Fred Kahn Full Testimony

okay standby three two the surviving generations of the Holocaust based in Seattle Washington has taken on the project of videotaping eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust from those individuals who survived the Nazi reign of terror millions of people were annihilated just because they were Jewish the goals of the project are one to educate the current and future generations about the Holocaust with the hope that those who learned what happened will not allow it to happen again to any group of people to to refute false allegations by neo-nazis and revisionist historians that the Holocaust never occurred and third to refute the commonly held notion that the Jewish people offered little if any resistance to the Nazis the voices of the dead are silent the voices of the survivors must live on forever my name is sandy Samuel today I am interviewing Fred Cohn a Holocaust survivor mr. Cohn in order to put your experiences in perspective I would first like to ask you some questions about your life but before World War two what is your full name my English name is Fred Cohen my German name is Fritz Cohn when and where were you born I was born in Germany small farming community loud name and there now that's very near to Bing and AM Rhein about half an hour's drive to Frankfurt when were you born I was born on May 25th 1924 could you describe the town you came from like I said the town was a very small community there lived about 600 people and we were the only true family in this small farming town did you have any relatives who live near LA Mannheim yes right I had grandparents and uncles who left about a half an hour's distance by bicycle from this town what were your parents names my father's name was Moritz Khan my mother's name was are now gone and when were they born my party was born in October 11th 1985 and my mother was born in August 21st 99 did you have any brothers or sisters I had what I had one product who was still living and he lives in Chicago today and what is his name his name is Eric Conn is he older or his 3 years older than I am so he was born he was born in 1921 what kind of work did your family do my father was a butcher his profession was a butcher and he also a dealt with cattle and my mother she operated a small trust restorer in this community and we also had a post office in the community up there had your face had your family moved there they lived there for many many years how would you describe your family standard of living oh I would say middle class what kind of public and religious education did you receive and not very much public I went to school until Oh for seven years then I was truce weren't allowed in school anymore and I was kicked out and that's all the education I had later on I for one year I was in a special school religiously where was your family religiously devout says cynical about three miles a day in this gnosis smaller community there were about 12 15 Jewish family living in this community in there all gathered there and holidays Saturdays and my grandfather I remember him he was the candor in this synagogue was your family and observant family or was it no I would say observant my part of us more observant than my mother was but I would say all in all observant family what kind of relationship did your family and you have with the Gentiles in your community well like I said we were very much liked in this community we did a lot of favors to the farmers we had our only cross restore there we supplied him his food and sometimes they had money to pay for it and sometimes they didn't so my mother waited for the money till the harvest came in it was mostly a wine community mostly wine farmers up there and the harvest was only once a year so during the summer months people run short and money there did you experience any anti-semitism in LA Manheim before the war the for the warrant yeah up until 1936 37 hardly anything but it really started in in 1937 38 what happened well there was the famous Christian act in November of 1938 that was the first time my father was arrested and also I was arrested for the first time I was very young then and some windows were broken out in our house there came a truckload of SS men they stopped in front our house they wanted to come in that their looting and smashing from the furniture and windows and so on the burka myself this small town he came and he protected us he said this man was in the First World War he received the Iron Cross he fought for Germany and I won't let anybody go in this house do you remember the Burgermeister name yes his name was Nell and your and your father had been decorated in World War II yes he was decorated with an Iron Cross in the First World War where was your brother during all this my brother he went to school he went to engineering school in Bingham Ameren which was about five kilometres for now a small town and he that he didn't receive a degree and in 1939 he emigrated to the United States and then he joined Air Force United States Air Force and he fought in World War two so he left your family he left the family behind right how did how did your neighbors react to what was going on well you know it they didn't couldn't talk to us anymore they didn't created us any more of his hello or whatever and then we decided to move from this small community and we moved to Cologne that was in 1939 in early in February I believe it was in 1939 we moved to Cologne is a impression that we wouldn't be recognized cologne was a big town and nobody knew us and my father he was 70% disabled from the first world war and he had a pension which the Germans still paid and that was the only income be had and then I one day read an article in the paper in the newspaper that someone was looking for a young man who wanted to learn trade and also make money at the same time I answered his ad and I was hired to lay hardwood floors and I got along pretty good with this man this man knew I was Jewish but he says you better don't tell anybody that you are Jewish you say you're an Italian you have dark hair and you look like an Italian and if somebody speaks to your ask question you just make us if you don't understand German just don't answer him his name was this month he was his last name France this month and he was a one-man operation so he had a motorcycle and he picked me up from my home every day I went to work I had worked very hard there and one day he got a job in the train station in the Cologne in the main trace train station - laid a hardwood floors which were laid in tar and an SS man came up and talked to me I'm a dolphin so I didn't understand him so he asked this France this one if this feller is Jewish he said oh no no he's not true she's an Italian boy oh and he walked away so I worked there for approximately a year and I learned some of the Hartford flora business and a law came out in Germany where Jews couldn't work alone anymore they only had to work under supervision ten people or more so I was hired by a company which built barracks for the German army in this company's name was Ludman and I worked there I helped build the barracks for about a year or so that was in forty nineteen forty forty forty-one were you it all involves anything Jewish or Zionist during that period yes I come to this in a minute and so I've worked there for a