what was happening  in the ghetto why were we left to die but no help was forthcoming when my sister Genia was gone my father  Roma my niece and myself found a vacant flat   on Mila 19 which is almost opposite Mila 18.  the headquarters of the resistance movement where all the ghetto Fighters  were there but from outside   the gate was you couldn't see anything the gate  was always closed you wouldn't believe that there   was anybody in the building and there was such  a lot of preparations hot preparations going on in this apartment there were people living so  there were beds and pots and pans and bedding and there were also some friends with us living  because we were about 10 people in the in the   whole apartment what we have done is we have  bricked up a wall adjoining the last room   we've painted it to look like the  other part of the wall there was   a wardrobe with clothes clothing  pushed over that bricked up wall and we climbed up to the flat above ours   and the room that was exactly  above the one that we have enclosed was full of old pieces of furniture  we cut out a piece of parquet floor   to come down after opening also breaking through  the ceiling and we could go down to that room   which was actually the last one in our apartment  there was a leather placed and the last person   who went down the ladder pulled over the cot an  old cut that was there over that opening and a   and the flap was pulled over closed and we  were sitting in this room for quite a long time we were coming out only at  night into our apartment to cook a bit of food bit of soup   we had some fat it was actually horse fed it  was yellow it was the only thing we could obtain   my father didn't know he didn't know that was  a different color but when he suspected it we   had to admit to him and he stopped eating  it we had to have some fat in our bodies we sat there through the night and even spent the pesach it was April 1943 my father had a piece of matzah which  he shared the first and the second night   reciting the prayer over the matzah while we were sitting in this hiding the Germans with the age of of of of  the Jewish police were searching looking   for Jews in the apartments from outside they couldn't  see that this room was closed   that we that it it was enclosed because all the  windows looked alike it was a very it was rather   a big building and all the windows were uniform so  from outside they couldn't see but when they came   to aflat and looked it was empty we left it in  disarray as people would have left with the raid   so they didn't suspect anybody being  there but they searched in every apartment   we used to hear their footsteps and  sit quiet there was a man with us who used to live in the building before  the war in Miller 19. his name was moisha   he he was a baker and we called him moisture  Baker he approached us and said you've got to   take me in into your hiding I have got nowhere  to go and my wife and the small little child and there was no way we could say no we had to  bring him take him in with us but the child was   an obstacle we had a pill already there was a  pillow and the mother kept it in whenever they   the Germans were in the Next Room  or above us searching and looking   she had a pillar in Readiness  to to cover the baby's face and one day when we were sitting in this room we felt just heat coming in from  outside the front facade of the   building the front side was set on fire  and the Flames were coming into the room we had no other way but to climb out   and we were just very lucky we were thoughtful  before because we prepared another bunker in readiness it was just a thought and  we were really lucky because we found   a place in the last Courtyard  of the same building Miller 19. a seller where people used to store before  the war potatoes and for the and a coal   for the winter months there were little  cubicles and in the very last large cubicle   we've prepared shelves and stored a bit of food  like dried flowerful and some fat water candles and when we hit to leave that room that  we're in that we were hiding in on the   front facade of the of the of Milan  uh 19 we all went down to this seller we pulled an old toilet that was lying a broken  piece of toilet just close to the door and we when   and we set the in in that Cellar venturing out  only at night we got out to get a bit of fresh air   get some food outside we couldn't stand up  in the cellar we were all sitting and leaning   against each other it was very stuffy the  candles wouldn't even burn for lack of oxygen but we were still alive when  we came out we were still free but it wasn't to last long we felt the heat that was unbearable we  begin to suffocate the walls were hot and we realized that this part of  the building where we were hiding in   the last in the last Courtyard was  also set on fire this was the way   the Germans decided to get the rest  of the Jews out this was already May   1943 it was a month's after the uprising was  crushed we were we still managed to survive did you ever think about dying continually that is why we were hiding we had  the will to live and this is what kept us going we couldn't breathe in that cellar we realized that that we that the whole  this part of the building was on fire   we had to climb out of the cellar and when we came  out the whole getter was in flames it was night but the light the Flames were so  strong that the night was like the day   the Flames were reaching the skies people were running in all directions they didn't know where to go they're running  between the Flames the hair was burning their   clothes was on fire there was a woman that  was hanging from a balcony that she was dead we found a woman's another  woman sitting on this on a step   with a baby at her breast the baby was  still sucking but the woman was dead the smell of the burning feathers and the sight of the Flames reaching the skies  is forever in my nostrils and in my sight some people just fell into the clutches of  the Germans waiting outside in the street but we our group decided differently even in this dark hour when we  were trapped with nowhere to go we still resisted and would not submit we decided to find a place to hide and the main moisture  moisture Baker who was hiding with us from the   fled and in the cellar showed us a spot that was  still safe in the court in the second Courtyard   of the building he used to store flower he was  a baker so he stored flour there before the war   it was a very small spot a very small storage  and there must have been about 10 or 13 of us   that squeezed ourselves in and simply there  was no way you could move even a finger so tightly we were pressed in this small space we  pulled over the flap and we sat there every night   again venturing out only in the daytime   I'm sorry we sit there every day  and only venturing out at night to straighten out our Limbs  and to get a bit of fresh air but one morning we had heavy footsteps above us and knocking with the rifle but Rouse Rouse get  out you cursed Jews we realized immediately that   we were betrayed because this was the only way the  Germans could have found out that we were hiding   in this place they were unfortunately a lot of  informers roaming around between us at night when we got out one by one   into the daylight we were blinded because  we haven't seen daylight for weeks our eyes were not used to it the Germans made us stand against the wall facing  the wall with our hands up we were ready to be shot we were just waiting I was praying that  I should be shot first I didn't want to   see my father in Roma being shot  before me but there was a miracle we were not shot but we searched  for weapons and then asked or ordered to place our valuables in a big SEC  that it was placed in the middle of the courtyard I didn't do it no that Roma   my father we kept it we just thought there's  always time to give up what we've got we walked out and through the ruins into  the street where we were marched to um   but what we saw was there's still a world   we didn't realize when we were in hiding  all these months and locked up in the ghetto the sky was blue it was  Springtime as I said was May the sun was coming out even some trees  Hazel have already had some bugs on it it was unbelievable and we were going to add this the site of the ghetto was Unforgettable   it was just ruins there were some buildings that  were still smoldering from the fires that were when we got to umatz we were  ordered to stay in a big hole and waited through the night drunken you you cry they were like drunken  Latvian soldiers who were working for the Germans   came in and pulled out young  girls my father covered Aroma in   and I was his coat and when we sat  through the night they're not moving out in the morning we're made to go out  and we were placed in a single file there was an old man who was just before my father and my father offered him his last piece  of loaf sugar that he had in his pocket when we were walking towards the  trains the man was called out and shot he just dropped so softly so  quietly right almost next to our feet I whispered to my father who was in front of me  please don't look back just straighten up and walk there were Germans on on this on the side of  us Fuller for them they were all heavily armed   some were lying on the on the top of of the  trains that we're waiting all pointing guns at us when we got to the trains we were pushed in so tightly that they couldn't even  close the doors of the train and then when the train started moving there was no air in it people were suffocating   they couldn't breathe with standing  picked almost like sardines we asked the god who was on the step of the of the of the track to give us some water we offered them  gold coins they grabbed it but wouldn't   offer us the water the water was  not coming people were suffocating somewhere even dying in a standing position  who are fainting and when we the train stopped and the doors were opened of the train the Corpses are falling out the stronger men who were with us were made to move out those bodies my father was not in a position to move he must have fainted we couldn't move him we couldn't  we couldn't get him to stand up   we we had to leave him so Roma myself joined the  others and we marched 12th 12th towards a building   that was whitewashed and one of us there was  somebody between us that said this is Treblinka but the men who were working in cleaning up the platform there there  were prisoners with striped uniforms   told us that we were at a railway station called  litova shadem lipova 7. which was near Lublin we were in this building in that  washed whitewashed building and   looking for water we were also terribly  thirsty from the from this train journey we just found a dripping shower place  where there was just slowly water coming   down everybody was pushing themselves  everybody was trying to get a few drops later on I saw a figure walking in long  underwear white underwear but it was a   familiar figure I didn't I we had to look closer  with Roma and we realized that it was our father what we found out later after the war that  there were two men who were cleaning out the   the the the wagons the trucks who were with  us during the in Miller 19 and in the train   and they knew my father very well  because we were together in hiding when they pulled out my father as dead   they realized that he was warm  they helped him to stand up and helped him into the building he  must have taken off all his clothing   because he came only in his underwear and  he kept on repeating he was actually dazed   he kept on repeating and asking where his  part of the underwear was where he had   stitched in his valuables  but it's this was left behind June the 9th 1996 Ella Blumenthal  in Cape Town South Africa tape six   we were so happy to find my  father that was Roma and myself   we hugged him and kissed him and managed to find  a coat for him which was lying somewhere around and then we were ordered to get out of the  building and we were placed in rows of five   and we were marching with German Gods on each side of us  and Alsatian dogs on their leashes I was on the outside of the row I  don't know whether I've tripped or   the dog got hold of me but I was I fell  and the dog kept on biting into my back   I was crawling on all fours trying to keep up  with the others and I was waiting to be shot but another miracle happened the dog was called off and I was helped up my back was bleeding my  knees were scraped from crawling on the gravel and we got to an open place an open field which was enclosed with barbed wire   there were centuries all around us  in watchtowers we were in maidanic there were a lot of people  old and young men and women while we were waiting for orders I was holding tightly Roma  and another friend of mine   and a dad with a heel with  my heel a hole in the ground and I placed part of my valuables in it thinking   hoping that I would come back  we Mark the place carefully and we moved away then women with children and older women  were marched off to the crematoriums then the older men were taken  away and my father was among them when he was walking away he just  turned back to have the last look at us   he was hit over the head and  this was the last time I saw him it was just Roma and myself left we came into a building and   in their in in the room we were made to undress  and leave our clothes there there was an iron cast oven an old-fashioned one that had still   Ash on the bottom of it I place the rest of my  valuables there and covered it up with the ash thinking that I would come back for my clothing   there and take the valuables out  because we were going into showers but there was no no way we would  come back to the same place after the showers we were  lined up in a single file and passing a German who was selecting us One To the Left To Death  the one to the right to life   further on there was another few  Germans it was actually a panel I was worried that I wouldn't pass the  selection that I wouldn't get through   because my back was still bleeding from  the wounds and my knees were scraped and roma said to me don't worry I'll be behind  you if you go to the left I will follow you but when my turn came I used all my energy left in me all my  strengths and I straightened up and walked past the panel of judges and I was sent  to the right to life so was aroma we were given lies infested clothes our Barracks block houses had no  beds were made to sleep on the floor bear floors there were no blankets even the food was impossible to eat we were counted mourning and evening we worked in different commanders  in different work workplaces we had the toilets were just simply open barrels  standing placed against the the fence   and we took us a long time  to get used to use these we worked as I said in different Commanders we marched out and watched by  the outsayering the German couple we were pulling out weeds carrying stones on the roads and I also worked in a commander that  was called the scheisse commander we had to pull a long card and then pull out the the cork at the back and let  the whole stuff come out we were all in splashed   and smelly and we had difficulty  sometimes when there was mud to pull out   that big wagon and we were hit an urge  to pull it and we did it we had to who was who else was with you in the barracks what  other nationalities they were mainly polish girls   mainly polish girls from different  towns in in Poland one day we we were at   at our appeal our roll call we called it apple in Polish and when we arrived to this roll call we noticed that there was a Scaffolding in the  middle of the field and a girl was brought   one of the girls that was known to us  was brought and placed on a small box and then the news was placed around the neck and it was it didn't take long the German  assessed woman kicked the box from under her feet   and the little body was hanging and turning  in the air and we were made to stand and watch the the woman that kicked the  assessed woman who kicked the Box   from under defeat of the uh of our friend our  girls was Brigida the known assessed woman who was   a very cruel person some years ago she stood trial  in Germany I think it was about eight years ago the commandant before he left has announced  you are going to stay here the whole night you're going to watch this girl   and any one of you who is going to who  will ever think of trying to escape will meet the same fate he  was quite proud of himself we had to remain the whole  night standing and watching   this poor girl's body dangling  and moving with the Wind it was called we were miserable  some people were saying kaddish and roma decided to make and give us a little bit of a talk and she  started to tell the people who were close to us   about her Shabbat evening a Friday night at a home about the dishes that were served the smell  of the food the children dressed up in the   summer in the in the in the Shabbat  clothing with the ribbons in the hair   the father coming back from from the synagogue  and every dish if you particularly paid   attention to every dish that was coming on  the table and when she finished people were   feeling the taste of the food in their mouth  we were so hungry we were grateful to her   she had the gift of telling there was a woman  that approached Roma and said my dear girl you've got a gift of telling look at me I want  survive look at my feet they're all swollen   I am not Jewish my grandmother  converted to Christianity and that's why I'm here but I won't make  it I want you to to live and tell the   world what the Germans are capable  of she always thought of it Roma and we've never seen the woman  again because a lot of women became swollen especially the legs  of the faces and under the eyes we were once bundled into a military  truck and driven over to the men's camp the work must have been a few hundred of us and we were placed in it  in a in a large block house   on this men's Camp the Blockhouse was empty we  sat there some men came in to ask us when they   found out that women were there if they knew  of a sister of a mother from the women's camp everybody was trying to find out  what happened to their relatives one pole a Christian man sat next to me he  brought me even a piece of chicken and you   wouldn't leave me I I was actually  scared and asked Roma to move away the block was emptied of all the men   and we set the until we were made  to get out of it of the block and we were marching to another place it was a guest chamber we were pushed into it and the doors were closed  we screamed and called for help Shema Israel we   were looking up at the shower caps that were in  the ceiling waiting for the guests to come down and there was another miracle the doors opened and a German officer came  in and said you are not going to be guessed there is another transport coming we just had word that the amount of people doesn't correspond there  was a mistake you are going to live in the morning   we are going to get you out of here we didn't  believe him some girls kissed his feet his boots   and we asked him to allow us to open one  tiny window that was in this guest chamber we asked him to allow us to open  it and he granted us the permission one girl climbed onto the shoulders of the  other one until we got to the top and fresh   air came in we set through the night in this  guest chamber looking up at the shower heads   in the ceiling and watching if if anybody  would close that tiny little fan light window at dawn we were marched out and towards us  there was a contingent of women coming   from the trains to which we  were placed we were going in   we knew that this was true that the German told  us these were the women that were going to die they didn't realize there was nothing we could do we were packed into the train again cattle trucks   and we traveled until we  arrived to Auschwitz birkener there was an inscription on the  gates work makes free of freedom there was an orchestra playing   made up of women prisoners and in  front of them there was a panel of   commanders from Auschwitz among them was Mengele  it could have been Yusuf Yosef Kramer as well we were driven into into a bath house and then our  hair was shaven off we lost all our dignity then our arms were tattooed and I had   number 48 632 with a small triangle underneath  that was for every Jew that was the sign of a Jew Roma didn't recognize me after  hers after her hair was shaven   she was calling for me although I was  right next to her we were given then again lice infested clothes and  we slept in barracks on Stone uh beds or stone bunks they were two floors   who was one one was lower and the other one was  above there was one blanket to ten girls who slept   there were five on one side and five on  