while and then I had a chance to go to hushirat' that is hushirat' means they prepare you for to go to Palestine and Israel and there they taught us first of all if rate how to speak the language and then they prepare for agriculture milking cows and taking care of horses that was in half a bird called Harford Burton that was Bible in not very far from there and how did you wind up going there Holland cheered to go there that came up because my parents they saw that would be the best for me to go there with idea later on to go to Israel which is Israel today and I was there for approximately a year and I was very popular and one day the transport was being prepared to send to Israel and I decided against it not to go because I didn't want to leave my parents alone so I went back to Cologne the transport left without me I went to Cologne and I went back to the same company I worked for before I got this job back building barracks that didn't last very long that was in 1941 and one day we got notice from them Gestapo - to prepare ourselves they gave us two weeks notice that we should pack our suitcases and we could not sell anything but was in our apartment everything had to stay the way it was we couldn't sell anything we couldn't get rid of anything only one suitcase per person we could take a long closing and that was in December the 7th 1941 where we had a report early in the morning and the train station besides there were about 1,500 or so people from Cologne who had a report with us the train came and we had to go in train took off for three days and we didn't know where we were going no food no what at one time we received water and that was in way on the east in the east part eastern part of Germany where the train stopped we could get some water passenger was the passenger train right and after three days the strange stopped we didn't know where every war and there were quite a few SS people surrounded the Train and also later on we found out it was in latvia latvian police also latvian SS so they told us everybody out of the train and we had to stay in line and then there's s came and said anybody who isn't able to walk or who would like to have a right because there was a walk of about two three hours from the train station they could get a ride unknown and then whatever it was whatever they transported us in so my father he says well I fought for this country I'm 70 percent disabled I'm gonna go and take the right and you can walk and I told him no you're not gonna go anyplace you stay right with us I said I don't sound right to me so we had to walk through a small gate all the people and there were two SS men standing one on each side and they had boxes right next to them they said two suitcases you have to leave under train station you thought clear and nothing and anything we had on us watches rings money jewelry whatever it was we had a trap in the boxes and they told us right away if we find anything on anybody they're going to be shot so we disposed of everything we had and we went under march and it was very cold this day in December in Riga and finally we arrived in the ghetto the ghetto was saying a bunch of houses which was about city blocks I would say about 15 20 city blocks with barbed wire surrounded and God standing all and outside we walked in through the main gate and then we noticed some people laying and decide that people but we didn't pay much attention to it so they said you go to any house you want wherever you can each family gets a room but by the time we were all in this ghetto there wasn't enough room for everybody then but three to three families for families went into one room after we Clarinda we found food on the table food and the stove and we looked around closing laying all over we went outside to some of the streets and then we saw dead bodies laying there and closing under streets blood puddles the blood on the street and we found out that that was Latvian shoes which were killed a couple of days before we came some of them they couldn't get rid of some of them so they were laying around so we buried some of the bodies and the clothing we put on the side the foot which was standing in the houses in particular house where we were in there was a puddle soup the fat was on top of it so my mother she went ahead and let the stove and we made fire in the stove and he heated up the soup and we served the soups and finally we on the end and the bottom there was a diamond diamond ring laying in the soup so the Sun right away that they must taken the people out by surprise and we looked around under streets and be found more jewelry was hidden and silver was hidden in the garden we ran across so my father said we should look around maybe we find some more maybe that will save our lives later on maybe we can buy our way through so there was a big barn huge bond and I was pretty athletic inclined and I bought up and way up high and I found a sack of gold this gold pieces there must have been about 120 to 150 pieces of gold in there there was Russians and in American dollars and Danish crowns whatever and we hit this where we are and that later on I typed us some but we'll get to it this in later on for several weeks nobody came in this ghetto we didn't know what to expect no weeds are no SS nobody came around only the people on the outside they ghetto who stood guards Latvian Latvian SS I was about 16 then 16 years old so this cell for a few weeks you were pretty much left alone yeah Levi left alone there and no food came in but we had enough food because we went through some of the houses which were MD now there was another ghetto attached to it which we weren't allowed to go in but that was prepared for later transports which arrived but at night we bought through the houses and he found potatoes and things so we had enough food there to eat and after but to three weeks the SS came in the ghetto and there was an over storm banfora he introduced himself as Kraus my name is Kraus and I'm in command here and you all obey my orders anybody who don't obey or we gonna be shot under under spot there's no we don't kid around here so and then he appointed a one person who was in charge of the whole ghetto and he was from Cologne also because we bought a first transport I should mention though in the meantime several more transports came in to the ghetto after about a week or two they came people from Dortmund they came people from Bielefeld from Hanover for all different cities all together he had about twelve transports in there and each transport was way over a thousand people and there were more than a hundred thousand people I would say between a hundred to a hundred twenty thousand people in this ghetto by then and now then there's as appointed nurse a fella by the name of Schultz Robert Schultz who was in charge to put people in different columns to go towards this was a this was a Jewish man right and he also was from Cologne two colors I should say that transport from Cologne was the first transport to get into the ghetto and usually later on we panned out whoever came first they had the best jobs in in the ghetto and I was appointed as carpenter to do repair in the ghetto itself I didn't I wasn't selected to go outside agitator on a commando and that went on the columns left in the morning women men children and they came back in the evening now Devo