the other and the legs were in between   the opposite the girls who were lying on the  opposite side everybody was pulling the blanket   and when it was lagerua when there was peace in the in  the laga when the lights went off the rats were coming out from  the crevices we got used to it there was counting every morning the block El Tester the girl who was  in charge of us most of them were Czechoslovakian   girls they came very early to the camp they  were long before us and they were put in charge   of the of of each block with their Jewish girls  they were Jewish Czechoslovakian girls and they   had they were very comfortable because  they had a little room in the front of of   the block and they had bedding and they had  food that they that was always stolen from   from us because the bread instead of being cut  in let's say eight portions was cut in 10 or 11. they never went to out to work they  weren't counted their job was to keep order in the block when there was when the counting  took place the Roll Call   they block eltest they used to go through every  row because we were standing in fives again   she used to look into everybody's face  whether one wasn't sick because if   you were sick you had to leave the block  immediately you were not allowed to be there after the counting the German guard they were  mainly women with the black cloaks arrived   and the block Outlets they used to report so  many dead so many sick so many fit for work then we got some results whether  it was coffee or tea some liquid   to drink and we were marched off to work in the evening we had when we came back from work we'll  account it again and then we got   some sort of soup with leaves green leaves  floating and sometimes pieces of turnips whether   it was turnips it looked like turnips it didn't  taste like it and when the food was dished out   into a little dishes that we each one received  which were chipped and and horrible looking   people were trying to move towards the  back because as you were coming later to   the barrel where the food was dished out  it was get it was a little bit thicker and also we received a piece of bread it was very muddy luck it didn't taste like bread at all but it was brown I always tried to leave a little piece  small portion of my bread for the next   morning I knew that it would sustain me for  the following day that I would be able to to work if I had that piece of bread in the   morning Roma couldn't resist and ate  the whole piece with a bit of soup and in the morning she was very weak   and I had to share with her that piece of  bread that I saved from the previous day and she knows she wasn't willing  to accept it how can you give me   you little piece of bread I've eaten  up my mind the day the night before   but she couldn't resist and eventually  she accepted it and it became that I was keeping my piece  of bread for her every day we worked in different Commanders again in the  fields it was difficult to get through the the   the the the place with the gates we've accounted  again when we went out to work which was usually   outside the camp we had wooden clogs and  in the mud it was difficult to get out at the clogs and winter time the snow got stuck  to the bottom and we walked like on stilts   the snow got stuck to it  and it was difficult to walk the plumenthal in Cape Town  South Africa tape seven at this stage it was July 1943 when we came into our streets we worked in different commanders outside the  camp and we were watched by supervisors one of   the commanders when we were picking weeds for  soup type of weeds or leaves we had a a German woman who was our supervisor she was also a  prisoner would you call a supervisor a couple a   couple yes a German couple she was also a prisoner  because they were in Ark in the camp in Auschwitz   they were also poles and uh in German French  women this particular German woman had a black sign on her dress or uniform it was because she  was a a prostitute in in Germany there were spies   there were there were all different  reasons for being sent to Auschwitz   she was very cruel she was Toothless and when  we when a basket of weeds was full she simply   pushed them down got into the basket  pressed them down with their big boots   that she was wearing and we had to start  all Anew we tried to get under a tree   because sometimes the Apple used to fall  down we used to find it on the ground she was screaming where do you look for weeds  under the tree do the weeds grow under the trees and got help if she found somebody chewing an  apple she used to knock out the teeth of them there were different commanders  that we were working at   building roads I was carrying  heavy bags of cement stones it was very difficult it was very hard and when we arrived back to the to the into the  block we were all exhausted dragging our feet one day when we were marching  out to the outside Commander   there was a a contingent of men coming  into our uh Camp into the women's camp   and there was somebody was shouting Warsaw water  and we replied and the following day we met again   and it was moisture moisture Baker the  one that was hiding with us on Nila he threw a little note the following day to us  asking whether we haven't seen his wife in the   camp and then he threw us two cigarettes and we  were so well away because each cigarette was worth a portion of bread we sold this cigarette  you see there were people that like a Polish   women for example that were in Auschwitz they were  getting Parcels through the Red Cross food parcels   but no cigarettes in it they were selling some of  their food for cigarettes so this was like gold the next time he threw us a full packet of  cigarettes and we managed to to to be to   we we were in business already that was all  after we came back from work when there was   a little bit of free time we bought a jersey  we bought some raw potatoes and we sliced it   on the onto our bread and it was delicious  believe you me have you ever tasted raw potatoes Roma took ill and went   had to go to the hospital she was sent  to the hospital by the block Elders there and she was lucky to came out  alive she actually had typhus   there was a Jewish doctor also a prisoner who  warned it after a few days when a temperature came   down to just get out of the of the hospital of the  Revere she told me she was not strong enough yet   never mind you better if you if you want to  live you've got to just get out of the hospital   because Dr Mengele was about to come this day and  clear the hospital periodically he used to come   and order the every sick person  be sent to the crematoriums there was also a block called 25. where women were sent who are sick and they were not fit for work and they couldn't  get to the hospital when they blocked El tester   found that they were sick or when they were  punished for something they were sent to block   25 and they were lying there without food  until there was a transport that arrived   from outside and the crematoriums were starting  to work and they were sent to join the others I once met a girl who told me that she was from  januff januff lubelski and she managed to escape she was with some poles and  eventually she was caught   and she told me that she knew my brother hennik  and his wife and child and also told me the Fate   of those people all the Jews from the whole  District were taken to a forest and shot   but I always believed and always hoped that  my brother would leave that little girl   with some poles because she she had a real Aryan  features but I never found her we made inquiries this girl had a pool in the camp and I've asked her to please  help me and find a easier job for Roma   and eventually one day Roma's number was called  that and she was placed in a in the clydings karma   this was a wonderful place to work in  because there was no selection there was no   counting they didn't have there was no roll calls  you were in a block which was enclosed you know   not working outside there were sorting clothes  that came from the crematoriums when the people   before the people got to the crematories  the clothing came here and it was sorted   underwear children's clothing men's clothing  then it was all the best was sent off to Germany   the clothes in the best condition but she got out from there because the  supervisor the German couple Frau Schmidt   didn't want to keep her there she  had protects your children there girls who were sent by men who worked  in the in the Sunday Commander they were   friends or relations or came from the same  town and those men in the Saunder Commander   had lots of gold and valuables because  they worked at the crematoriums and they   could retrieve from the from the bodies from the  clothing from the clothing that came in valuables they were very well away those people had the connection with Frau  Schmidt at the backlighting scammer and they   only sent girls whom they liked whether it  was relations or friends or as I said people   from the same town and roma was sent to this  work by somebody unknown to her and she had no   money no gold that she received  for her she managed to get out I was working at the shoe Commander also for  a little while that was right next to the the   clydings comma next to the place where there  is sorting clothing there was also a place   the shoe Karma where they were sorting shoes  we were I was there only for a short while sorting men's shoes children shoes boots all  sizes colors even little infants little booties all in heaps and we were just sorting it and the  good stuff was also loaded and sent off to Germany the Sunday Commander decided to demolish one of the um one of the Chimneys in the crematorium  actually they wanted to to to break down the   whole crematorium and there were girls that worked  in a commander where they worked with uh helping   with stuff to to blow up dynamite and they  were smuggling it to the men in the Saunder   Commander you remember when I said the Sunday  Commander men were working at the crematoriums and we did hear the explosion one of the crematoriums was completely wrecked but the Germans got to bottom of it  to the bottom of it and found every   one of the girls who was supplying the dynamite those girls worked in the commander away they  worked with Dynamat and the men were shot but the other crematoriums  were still working in full there was a young woman from Belgium  her name was Mala she was allow foreign she used to bring messages from the German  commandant to the uh our Sirens or to the eldeste   the block eldest the people in charge of the  blocks she was a messenger she spoke French   fluently English German well English was not  necessary really she spoke polish because she was   a Polish descendant and she was a very kind girl  she was known to everybody in the in Auschwitz and we heard that she escaped  the sirens were blowing and we had to all get into our blocks nobody  was moving around every everything was quiet   we couldn't even go to the toilets there were  buckets placed in the in the in the block when we had sirens we wished good  luck click left Horizon we that they   should safely get to the place where they  were going to but Mala was brought back   because one day she was found and brought back  and she was hanged while we were all watching   when they brought in she was  beaten up we couldn't recognize her they must have tried to find out how she  got out she actually escaped with a pole   with a man and he was also brought back so  there was no way of escaping from our streets the the the transports were  arriving from different countries Poland Hungary Greece they were mainly stopping at night so  that we didn't see them and they knew   arrivals would not see us in in the  conditions that we were without hair   and almost skeletons walking around so  they were mainly brought during the night   but in the morning we saw the the fire  blowing out of the of the of the chimneys   and the smell of the human bodies was  all over and I can never never forget   the smell always remains with  me the human fat and hair when the transports arriving when the trans words  were arriving we had to remain in the blocks   we were not allowed to go out when the Hungarian transports arrived it was already in 1944. they came still fresh even sunburned when they came from freedom and they soon had to get into the way of life in   Auschwitz but lots of them could  not take it and they were dying I had I must tell you about an incident that  happened to me I was we were all in in a in a in   a group of people and then there was quite a lot  of noise and I was told that there must be quite and I was I was talking to somebody and all those few people that few women   were taken out of the group and  their numbers were taken written down   for their hair to be shaven and it was once we  had to have our shaven the hair off again it   was very very dangerous because you were just a  candidate again for the for the for a selection which we used to go through very often there was a girl standing there who was a pole  she only had a number but not the bread not the   triangle and I knew her but I pretended  that I didn't know her she was a sister   of a friend of ours and she was  in Auschwitz as a as a Christian   and I looked at her begging it with my  eyes to take out my number and she realized   what I was trying to tell her and she took out  my number and I was saved really because all   the other girls were taken away and their hair  was shaven off and I'm sure that they were not   brought back into the camp so this  is why I I escaped again the deaths in 1944 there were transports arriving and those  people we couldn't communicate with they were   they couldn't speak Yiddish they couldn't  speak Polish they couldn't speak German   and we tried to find out where they come from it was very difficult and I asked then I I decided to to find out  and said Shabbat Shabbat Shabbat Shabbat they   were Greek people I later found out  that actually came from Rhode Island they went they were actually falling like flies  they couldn't speak the language they were   they couldn't get into to work it was very  difficult for them to remain in the camp we once went La forne Roma and myself and asked  the German in charge who was at the gates to try   and let us have an easier work we showed them  our numbers we reported prisoner number 48 632 was reporting and when they you looked  at our numbers he said are you still here because people didn't last as  long in the in the in Auschwitz   he did help us and we were  working in Weber we were plotting and weaving and it was inside  and inside job so it was much   easier than working on the outside Commanders in November in November 1943 our numbers were written down  and we were we left Auschwitz   how old were you then I was I was  a teenager I don't remember what can I carry on our numbers were written down and we  left Auschwitz it was the only transport   the first and the only transport  that ever left Auschwitz they pecked us into trains we were full of cement they must  have been transported cement in   those cattle trucks before and  we traveled for three nights and when the train stopped we're in Bergen  Belgium were you still together with your   niece all the time we were always together  actually I almost lost her in Auschwitz in 1996 Ella Blumenthal talking in Cape Town  tape eight Ella before we move on to Bergen   Bilson is there anything else you'd like to tell  us about your experiences in Auschwitz yes Roma could not take the life in the camp particularly it was in the beginning and she  decided to end the life she said let us go   to the electrified wires we will never come  alive we'll never get out of our sheets alive   please come with me and let's  go enjoy join our dear dear ones I had to beg and promise  say let's wait another day   the following day I asked her for another day  and that's how I went on for quite a while   until she gave up the idea but I think that once  at night she slipped out going to the toilet and she did go near the wires but she heard a shot  from the centuries and turned back but there were   a lot of girls that couldn't take it and did get  to the wires and they were in electrocuted years talking of of of of going to  the toilet our toilets were round holes in in one hole in in a hole in  the round holes on both sides of a big a slab and we were urged and chased you couldn't  stay long because there was a long queue   there was only one wash basin there as well  and in the morning you couldn't get near it I often washed myself in snow during the  winter because you couldn't get near the tap I took also ill in in Auschwitz I had typhus but I decided not to go to  the hospital to the Revere because I   knew that I couldn't be as lucky as Roma not  everybody could manage to to get out in time   most of the most of the time people did not come  out of Hospital alive because as I said they were   cleared and sent the hospital blocks were cleared  and sent to the to the crematoriums I tried to stand at the roll call and opened my  eyes wide when the block El teste was   looking for faces that were  ill for people that were ill   and I couldn't go to work I didn't have the  strings I had high temperature high fever and I   was hiding in the Block in in between the blocks  in the camp you could not remain in the block   everybody had to go to work so I  was running around hiding myself   at the back of in blocks at the back of  blocks and in the toilets but I couldn't   stay long in one place luckily my fever  came down and I had to return to work   I was terribly thin because I couldn't eat and  I was exhausted from this illness but I survived I also had an infection in my leg because  my place was on top my bank was on top   and I climbed up every time I had to get up  I was pressing onto the onto my leg on the on   the lower Bank and at the being weak I developed a  terrible infection and my legs swell up enormously but I got help from from doctors and  I was in a different camp in in in   in in Camp a because we were in B lager  and I went to a laga and I had managed   to get some medication that was at the time  when we were so rich Roma and myself and   we had the cigarettes and we offered some  cigarettes to to a somebody who got us from   the doctors some medication and I I  managed to get rid of the infection I also had a very big saw a  very big boil that was coming up   and it was hard and I couldn't bend  down I couldn't go to work but I had to and one morning I went nah forne which  is the front of the of the of the camp   and there was a doctor there a Jewish  woman doctor who just without any fuss   lift I had to lift up my my  top or whatever I was wearing   she just cut it open while I was standing  and it all burst out I was relieved it healed and I was I was feeling better there was no medication there wasn't such a thing  as as getting anything to prevent an infection towards the end of 1944 when the Hungarian  transports were arriving to Bergen Belgium   when the Hungarian transports were  arriving to Auschwitz I beg you pardon I was already an old heftling an old  prisoner and I knew exactly how to survive   I've learned a bitter experience and those people who are arriving from from uh   from Hungary we knew as I said  before they didn't know how to keep themselves alive it was it it was an art I was offered a job I was offered to become  a block artiste which is a a Blog supervisor   a woman in charge of the block like we had  the Czechoslovakian women we were already   the clever ones the ones that came  so early from the from freedom from I was told that I could become a block elteste  and be in charge of the Hungarian girls   but I immediately refused I had no hesitation   although I would have been well  away I would have had my own room and a clean bed no roll calls no selections I refused because I said I was  not prepared to hit my sisters   and to steal from them and be cruel to them and I this is when I left for  Bergen Belgium and I'm coming now to the camp burgundy this was a new camp fairly new one there were no blocks  like in Auschwitz when we arrived we had   tense and when the rain was blowing in the storm   one night we woke up and we were in  the open we were all drenched and wet because the the the wind blew they they tent off and we were we were  we remained under the sky later on they were building already block houses but we still step slept on  the floor in the beginning we didn't work there was nowhere to work   it seems that the Germans didn't know what  to do with us the ones from Bergen belison after our arrival I heard that  there was a new kitchen opening and you could wait in a queue and try and  get into work in the kitchen I was waiting   from early in the morning for many days but  every time I