and touch with sir latvian private people like we found the gold and silver and jewelry so did everybody else in the ghetto and in people did have merchandise to to trade with population outside of the taro now there's a small severity became a rare addition in the evenings one evening when the columns came back they all had to stop and the main gate that it came into decatur in they searched every person and anybody who had anything on themselves brought into the ghetto they took him out and they shot him right on the spot so people disposed of it right and and the main gate before the main gate you could find anything you wanted and this particular day and people were very careful what to do afterwards there was a little trading going on but not like in the beginning because everybody was afraid when they come in that there was a search before the people went into to the theater one day I was approached by his Schulz and he said Fritz I think we have to find out which one is a good working command on which one isn't I think for one day you should go to work and let me know when you come back in the evening what type of work it is and how hard the people have to work so he could organize that old early people go to commander where the work was in this heart and younger people went on different harder commanders so I did this for a while and one day I happened to go under Harbor in Riga to unload his ship and I guess I never will forget this that was shoes for the army now they took a pair of shoes and tightened together each pair the left and the right shoe was tied together and then they all were thrown into the - this train and VA had unload and we'll try to take the shoe we couldn't get him apart so what we did we tore them apart and them shoes never fit then they came out they never fit because they've all bundled up together and not that time I had to unload a and straw for the for the army and then I came back and I told him what it was and but each commander was the better ones endure the worst ones so one day the SS came inside and he says all people young people they choose from sixteen on up to thirty years old they all have to come out and stand for an appeal and they looked us over when they send us out to a smaller camp which is called solace pills that bossman Rika that wasn't as I can now solace pills wasn't and the first people who went there I wasn't one of the first to go there but one of my friends by the name of hon Spearman he got selected this is a very first selection and he been there very very early his father he was in charge of the bread to give the bread out to the people in the ghetto and one day he pried an SS man he gave him a bunch of gold and asked SS men where he is going he told me I'm going to this camp Salas pelts so he asked if I could go along and help him to take the bread there and if he would bring me back so he said yeah that's fine so he took the gold pieces and I've been in the back of his truck and the truck came on in Salas pelts and I saw my friend hunts there and he says what ever you do don't come in this camp that's the worst I ever saw he says people they die like flies she says there is no barracks to live in we have to work 16 18 hours a day we have to build the barracks and it's ice and snow and we haven't got nothing to eat here so I gave him a brand and I left and I get back to the ghetto and I reported what I saw I tried my best not to go to this camp but one day I was selected like I said and I arrived into this camp and this hunts my friend came and he says I told you not to come here how come you come in and I told him you know I trust was selected and I had to go I couldn't get out it anymore so we did our best we stuck together there wasn't much food we had Terra boards in lumber for morning tonight when did you arrive in in Salas pelts that was in at the end of 1941 the end the night in the fall of 1941 so we did the best we put there we lost a lot of weight but we because we were young we didn't get sick but one day the German air force came to this camp and they selected about 810 people how did this particular camp which they wandered for them to work there so we all stood and which recalled us in the free everybody's has to stand at attention to and their people got selected so they asked for first of all a tailor that was the first thing they asked for and then for outer mechanics and for electrician for carbon deaths for cabinet makers all people with the profession but they asked for so my friend hunts he got selected as a cabinet maker and I didn't get selected and there was a lieutenant and sergeant and two privates from the Air Force there so this hunts goes to this sergeant in he says the best man you didn't select here my friend here he is a perfect colander he knows to carve their business in and out and you left him behind oh where is he he is over there it isn't this he pointed at me and he said that's him so he called me over and he says you come along too so they put us under truck and B that were taken out it is how did this game sound it's best you tell us a little bit a bit more about what it was like in Salle's pose yeah Salas pelts was a camp the only young men had worked there 16 18 hours a day there was no food people died like flies and every so often new people bought protein to do the work the work was taking lumber in the the barracks there's normally room for one people for people who are laying there there was only straw that was our the only thing no blankets no nothing but there were so many people in the barracks that it was created so much body heat so there was no heat needed and in the morning when you woke up you saw people next to you or across from you who died between the night and if you saw a dead person all you had to do is pull him on his legs and lame in the middle and then there was another commando who took the dead bodies out and they stacked them outside until they were ready to bury him and it was winter they were frozen hard and they were laying there for days and days and days for weeks so how long before you went to the Air Force I wasn't Santa Speltz maybe for three months the most if you were if you reported you were sick or anything like this that's means you're gonna get shot there was no no medical there was not even abandoned in this camp nobody nobody got sick in there and if you were sick you wouldn't say anything so you went to the Air Force I went to the Air Force I should go back to this camp one months more time because I had an experience in this camp which I really should mention I made friends with knows a fella who worked when the transports arrived and the train stations all the luggage was not all some of the luggage was sent to this camp and some of the people had a resort the luggage their worse after the barracks were built they had a sorta luggage they took out the women's clothes plows is two plows is the man's shoes - shoes i classes - i classes whatever and that was sent back to to germany and one day a young young man came he asked me do you ever have any contact with an SS man or this anything like this I said no I don't and I got friendly with him and a few days later maybe a week later he came to me I was working then inside in the barracks and he was carrying lumber and he came back to me and he said Fritz I found somebody he would like to