will send back they had enough   I almost gave up the idea of coming back to try again and the last day I was lucky I was  accepted into the kitchen I had my lucky break I was sitting and peeling potatoes the whole day  that was my job it was actually at the back of   the chicken of the kitchen completely separated  but the German officer in charge of the kitchen was always through fear he was he took a liking  to me and he took me into the kitchen and I was   working there helping into the in the big uh drums  staring and the food and washing the the drums   there was it was a good thing to work in the  kitchen because you could organize that's what we   called it wasn't stealing we called it organizing  we I always managed to to organize something   a piece of potato or a piece of any  other vegetable even a scrap of meat some and I used to bring it to Roma  there were two Hungarian girls   who were with us in Bergen Belgian in our  block and we helped them there were two sisters ETA Vice and I can't remember the other one's name they were very grateful because we shared the food  that I was bringing in that I was organizing from   the kitchen we shared it with them equally they  said they would never forget us in their lives   they were very very grateful  to us and we were like sisters   Roma myself and the two Vice girls the two sisters there was a camp in Bergen Belgian it was called  the engineering's camp they were families together in this particular camp most of them had passports  foreign passports South American Palestinian and they they were waiting there in this  Camp to be exchanged for other German   citizens who were in those countries  which they were holding passports as I said those were people that were  together the families men and women   and when they were coming to fetch  the barrels of food from the kitchen   I was asking if there was anybody from Warsaw and  I got the following day a reply that a good friend   of mine bronchakahan who's with me at school in  Harvard salad in Warsaw was in this camp and I   always tried to throw in an extra piece of meat  into the into the barrel of food that was fetched   and she she's now living in in Tel  Aviv and she's forever grateful to me   and she sent us a note how she survived  she was on the Polish side and then went to   hotel polsky which was in Warsaw where people were  claiming their visas and passports from overseas in Auschwitz as I said in the beginning  there wasn't much work to be done but new   transports arrived and a lot of people and the  commandants from Auschwitz came to bergen-belsen   because the the Auschwitz the camp and  Auschwitz was already evacuated being evacuated   that was in the beginning of 1940 5. we  were already in in 1945. and then we felt   as we would have been again in Auschwitz  there was roll calls it was work to be done but there were no crematoriums   but they really didn't need any because people  were dying starving of hunger of illness   the camp wasn't organized really the heaps of  corpses were mounting up outside every block they were just higher than the blocks  were rotting and drying in the Sun we never thought that we would survive  the war we were already so exhausted but the sun shined for us  there were planes that we heard were coming over us we heard distinctly  the Roar of the of the Plains   and we realized and we we were happy to to  to say there were hours there were hours we knew that they were the allies coming  but we were worried that we would end up   when bombs were falling down because they were shelling and after a few days when we walked Walked Out  there was a big thing that rolled into the camp and there was a British soldiers  sitting on top and our lager Commander with a white band on his arm it was Yusuf Kramer we  actually were almost prepared   for the freedom because just I remembered  now that when I was in the kitchen I saw the the office of the German officer the  obstinfira sitting the last few days   at his desk with his head bent down we also saw   the the Germans willing documents in the main  Camp Street on the main Camp Road rather there   were things happening we saw the centuries with  white bands that was just before the liberation   we could feel there was a change  and we expected to be liberated when the tank moved into the camp there were white flags already all over in  the centuries in the in in the watchtowers and and we we kissed the tanks  the tank and we were advised   that were we were told that we were free  we were liberated by the British army that medical supplies were  arriving and food was arriving when people were distributed The Tint food that  the soldiers gave us before the supplies arrived   they gave us their own Russians I warned Roma not  to touch it because our stomachs were not used to any rich or normal food and  unfortunately a lot of people died when the medical supplies arrived they were sorting the the the sick ones  the ones with the tuberculosis for example   had a red sticker on therefore for it  and other illnesses had different ones   they got vitamins and medication there were hospitals right away formed and we  were helped but the Germans who were our bosses only a few days ago were  made to clear up the camp to   carry the bodies all the corpses that were lying  into a big Mass grave that they would had to dig   the roles have changed now we were watching them   but we wanted to tear and but we were stopped  with a held back but the British soldiers and I I worked continually in the  kitchen while being with the British and decided to go to to Poland to search  for my family I would like to mention also   that we were moved from our barracks into  the buildings where the Germans Soldiers   with the German Army was living before  there were clean beds three clean beds   in our room and behind the door there was  a wonderful thing a wash basin with a tip   running water in a tip this was  something that we have forgotten about I made the decision to go to Poland  to seek family of mine I left Roma behind because I thought that maybe  she would hear from a father who was living in Palestine I did mention it today the one that sent the visas to my brother was  living in we remembered his address where he   was in in Palestine he'd been there all the time  he's been there all the time during the war and we knew his address in Tel Aviv because we were  getting notes my sister was actually was getting   when I mentioned that she was getting  sardines she also got his last address   from a lawyer in turkey in Istanbul  who was acting on his behalf and everyone in our family my sister and  all the children we all remember the address and when the British  liberated Us in Bergen Belgium   Roma and myself got ourselves busy in  writing out a lot of little notes addressed   to Mr Samuel rods the name duration and nine  Tel Aviv Palestine and inside with written Roma   and hella alive Bergen Benson just five words and  we've distributed to the British soldiers a lot   of them because we were worried in case some of  them wouldn't deliver it or wouldn't send it off and one of them one of these soldiers  when he was a leave in England he he's forgotten all about it that  he had it in his pocket and his wife   was looking cleaning his uniform and found  this note and asked him he was quite upset   and told her the story that   some girls gave it to human Bergen bells  and he had to post it but he's forgotten   and the wife wrote all this in a letter that  accompanied this little note to my brother-in-law   and he when he when the letter arrived in  Tel Aviv he was staying with his brother   and they were going to the they were they  were going to synagogue it was on a Friday   evening they were going to synagogue  and he left the letter lying in his in his suit they couldn't open it he's forgotten about  it not until a week or two later did he find   the letter in his pocket and handed it to my  brother-in-law he was surprised to see a note   a letter from from England he  didn't expect any he kept it   for another two days because it was Shavuot  and you're not allowed to cut open a letter and when he opened it he found   the news and then he started get the machine  going rolling and he got in touch with   this Dr Hillen seidman who was at the time in  he was in Paris and through he was in charge   of that but that the Israel and he he got again  in turn in touch with us in in Bergen Belgium 1996 Ella Blumenthal in Cape  Town South Africa tape nine we were liberated in April the British in April 1945 in Bergen Benson and afterwards I continued working in the  kitchen under different conditions the food was   wonderful it was all brought in by the British  and we had our clean rooms now with running water we looked well and we we became stronger in August I went to Poland I decided with a an  elder woman of mine who was from the same street   in Warsaw where we used to  live and we got documents to allow us to travel to Poland and we went did  you take your cousin with you no I left Roma   behind I did say she's my niece Tunis I left  Roma behind because we were waiting for news   from her father in Palestine which was   which was quite right because during  that time we did she did receive letters and also there was a reason why I  left it behind she was too young   to travel it was very dangerous  because they were a lot of soldiers around and particularly Russian soldiers  and to travel for a young girl was not very   safe but you were only four years  old she was five five years still   I felt I I felt it was safer I had to look after I  left her behind I left it in in in Bergen Belgium   it took us about four days till we  got to to Warsaw Mrs price and myself there was a a committee in praga who also was  almost non-functionable it was a lot of buildings   were in Ruins and praga which was on the east side  of Warsaw where we lived was almost intact almost I've registered myself in the Jewish office  there was a committee formed and whoever came   back from camps or from the Russian side from the  partisans has registered in this office I looked   through carefully to find if there were any of my  family alive but unfortunately I couldn't find any the only thing that I could still find was  a building that my parents bought in 1938 and I went there it was intact the concierge the  superintendent recognized me and there was a note in front of the building that