have a tablecloth for his wife so I gave him a table class from I've gone out of the suitcases and he put it around his face and put his jacket over it and they cut him and then they asked him they asked him where do you get this tablecloth from how did you get ahold of this tablecloth he wouldn't say anything if he would have said anything I wouldn't be sitting here today no that's trying so hard for many years he was about my age at a time and they took him and we all had to go and they shot him right on the spot there and we had look on now everybody every time there was a shooting or a hanging we had to look on when it was done and they hit him hit him and they asked him where he got the table class from he wouldn't say it if he would mentioned it I so going back to the Air Force the Air Force took us out of the camps there were about eight of us they took us out but this commander was the Germans they captured and the aircraft guns from the Russians and some of the prisoners had to repair them anti-aircraft guns but there was a lot of sabotage done to them guns and when the Germans fired the first shots they was over on the sea and the bodies piled exceeded higher - shots in them barrels exploded because of the sabotage so they decided the soldiers won't fire the first shots anymore we take prisoners to fire the first chance so this came to be known in the sabotage stopped and we were the people who fired the first shots on them and the aircraft counts intruder to the sea so and then in the that wasn't all day that was only for a few hours a day and then we had to go back we had assigned a place assigned to us so one of the soldiers came to us and he says I'm going on furlough what's the chance of getting a suitcase from you people can't you make a box of suitcase I have some extra stuff I would like to take along now we made him a nice suitcase this Hanson I we made him a nice suitcase which came out pretty good for what we had so he said fine so the next soldier came and pretty soon more and more came so we tried to make a business out of it and I said no we can take you you are ahead somebody else's ahead of us service said if you give us some prayer tour if you have some cigarettes we be glad to put you ahead so they came and they said dick if you a carton of cigarettes take me first or I give you a loaf of bread or I keep you banner or I get you bacon and so we did this for a while but this didn't last very long was this again that was in 1940 to 1942 then with the transfer tax to the cattle and I saw my parents again then we worked out of the ghetto for a while yeah I was living with my parents then my parents Devon Decatur all the time my father he worked in the in Riga my mother worked in the hospital in ghetto inside of the hospital and my father had to go to them where they killed the cattle and he worked there healthy yeah you were pretty healthy up to then yeah they weren't there my father could bring some meat pieces of meat with him when he came home in the evenings and it was all right up to then one day the Gator got that him Allah nor doubt that all kettles had to be dissolved that was in end of 42 beginning 43 1943 so then it started to go downhill so we had worked in a place called milk Robin milk Robin was the place where the German army sent all the uniforms from the soldiers who were killed on the front they had to be repaired washed and laundered and sent back again and we had to do Dever men and women Marika was this camp inside of the city of Rica and outskirts and we did the work there for quite a while my mother she had to Seoul was in the command of its so two uniforms my father he transport in a court the uniforms back and forth and I was working in the laundry they're washing their uniforms privada until 1944 1944 there was an atom part of Hitler that was in July to twenty eighths of July or the 20th of July and the 20th July when the German officers tried to kill Hitler my father was taking about a week later on every time as hostages and they were taken away and they were killed I saw my father before he went and he had one more gold piece on him from the one we found from the very beginning and this last gold piece he gave me and he said here you may need it better more than I do I said no you better take it with you and he did because I still had one and we never saw him again later on we found out that they both felt they came to camp at a named a Kaiser vault which was quite famous in Riga where they took him away I then through ties about I had worked a while in this plant milk rum and and yeah I had to work there for quite some time and then the Russian advanced they came closer and closer you were still laundering yes still doing the same work the Russians came closer and closer and then the Germans decided to send us back on the ship everybody was evacuated from Riga so we went on a big big boat a big ship it was the transport ship and that's very by accident I saw my mother for the last time there was quite a storm at sea in the Baltic Sea that was in the fall of 44 there was quite a storm and quite a few people got seasick almost everybody all the soldiers there wasn't a soldier standing the ship went way up and then he bounced down again for a big ship like this I never saw anything like I didn't get seasick so they asked people who are not sick to go down to the women's quarters where the women more and there was some packets to empty out the packets and clean up a little bit out there so I happened to see my mother there and then the event in the kitchen on this ship they had pea soup cooking at the time and we were flying around all over on this boat they transfer flying over overboard the soldiers they put themselves on the de belts they they fastened Amanda ship so they wouldn't go overboard but they were laying there second we went and had some of this piece of treat and in this in the kitchen then I took a platform that carried it down to my mother but she was so sick she couldn't need anything now finally he came on in dancing yeah this ship into dancing in dancing we were unloaded and we were put on small barges and no food no nothing and then I started to lose weight and then we came into attempt but was called stood off stood off as a camp is over a hundred thousand people people of all races all nationalities anybody who did anything against the Nazi regime was indeed ever murderous in there there were homosexuals in there anything any anything was in there juice is not as well as non-jews when we arrived that attempt they said put us in a room and big large room he says anything you have on off naked we had to go naked he had to split our fingers just men he had to spread our fingers and bend down and open our mouths and I had one more piece the gold piece I took this gold piece and put it underneath my tongue and if they would have found it I either would have swallowed it or whatever but they didn't see it and the events room and they put us in the next room there was shoes and pants and jackets and little round heads laying all in one bunch we had to go by and each one was in the assessment standing this and we couldn't pick out the size or anything we took a pair of shoes that was wooden shoes he took a pants we took a jacket he took a head and we went and put it on either it was too small or too large or if somebody was lucky at his size so we interchanged amongst who needed small once got small once the one who needed larger until we found our right science this camp there was nothing to do this crematorium in this camp was burning day and night day and night oh yeah we knew what was going on but every day they use transports out of this camp they ask for volunteers the loudspeaker in day and night there was parents there the foreign solace pills fever maybe poor people to a room which belonged there there was six or seven that was a really overcrowded camp in the morning we had a stand to be counted for a clock we had to go out and the count never came out by the time the count was over was maybe 10 or 11 o'clock and if you were caught doing anything on the streets you had to go to the bathroom you couldn't do this under streets there was one bathroom for thousands and thousands of people so there was a line you stood in line to go to the bathroom that was my pastime in this camp I stood in line by the time my turn came I went to the bathroom I went back to the end of the line to stay again until my turn came again which took hours and hours in the evening was the same thing they had to stand to be counted the count never came out that started at 4 o'clock and it wasn't over - 10 11 you had to stand at attention all the time in the afternoon you got Jamia which was some water web potato peels were cooking in and one slice the bread now and then you had to go with this bread you had to go and you got some marmalade and this branch and that was handed out with a knife but the marmalade was so thin it was like water so the fella who gave out the marmalade and your branch he took the knife in and by the time it came and your breath there was nothing on it so this marmalade that ever stood for a week a pot full of marmalade for all the people there there was SS standing there not that you start talking you didn't get anything or what you would not you just kept on going you found a place to eat your bread real careful every crumb who fall down that you didn't lose anything people was fighting over this bread they were fighting over the soup everybody lost a lot of weight I lost Knopf a lot of weight in there too I got acquainted with some nurse a fella by the name of court Mendel who lives in Germany today and be pretty much me at war the same age and we stack pretty much together I mentioned before this loudspeaker was going and asking for volunteers they promised cigarettes in the same rationing as to search German army I didn't sound good I did nothing sounded good to us one night about twelve o'clock at night day as for about 100 volunteers to do some work for people to go out of the camp they didn't promise to sing they didn't promise no cigarettes they didn't promise their rationing the same nothing it was a very short message over the loudspeaker the people are needed to run through her who want to go come to the main gate said Kurt that sounds like that's something for us let's go let's take a chance I said let's get out of this camp we went down to the main gate as fast as we could and they took both of us or instead of us a few weeks about a month for five weeks sounded like five years dispatch at this point you never saw it did you see your mother no no yeah I found out later on through prisoners of war with my mother and she died of typhus and she died very late I mean most of the people got freed in March of 45 from over there March and April of 45 and my mother died in February and months before the people that freed so we were taking they took us on a big track and they took us to another camp the camp had no barbed wire around it there was some small barracks there about 10 15 barons and we were the first hundred people to arrive at this camp the name was lauenburg wasn't too far away it wasn't too far from dancing but going more to exponent which Poland in their leave are the first to arrive there was an SS man I can't recall his name only one SS man who was in charge of the whole camp there he said the first thing you have to do is put up our buyers around the camp he says if anybody escapes from this camp there is no way for you to get anyplace or you can do anything you you're gonna be shot and if you come back ten other people is going to be shot he's gonna plant you if you run away and nobody ever did run away so we hadn't to stand and be counted again and then they says that's man came and he says I need a tailor first thing so the one fella I'm a tailor okay you come out step forward and then he asked the person who knows how to take care of horses so I step forward I says I know how to take care of horses so he asked me why I said that I was born there was a lot of horses I worked with a lot of promise and okay you're in charge of the horses I think it well horses have to eat at least they get worden horses at least it beats or anything like this besides hay they get something and it's morn where the horses are he says you live with a horse's you sleep is a horse's you take care of the horses that's your job fine and it isn't there was a bag in the morning I put the horses under bagging and then the train station wasn't very far away and all the food and anything but came into the camp was brought in with his horses and back and I was in charge of this I went over to the train station and one day I had potatoes under batam there was a feller I knew from Cologne and he was very very hungry he said Fritz Fritz throw me a few potatoes I'm so hungry please throw me some potatoes and I drew him a few potatoes down and one of them Koppel he is called that's a Jewish he was in charge police he saw me doing it at entry card I tend not rec honestly he saw me doing it he stopped me he says come on down he took me to the lager eldest er that's called a Jewish person who wasn't in charge of the camp and he beat me up something first because they had friends which they wondered a job for because it was considered a very very good job I was taken away from this I was beaten up by them too by a Jewish Jewish police and then the next state is that you have to go to work to commando where only people work who have violations who have enemies who done anything wrong I think we're gonna take a break now okay three we just were in Lauenburg where you had been disciplined by or beaten up by members of the Union right did you encounter any other sort of disciplinary actions against you actually I was one of the first prisoner in this camp to be beaten up at this SS man I walked through this camp one evening now had a piece of wood in my mouth and this SS man called me over and he accused me of smoking a cigarette I said no it was no cigarette and I said it was a piece of wood I had in my mouth so he beat me up something first and he says I never want to see you again with anything in your mouth next time you open your mouth in front of me you're going to be shot when after you had been working with horses and you had been punished what happened then well after I was taken out for this commando I had to work in a as a commando to lay railroad tracks and that was a commander where everybody who did something was put in this commander that was all prisoners with a mark against them so with a all-jewish press they were all Jewish prisoners of all the people younger people every every age group was in this