the state is  now the uh the the Polish government of the   state are the owners of the building  the the name of my parents was removed I went to a lawyer and I had no money I  asked I told him that if you would be able to   get the building transferred to my name I would let him have a percentage or his fees and then I traveled to find my little niece as  I told you I was always feeling and I always   had a thought that my brother would leave this  child somewhere with poles my little niece Gila when as when I was approaching Lublin I was warned  that there were riots the poles were killing Jews I had to turn back and I never went near  never got near the place to look for my niece   and I returned with Mrs price back  to Bergen Belgian it took us a week   almost to get back trains were very  slow and very difficult to to find in Bergen Belgian we've found eventually a  letter from Paris and we were one of the we were the very few lucky ones  who left Bergen bells in in the beginning   and in November 1945 we traveled with  other people to Paris in British trucks   military trucks there was a convoy about three  of the tracks and we went through Holland traveling to Brussels where we slept overnight  and then to Paris where we got in touch with Mr   Dr Hillen zeidman who was expecting us and after  staying for for for two nights in a common hole he placed us in a hotel in noi and introduced  us to some people religious people where   we used to partake in the Sabbath meals we  received clothes from The Joint distribution who addressed decently and we  even got some Woolen material from   a gentleman called butter who was the Secretary of  zangadat Israel and he introduced us to a tailor   and he made us beautiful suits to one each  one in different colors as well our first new   beautiful garments that we  received after all the years we also learned which at Berlin  school we learned English   we studied the language  knowing that we would need it and then my brother-in-law sent  this certificate the visa for Roma which he had in Palestine the original one he  sent to to the Warsaw getter as I told you before   he applied to the British authorities in in in  in Palestine and said that he's got a daughter   that he found now and he got and she got the  papers in Paris and she traveled to Palestine I was crying and we slept the last night  together we've never parted since since   the war or even before the war were together  and particularly what we went through together when I got to the railway station in Paris the people saw people from Aguada Israel   so in what state we were and they bought me a  ticket to Marseille and I traveled with my niece and watched the boarding the boat in Marseille and I remained in Paris I was working for a a couple from Austria I was  a courier and I was earning money   I was in no difficulties as far as money was concerned there was an incident which  I'd like to mention to you I was traveling one morning on a Sunday  morning in the Metro on the Underground   on an errand for my boss whom I was working for the train was empty because  it was early in the morning and I saw a man standing at the door  getting ready to get out at the next station   and I looked at him and looked and  the face was quite familiar to me and when I approached him and asked  him do you speak Polish said yes   approached him in French and asked  him do you speak Polish he says yes   you speak Yiddish he said yes do  you come from water I said yes I know you he was a cousin of mine  a cousin through my mother's side   and I remembered him because in 1938 a year before  the war he came to visit his parents in water and he was invited to our home for Shabbat   and he was sitting at our table this was the only  time that I saw him I didn't take much notice but   I remembered his features and there were family  features I remembered his father and mother   and I vaguely remembered his face when I met him  in Paris and you can imagine how how happy we were   he asked about his family what happened to  his closest Family he was in the McKee and he   survived but he lost his wife but he was remarried  I had to move in with him he wouldn't let me stay   where I was and I was in I was with him for for  living with the family for for until I left Paris my brother-in-law traveled to Baal to  a conference in Basel French inspired   and he he came to visit me from Switzerland  in Paris came to visit me and he decided that   there was no place for a young girl to live  in Paris alone when he went back to Palestine he applied to the British authorities asking them to issue me with a certificate to  enter Palestine he said he found another daughter and in Paris I was helped in getting papers in the name of Rifka Rothstein I  got my card identity my identity card in this name   and when they certificate when the  permit or the Visa arrived in the name   of Riff carrotstein I traveled to Palestine I left  Paris since then I am in my officially I'm living   as Rifka Rothstein the daughter of Samuel  rodstein where in fact I was born nehama Frank but perhaps you could also just  remind everybody that Rifka had died the permit to travel to a Palestine are  received from my brother-in-law he send   a Visa to the ghetto to the water getter from  Palestine during the war he sent a Visa for his   wife Genia my sister my elder sister and her  four children three of them were taken away   we're lost with the rest of my family only Roma  survived and she was the one that traveled first   to Palestine and then I was named rifkarotstin  the younger sister of Roma and you took her   identification I took her identification  that's quite right and when I traveled to this country subsequently I was always an  M always as Rifka rivka Blumenthal me Broxton I've also taken over her age so  I'm actually living as a younger   sister of Roma where in fact I'm the older auntie we'll go back to the time now that you  travel to when I traveled to to understand   because my brother-in-law said the time when  he visited me in Paris that you wouldn't allow   me to travel not with Aliyah bet to Palestine  that they wanted to have me that we should be   together they wanted to have me in Palestine  and the only way to get there was with aliabet   illegally and it was dangerous it was not safe  anyway I got I went officially I had a Visa   and I remembered my name  I had to remember the name in in Palestine I met Isaac Blumenthal let's go back a little  bit and let's go back a little bit uh how did   you actually travel from Paris I traveled by  boat from Marseille to Haifa with a whole group   of Youth there were a lot of young people there  were Israelis who were studying in Switzerland   at University and there were a lot of people  on the boat who were traveling officially   with official documents to to Palestine so this  wasn't an illegal no no no I no no no I traveled Legally Legally ahead a Visa to  travel to Palestine that's why I have   because I I was living under the name  of my niece I took over her identity   and what was the ship do you remember I don't  unfortunately I don't remember the ship's name no   I mean I I I I I do not remember meeting a lot  of quite a few students Israelis a Palestinian   Palestinians or Jewish students who who were  coming back from on holiday to Palestine from   Switzerland where they were studying and we spoke  French because I was fluent in French and I could   communicate with them was there a zionistic  atmosphere there was definitely we were singing   Hebrew songs and that was a  wonderful way it took us a week   from Marseille to to Haifa my brother-in-law  and Roma were waiting for me I bought a a sewing machine and a fridge in Paris with  with money that are saved but unfortunately   I could never claim it it was lost I bought a  sewing machine because Roma was getting married   to a man shlomer ranchinski in Tel Aviv and he  needed it so that's why I brought a sewing machine   and the fridge because we didn't have one  because my brother-in-law didn't have one   but it never arrived it was lost in transport in nineteen on the 31st 31st of December when did you  land exactly in Ireland is I arrived in July   in in Tel Aviv 1947 1947. and roma got married  in November the same year and the following   months in December on the 31st I met my future  husband where in Tel Aviv through some friends   was Isaac Blumenthal who was called Ivan and on  the 13th of January we were married in Tel Aviv at one of his sisters apartment he had Five  Sisters living in in Tel Aviv and he was   on holiday from Johannesburg visiting  the family I traveled back in February to Johannesburg there was already blockades in   in between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem when I went  to obtain my passport we went on in Convoy and I also had to fly with a small plane  from Tel Aviv to then Lida Airport because   it was very difficult to get through the Arabs  variety and they were shelling from the mountains when I arrived in in Johannesburg I was called Ella instead of hella  and everybody calls me since then   Ella and I'm used to this name  I've got so many names already now my family in South Africa decided for  me that I couldn't go through life here   with this warm climate and most of the year when  there is hot and you have to wear short sleeves   I couldn't go through with  this large number on my arm and a month later in March  I had the number removed   by Dr Jack Penn at the Florence  Nightingale Nursing Home in Johannesburg   can I just interrupt you Ella why was your number  so very large because the person who was tattooing had her handwriting was larger than the other we  were in Two queues I was Frank and I was in one   Q Rome I was a Rothstein her number was done  by a different person and it was smaller than   mine because in the queue where I was everybody's  number was large and this was in Auschwitz this   was in Auschwitz when we came into Auschwitz on  our arrival in Auschwitz we had our arms tattooed oh yes Ella Blumenthal in Cape Town  South Africa 9th of June 1996. tape tin for years I wasn't able to talk  about my experiences during the war I used to wake up at night and cry  and scream I even felt sometimes   and and I was dreaming that they're  taking my children away from me but only recently did I manage  I'm strong enough to talk about it and regarding the number the number that was  tattooed on my arm I regret it now only since   I can talk about it as I'm getting older I  regret the moment I had the number removed   I would have been so proud if I  had it still if I was still um to remind my children of what I've gone  through of my of the Terrible sufferings and of my whole family it would  have reminded me all the time and now it's just a scar that is left on my arm when I arrived in Johannesburg I was only for seven years staying here  after and then we moved with my husband   to breakfast on the East Rand where I was  in in business for 38 years with my husband we have I was happily married for 48 years to a loving and  supportive husband who gave me all the love and   security that I missed during those terrible  years we had four loving wonderful children and nine grandchildren my eldest son is Norman married to Karen  they have two children Lauren and Kim Norman is living in Sydney Australia and is a gynecologist my second son is Alvin who is  married to Debbie with three children Terry Darren and Adam he's an advocate and has  recently moved to Sydney Australia my third   son is Henry who is living in Johannesburg  married to friend they have two little girls Leo and ariela Henry is a a chartered accountant and is  practicing as a stock broker my daughter Evelyn is married to Paul Kaplan   they have two children Danielle  and Shane she's practicing in Cape Town she's a medical practitioner and Roma who is living in New York has five  children and nine grandchildren 15. I beg you   pardon Roma has five children and 15 grandchildren  and now I would like to say that we have we know that we have lost 6 million  precious Jewish lives in this war but I feel that I was I survived this terrible hell One Soul and my grandchildren will bring  more Generations into this world and their grandchildren will have  more children can you imagine how many   Souls we have lost in this six million  that perished during the war thank you thank you Ella Ella yeah we all sitting together in Cape Town together with your family Evelyn  your daughter and your son-in-law forms   perhaps you'd like to introduce  you yes I certainly will   I've got my loving family here next to  me my youngest daughter Evelyn and Paul   Kaplan and their tea two lovely children this is  Danielle who's six years old and this is Shane Shane Lance I beg you pardon Shane  Lawrence who is four years old   both attending nursery school and they're  giving me a lot of joy and happiness perhaps you see issues um I think from my point of view my  mother's always been very special I from a very   young age I was aware of the fact that she was  special in having survived something as horrific   as she did and then secondly that she was able  to bring that strength into our life as a family   and um she still um it was religious was observant  after having gone through everything that she did   and it was always the Pinnacle of the of the  family life the strength of the family and was   always a backbone around which we all centered  um she was also always gave all of us myself   and my brothers um a different moral values and  then then say to our peers um and we were always   aware that we were privileged to have a mother  who had gone through such a horrific experience um what else you said you've said what you  what you really felt and you spoke for   all the children for you Brothers all  your brothers I would like to add that   I'm sorry we tried originally some years  some months ago to have my children to be   on this on this tape but and the two of them  are overseas my two eldest children the younger   one is in Johannesburg and I am very sorry  that they couldn't be with us this afternoon Danielle tells me that the two of you can sing   a wonderful song because you'd like  to include that Daniel would you say you sing it what's it about time that's right I taught you this wonderful Will you speak loud will you sing   Shane as well you can also sing it  a little bit yes one two three okay um foreign things in my everyday life now if I think  about what she went through or even before   um when I was younger if I ever had a problem or  it'd be it minor or a major probably in my life   if I if I ever think how am I going to get  across this hurdle um it's always my mother's   strength that I bear in mind because I think  if she was able to get through what she did   it gives me um courage to  try and face any problem that   um I'm at encounter and also second thing that  she's taught me which I remember vividly from   a young age is that she's always said that  for her just to wake up in the morning and   see the sunlight and be able to actually see  the sunlight she's was always very happy to be   able to do that and that was enough that just  just to be able to wake up and see the next day well this is thank you everybody thank you it's also a senator I think having not not having  been directly directly lost the Senate of mine   but really in the last you know in the years  that we've been married you know having got to   know firsthand really a little bit of of what  you know what the Holocaust was was all about   um it really has put a perspective on on  one's value system in a sense knowing that   um you know the the the minor sort of trials  and tribulations of Life are really nothing   compared to to having you know the the sort  of thing that's that's my mom-in-law has gone   through in terms of trying to to maintain  really her her dignity and and and you know   just survive the whole experience and then to  to be able to pick up the pieces and really   um establish you know spawn a whole a whole new  generation which which is quite quite remarkable   um you know and I think um really the there's  so many lessons to have been learned you know   from from this um our society unfortunately  is is slowing in learning these lessons but   um you know the lesson that that I've you  know I've learned here is that um is really   you know with with a disaster situation of  the Calamity that happened one can still   pick up pieces one can still you know  try try and uh um you know maintain um   when people appreciate uh you know  the values that are meaningful in life thank you thank you thank you and I want  to add something more from there that   um despite all the things that you went through  in my life that in my 33 years she's always   been positive there's never been any negativity  coming out of it or whatever I've had to face in   my life be it in my studies or in my personal  life she's always looked at the positive side   and be it in the family life or or in any  situation she will always see the positive   side of the situation as a result she not only  is my mother but my best friend in the sense   that I can ask her anything and I can rely on  her for for that support and I'll always get it thank you for your help thank you Cynthia thank you Sean Ella this is one of the most important photos  in your whole collection because it's a very   early one of those that are now missing except  for your niece Roma which one is she that's her   that's right that's Roma now tell  us who the other people are right   first of all may I just speak about Roma  who is living now in Tel Aviv in New York thank you pardon who is living now in  New York and went through with me the   whole Holocaust just put your marker on  the face on the face of Roma this is Roma and now you can tell she's the eldest daughter  of my sister Genia this is my eldest sister   Genia and her four children Kenya was  wearing a shadow she is wearing a shadow yes   so what are their names and this is reginka   eustinka and the little boy is David now which  is the name that is on your passport my name is in Hebrew and we call that reginka so it was  that child who disappeared that's right that   you were able to get the the documents that's  right because my brother-in-law had the the   the the papers for Palestine for Palestine  and he first took over Roma and then he okay   for for the second daughter and I'm the one  that is carrying her name rivka Rod steam okay   and this photo was taken in water praga in 1940 and I was the one I personally took this family my  sister and her four children to the photographer and the reason why this photo was taken is because  her husband my brother-in-law my sister's husband   foreign had already left Poland and went to the Russian  side to bialistic and from there to   to vilna and then he proceeded  to Palestine to Palestine   and he requested through the Red Cross he wrote  letters which were coming through occasionally he   requested a photo and he was and that's why  we are now in the possession of this photo   because he survived and he had this photo  that's why I'm able to show it to you all   and I believe that he died in New York  died in New York about eight years ago   about eight years ago that's right  my brother you know that's correct Ella this is an interesting photo although it  is not your own it belongs to your sister or   it belonged to your sister and her class  at school perhaps you can tell us about   this right this is an authentic photo taken  in Warsaw in April on April the 1st 19 35. what would you call vagari a prank it's it's  vagari it's written vagari clasa Schuster   it is a prank because it was the first of  April and seventh class it is this um the   sixth class is it the sixth class of April  the first April is on April the 1st 1935. which is this is the high school uh pupils  at Harvard salad and on April the 1st they   played a prank and they didn't turn up  at school and they went as you can see   to the forest and spend the day there  and my sister Paula is the third one on the in the top row they were all wearing  berries it was still cold most probably   because they were wearing coats in uniforms  and at the back of this picture everyone   of the pupils every everyone signed their name  and the way I obtained this photo I don't know   if you would like to show the signatures or is it  not right I um the way I obtained this authentic   photo is it one of the girls here Paula bunker  who is living in Israel in Tel Aviv since 1936 she gave me this photo that's why I've got this she parted with  it and and let me have it because I said   this is the only photo that I've  got of my sister Paula thank you these are the signatures  of every one of them pupils   friends of my sister the one right in  the middle is my sister's signature my