commando early in the morning we were the first one to leave this camp and the last one to come back the work was very hard there was a lot of accident and this commando Devore depict railroad tracks we weren't strong enough to carry them but we had to and we were beaten up on it and some people trapped the track couldn't hang on to it and they fall on somebody's feet or on their hands or whatever and they got pretty badly hurt the prisoners this type of work were there any sort of sort of medical facilities no there were no medical facilities whatsoever the only medical facility was in the ghetto but when we first arrived and that was it after this if anybody was sick that meant a bullet in your head a dis commando they were saying God who was German Court not Latvian nor anything like this was German and one evening we walked back to the camp and I had a habit of walking in the very very last one at last prisoners in this column and I used to pick up cigarette paths on the street in this cart was behind me and one day he came he says how can you pick up them cigarette spots who knows who had him in their mouth I said well I take him in the camp and sometimes I give him towards the prisoners and I get a piece of bread for it or whatever so he said God you speak good German are you German I said yes I was born in Germany so he said what are you doing here how come you walk in this column with all them prisoners I said well I'm Jewish that's the reason I'm here he said what's Jewish I never heard of a Jewish person are they different I said we must be they put me here oh so the next day he called me we went to work again he called me over and he says over there in the spectrum there is a sandwich for you you go and get the sandwich I says no no I won't walk away from this column where we are working us at you may shoot me after I'm gone a few feet away because anybody who separated himself from the work column automatically he got shot because they wanted immersion the people would run away I said no I won't do this he says well I order you to go there then you go there right now so I walked and I looked back every second way I walk there Neven Dundas big huge tram there and there was a sandwich laying there god I haven't seen one of them since before camp so I started to eat it and because I was very hungry and I came back and I thanked him for it now a few days ago went by and I always was talking to him when we went back and forced to work from the camp so one day I had enough courage to ask them if he would mind there was a German civilians worked really close by not too far away maybe later railroad tracks and if he would mind if I go up there and see if they have some food leftover if I could bring it down he said no go up there if they say anything tell him I sent you so I walked up and there was an assessment in the kitchen and I stood attention and I asked him first if he allows me to speak to him he said yeah but he everybody you want I said well if you have anything to do but your people don't like to do we would be glad to do it and if you have any food left over we don't care what it is we would appreciate it he said well after I feed the pigs you can have what's left over so he said why don't you take a couple of people down there and you guys came clean where the pigs are clean this up so the food we he gave us that was all the scraps which were leftover on the table they were not considered our but ever the people left and their plates were scraped up in the barrel and we took this down I got help this as a prisoners we brought it down and every day he's got food from from them people and we had enough to eat so finally this command of us to be a punishing commander and after a few months it turned out that was one of the best commanders who left the camp because there was a lot of food there no no I don't that's many many years ago so Monday have us caught by Death this policeman Koppel he asked me to come over he says I understand you bring me food in the camp assess yes assess he asked me if he steal this food someplace I said no we don't steal the food I said we are be getting it from there and I explained to him what happened so he says well tomorrow you bring some food to us so reluctantly I took food to him too otherwise I would may be taken away from this command or would have gotten beaten up again so that went on for a while and then the Russians came closer in this camp round board the Headlee they put us in a different camp which was called Golden Door clans we had to walk to this camp they were there were no more tracks for us how far away was this that I would say be back for about two three days and this and there was no food no nothing underway to disaster camp we got some sugar beads from the fields which were close by them big huge sugar beets that's all they had to eat we arrived at his camp cordoned off lance and I started to get sick I was really stunned that was and I would say in 1945 now what could have been in peperoni beginning of February of 1945 one day I was so sick and everyday they counted the people you had to stand outside cold hot whatever it was they counted you every day was counting irregardless in every Kent they counted and counted and I was missing because I was so sick I didn't care anymore and I didn't go out so they searched they found out that I was the one who was missing they searched for me and they found me they brought me out and there I really got beaten up you were beaten up by whom I was beaten up by the SS then they put me over a bench and they were standing on my feet in the bag and they put my hands down they tied them underneath the bench and they gave me about 20-25 over my naked rear and my skin broke open and it was bleeding and I was in pretty bad shape friends mine helped me because I always do in the camp help doses and I always had a lot of friends I never made an enemy in the camp because it would really come back to you they helped me along and one day people start running away and they didn't do the SS didn't do anything about it anymore they didn't care anymore because the Russians came closer and closer and closer so people were is escaping from the can right device gaping the ones who were held seeing could get away they escaped because he co-chaired the cannon fire coming closer and closer so they're likely aided us from this cabin clamp and we had to March so they put us on a March which lasted about a holiday now to backtrack for one minute you mentioned that you had many friends do you remember their names oh yeah I mentioned some of the court Mentalist one of them while the Schmitz is an Ursa man he just passed away he was living in New York Paul Kaufman he passed away already he was living in New York Hines Berman who's still alive he lives in Chicago right now what type of how did you live out your friendships with each other what specifically did they do to help you well when we're on dis March they actually carried me along I had my arms over their shoulder over there one on the left side one on the right side and it kind of tracked me along because anybody who was falling behind their sess was and aimed they shot everybody who couldn't walk anymore so Envy nudist so they tracked me along one day we came to a small farming community and we were put in a big huge barn and we could hear the shots from the Russian the cannons and whatever the firing from gunfire we could hurt her okay already the Russians were real close by when we warned this pawn there about four o'clock in the all of a sudden a Russian tank came and broke this door down just rammed his door and the door collapsed in the inside and all the prisoners who were laying there they were killed the last day this tank backed up and the soldiers came the Russian soldiers came some of them spoke a little German and some of the prisoners spoke Russian there were Russian prison and Polish prisoners with us they get along with the language they said for now on you are free whatever you see whatever you want is yours you're you're free people and the hiding is this direction and you go the opposite direction there is no more fighting so what what was the approximate date that was and March the 10th 1945 that was the day I got raped and so at this day a lot of the prisoners killed themselves they either jumped out a window or they just ran in front of a tank and got they went over they couldn't take it it came to sudden death oh yeah yeah that this this came to certain people couldn't believe it all of a sudden you are for four or five years four and a half years you you had a fellow artist you you didn't have no food and nothing and all of a sudden it was given to you how did you feel I kind of lost my mind myself I didn't know anymore what I was doing I was fighting there was a Germans they run away and they left everything they had and there was a whole bag and full of cigarettes and I went on this wagon and a woman had a carton with cigarettes in their hand and I was fighting the so to get to cigarettes she says what are you fighting with me for there is a whole back-and-forth I said no I want yours no I want yours and we were fighting over this carton of cigarettes and some of the people started cooking and they went in their houses in this little town and they found blueberries and then anything the people can't in the houses there so they start handing this out and I got a hold of a jar of blueberries which work and and I ate this whole jar of blueberries I've ate at a time 75 pounds that was my baton that was a worse thing I could attend there was no supervision when the Americans freed the prisoners what I found out they took care of him right away they put him in hospital since but the Russians didn't the Russians said go anything you see is us you're free do what you want and the townspeople evacuated the area yeah there weren't very many townspeople they're all they're all their towns were empty when the Russians came to join the Germans there they were afraid of the Russians very much so and so it was late in the afternoon of us early in the morning when this all happened and I did the best I could I saw the horses running around and chaos all over so I thought I don't want to walk anymore and I can't walk anymore and so I took two horses and I've under put them in a small baggie and I didn't made it already and somebody else came who was stronger than me he took two horses and he went off so I found two other horses and I put them on a big K bag and I said well it's better than then walking better I'd is better than a good walk I put them all put them horses on a climbed and top of this wagon and I was ready to go two directions the Russian show us which way to call and I looked around there were about 20 25 women behind me and this magnet prisoners all prisoners now I didn't say anything we all went together and betrothed almost be late late in the evening this into a different town with the Horsham thatum when we arrived at this town everybody separated everybody went their own way I took the horses and put them in the barn and sat tomorrow morning I'm gonna take the horses and keep on going I went in this house inside and laid down on the floor early in the morning I went out my horses were stolen my horses were gone no that really affected me and then I kind of gave up I said let's see you so I went back in the house and I laid down and I really got sick I broke out with typhus and I had typhus really bad and I was laying in this house I don't know how long was laying on the floor and why I was laying them all of a sudden a Russian soldier came and he kind of his his foot trent me over he wanted to see if I was dead or alive and I kind of looked at him this big eyes and he looked at me and he cracked me with one hand and he carried me outside in a jeep and he put me in the back of the Jeep and he drove oh the roads weren't very good I got awful sick then finally he stopped and he went to a house where Germans were and he looked for him he went to different houses and what you and what country at this point that was in Poland then that's Poland today he told the Germans if he dies I come back I'm gonna shoot a Leo you take care of him and he spoke half German they could understand it they were very much afraid they took me they washed me they gave me food and I was with them people for about 3-4 weeks and finally I could walk again barely I had a couple of sticks I walked with and the war wasn't over yet and I said well I can't stay there forever do you remember their name no I can't stay here forever and I went I'm a vague and I went through houses which were MD the Russians men's room already but I was looking for food Russian soldiers they were looking for as far as the things we now where do you know approximately where this wasn't too far front stalled in Parmen that which is poland today and i went through them houses and looking for food in one day two Russian soldiers came this put your hand up urine emits keenum etske name it's key is Russian that's a German that means German you're a German German soldier I said no no no I'm that I'm that German I'm they are your German soldiers your German soldier put your hands up they put me against the wall and they pointed a gun at me so one of them left the room and went through the house looking for things and he called his body over I don't know what they found I took this moment I ran out of the house I ran across the street and I went into another house which was empty in went upstairs and there was a big wardrobe there upstairs I opened up the doors and then free-standing wardrobe I opened up the doors I went inside and I let this wardrobe fall down right on top of me and I was laying there whole night and I heard him Russian soldiers going from house to house firing shots looking for me looking for me now the next morning early afternoon I said I gotta get up I gotta get out of here so I crawled from underneath then I went out on the street I wasn't two minutes on the street put your hands up stop so I did they took me in and it took me to comment down there a Russian Kommandant and he asked me if I was German I said no I'm not a German I said I wasn't the concentration camp I said I was born Germany oh then your German did you're a German I said no I'm that German I said I come out at a concentration time now finally he believed me and he said okay you start working here so I worked there for a little bit I couldn't do much work and finally he gave me permission to go on so I went on and I've been to start which was a big city now then you realized that you were Jewish oh yeah the muster that comes in so underway to start why I was walking through it