sister is Paula so she writes   Paulie Paula because the my sister's friend  Paula was is was Paula bunker and she and it's written to Paula from Paula   Paula F Paula Frank she just put her  in a first letter of the of the surname this photo is also an authentic one and it was  taken before the war in 1938 in chehochinek ochinek was a spa resort on the north  west of Warsaw where my parents used   to go almost every summer and we they  used to take special baths mineral baths this is myself here and I'm wearing the bathing  costume that I've mentioned earlier in one of the   earlier tapes that my brother hennik bought me  and I was so proud of at the background you can   see those Bridges with crystallized salt natural  crystallized salt that I have also spoken about this is a photo that was taken  in the water getter in 1941. and this was the wedding of my brother Ichi and  it was it in an apartment of the rabbi it's just   the closest family that was present and I'm going  to mention every one of them this is my brother   heinek my favorite brother the one that bought  me the bathing costume that you've just seen   my hand is here showing I was holding him  but unfortunately the photographer cut me off   the next one is my brother loser this is my  father I think I'll show it that way it's better   this is my father naftali Frank this is  a friend of the family this one is my   sister Genia that you have seen just now my  eldest sister this is my brother throw him you can see he also had a beard I don't know  if one can see and this is his wife Salah   this is the bride and my brother each this  is my sister-in-law Eda the wife of heinek   in the shadow here is my sister Paula you have seen this picture at school  with her school friends this is Roma and this is nietek presbyga who  married later my sister Paula this is my youngest little nephew  my sister genius little boy David   whom you've also seen in the picture before this is the these two are the mother and father  of my brother-in-law shmuel Rochdale in other   words they are the in-laws of my sister Genia  and the grandfather and grandmother of Roma and   I've missed here reginka the younger sister of  Roma rivka Rothstein the name I'm carrying now this is my little niece gella whom I tried to look  for in Poland when I went in 1945 I was trying to   search for her and had to turn back when I found  out that there were raids in uh in in in Poland   that they were killing Jews after after  the war I went in 1945 there were pogroms   rather and they were killing Jews and I had to  turn back so I never went to look for her but   she is not there because Roma was  last year in Poland and went there   and they they were all shot at  the for in the forest near yanov this one is eustinka the youngest  daughter of my sister Genia whom   you've also seen in the picture before  and the youngest sister of of Roma this is my mother have a Frank she's also wearing a Shadle I don't  know if you can see and this is my little niece   Ruth the daughter of my brother  throwing and sister-in-law Salah the little boy moishelle her brother was  too small to be brought to the wedding   okay all in Cape Town South Africa tape 10. this this picture shows my tattoo Dharma which  I carried on my arm until I came to this country   inside in South Africa the number is 48 632  and you can see below the triangle foreign below the number I had it removed  because it was I was told that it   was very difficult to get through life with  a number everybody would be asking me why and what does this stand for I am regretting it as I said earlier   that I ever had this number removed I had plastic  surgery done by Dr Jack Penn in Johannesburg Ella Ella this is an amazing picture of just after  the liberation in Bergenfield and uh I am sitting   here on top of a British military track Aroma  is right next to me with a cap a military cap   and this is one of the ETA one of the Hungarian  sisters that are mentioned to you ETA Vice and   uh it was taken just after The  Liberation in in Bergen Benson thank you this is an interesting picture because you  are photographed with Roma your niece that's   after the war that's right this was  taken in Hanover outside Bergen belzon   soon after we were liberated in Bergen Belgium  it's just amazing that you're looking so well well   we when I say soon it must have been just when   when we were leaving Bergen belzon for Paris so  if we we were already liberated we're liberated   April in April and this must have been close in  October or November so it was six or seven months   afterwards because we were already our hair  was long and and and we were dressed decently this outfit this suit the only war after the  war before the war he used to wear a long kapota   ah so who is this gentleman this is my  brother-in-law this is the one Samuel rodston who   lived in Palestine who left  who left the water left Warsaw   to the Russian side and from there went to  Palestine to yeah his father that's Roma's   father and the two of them have made in Paris  he came when he went to the Basel is it Basel   in English with ball in French and I said ball  it's the S we don't pronounce so I can say Basel Ella the next three documents are very  very um fragile this one is particularly   interesting because it has your thumb prints on  the left hand side what is this document about   in August 1945 after the liberation I left  bergen-belsen and traveled to Poland and this   is a certification or a certificate it just said  says here certification that I'm allowed to travel   my name my birthday and my tattoo number because  I had no other documents no other identification   yes she is wearing the tattoo number 48 000.  632 and here it is all in German this is the   German and this is the English but the interesting  thing is that it's Helene Frank I I called myself   always I was called Heller but seeing that I was  going to Poland I've put it I changed it to Helena   because it's more Airy and it's more polish  Roman Catholic Roman Catholic is right yeah Ella this is another document that  you traveled with to Poland that's right   the top says for prisoners concentration  camp prisoners heftlinger that's right   and have you read this have you read  this English inscription it says Mrs   Frank Helene Frank on the 15th of August  20th 1921. that's right that's correct 1921   birthday of their birthday is a former  concentration prisoner she wants to search her   family which also are in concentration camps if  the English authorities have nothing against this   journey we from our part have no hesitation  we ask for helping Mrs Frank on her trip   thank you that says it all that was when I was  traveling to to Poland from uh bergen-belism okay this garment this document was issued in  in uh in jujita on the south border of Poland   when I was traveling in August across  the border on the 20th of of August   and the authority the Polish authorities  are asking for every body to assist me   during my journey as I was coming to look  for family and I was I came from Germany Do you have a zulik this photo was taken in 1947 sometime  after July after my arrival in Palestine   and it was a wedding of my friend my school friend   Gupta and this one is bronka also a friend of mine  also a school friend and she's the one that I was   mentioning in Bergen Belgian she was in The  engineering's Lager with the with the with those   uh with a passport with a Palestinian passport and  I was helping her with sending extra food for her one two and this is myself next to bronkakahang thank you Ella this was the start of your new life it's   when you met your husband Ivan or  Isaac Blumenthal in Everett's Israel this photo was taken in Montefiore in  Tel Aviv on the 13th of January 1948. we met in the evening on the 31st of December 1947 and  we were married on the 13th of January I had no   time even to buy a wedding dress and I wore  one of my dresses that I brought from Paris   and the wedding took place at one of the sisters  that my husband had in in in in Tel Aviv he's had   five sisters at the time when we when we got  married and his brother is a very well-known   person he is he had two brothers living in  in in in Johannesburg so there were eight   children Five Sisters and and three brothers  the sisters were living in Israel and the three   brothers were in In Living in Johannesburg and  the surviving brother is is living in Johannesburg thank you okay this photo was taken in Johannesburg   of my husband and myself soon  after I've settled in Johannesburg it's been in 19 this a picture was taken in Johannesburg  and unfortunately my husband was already ill   and is in a wheelchair after having a stroke  and the rest is his family at some of our   children who were present with us and uh my  husband's eldest brother he Didia Blumenthal is   just next to him show us who your sons are  and this is Alvin who is living now in uh   in Sydney this is Paul whom you've all seen  just now Paul Kaplan and my daughter Evelyn   Paul's wife and my son Henry who is  living in Johannesburg and this is   myself and my late husband and his brother edithia these are my three sons in their various  graduation gowns this is Norman my eldest son   this is Alvin and the middle  one is Henry thank you okay okay this is a happy photo with my husband and Evelyn when she got married this is Roma at a function in Tel Aviv three years ago and this is everything  that was left from my whole family she's the only person that I've got to remember to remember everybody she's just  representing my whole family and we are very very close and I miss it  terribly because she lives in New York but   we do see each other sometimes every year and  particularly now we have promised ourselves that   we're going to to to not to live very long  gaps and we're going to to travel and meet more often because there isn't  really much more time left for us

Channel: USC Shoah Foundation

Views: 180,321

Keywords: #uscshoahfoundation, #strongerthanhate, #survivor, #testimony, #armenia, #rwanda, #cambodia, #guatemala, #nanjing, #rohingya, #conflict, #education, #shoah, holocaust, shoahfoundation, warsaw, warsaw ghetto uprising, ella blumenthal, birthday, survivor, full testimony, germany, wwii, injustice, inequality, centenarian, Ella, Blumenthal, hela

Id: zB8ax7vr7l0

Length: 278min 22sec (16702 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 14 2022