stop I found two girls who came out of the camp they were very sick in a house where I was looking for food table laying there and I brought them food and I stayed there for one day and then I left and finally I arrived installed and I went to the coming down there installed and he asked me where I came from but I want to do fine so I've worked in the slaughterhouse in stop and with the Russians now the Russians the some of them didn't know how to ride a bicycle and they had bicycles I taught him how to ride a bicycle they wanted to kill some cows which were pregnant pregnant cows and they had other cows which were cows for slaughtering and they couldn't tell the difference and this so I told him no don't kill this cow this one has to be killed not hurt and kill the cows and so I was there for quite some time in the evenings we went on riots the Russian soldiers I spoke then a few words I picked up a few words Russian and there was one fella day a Russian who spoke pretty good German we went on a this big truck there were about 8/10 soldiers they gave me a gun too and we were going into the German houses so first of all they looked for sugar they looked for whiskey and they looked for bacon that was the main thing they were interested in so when they told me when the Germans talk you know what they're talking about and then if there is something there we stay and we find it and if there isn't anything we go to the next house now we went to the houses nothing German says there Russians asked German people do you have sugar sugar no sugar and then I could tell when they were talking to each other oh I sure hope they don't find it or it's where did you hide it it's hidden there and there so and then I know and then I said well fish day we look for it and then we found radios sometimes we found guns and sometimes we found - sugar sometimes we found wine but ever so I came in pretty handy to the Russians that was Oh in the summertime May June July 45 so there was also a lot of Germans they probably law the people from Russia to work private people in Germany in this bloke spoke fluent Russian and German so there was one girl I got acquainted with and the Kommandant caught me in one day and he said tomorrow a train is going to Odessa and you gonna be under train we only sent you to the officer school in Odessa and you gonna join the Russian army so I told this to the girl and she says glad you don't want to go to Russia you never get out of there you don't want to go down and I had duty at the same evening a guard duty and the main entrance so this girl came and brought me civilian clothes I changed I left my gun and the uniform they gave me in the guard house and I ran through to the train station installed and there more german people which went back to germany and there was whole trainload spoiler now when you were amongst the russians did they consider you their body as their buddy as part of other than part of them and do you remember the name of this young woman so I went in in this train station event in viscid Germans and now laid off like I was a German I was on my way back to Germany to as a displaced German and I spoke German Swiss them like where did you come from I asked then I cut on I said well I come from the same place and they never met finally the strain was going too slow for me it stopped and the military trains went through so one train station I spent a train stopped I saw a military train the Russian military trains standing there I said ah I go in there this train is going to Berlin that's I be there in a day or a tune this way it takes me maybe in a whole week to get there so I'm sitting under strain the military train was ready to go and all of a sudden two Russian soldiers came this red armband on NKVD the police secret police come on out who are you how come you are on this train children they wouldn't believe me let's go to the Commandant okay to the Commandant mmm I was tired of saying that I was German then I said I'm French I came from France oh you come from France that's very interesting where did you live in France so I said I'm liftin parades what was your address as a 3d Pelican and that was an address my aunt used to live there and I remembered this name it's a 3d Pelican hmm very interesting but if you're French why don't you speak French to me I understand French so I said okay I said Purohit or annoy eloheynu melech ha'olam he said that isn't French he says I understand this language - that's hiepro how come you're lying to me as as well if you understand Hebrew I can tell you the truth I said yes I was lying I says I was born in Germany I'm Jewish I come Jewish parents I was in the concentration camp nobody believes me whenever I run into a Russian they say I'm in escaped Germans from the military German military I said that's the only language I speak this German and a few words say hiepro so he said well I understand your story he said for now on you don't have to lie anymore he says I give you papers which every Russian soldier can read and you keep them papers and you have free sailing so he they made the papers and I ran into few more Russians all I did this show this paper this command and gave me Oh fine just read this over Duke oh do you remember the name of the commander No so finally I came on in Belem and that was late in the fall I came out of the train station and I saw a postman I says can you tell me are there any Jewish people around here anybody who is Jewish do you know of anybody no I really don't but there is a woman who's living not too far over then apartment I don't know if she is Jewish or not but this is a good person to ask no I went to where he told me knocked on the door she opened the door I said can you direct me is there any Jewish people is there any organizations churches any clubs where Jewish people are oh yeah there and there and there and there now a few buses were running in Berlin Berlin was terribly pumped out I went under bus they said ticket please I said what you have to pay I says I have to pay I said I throw you off the pass I says I'm a Jew I came from the concentration camp I said I should kill you for you asking me for money there should I get the money from oh oh oh that's fine that's fine you just go finally I came on to this place where she told me and I saw a lot of my friends from the camp it's a lot of people I knew that was the gathering point they're ready people could come they helped him he gave him food this was a Jewish organization so not my friends they had hands full of money gotten I had nothing on I had torn clothes on not a penny in my pocket I said that how do you people get this money so fast till the roads are money England Oh black market Isis what do you mean black market what's black market oldest Alexanderplatz in here in Berlin everybody meets there everybody the Russians the French the Germans they're Americans anybody who's anybody goes to Alexanderplatz and starts trading this show you you convince me tomorrow ok next day we went to the Alexander Platz no they were training divine cigarettes coffee cameras and stockings everything but anybody wanted was traded back and forth there was allied money then I like money was different than German money I'm gonna get into this a little later on so I said God how can I start how can I start to make some money here finally I found a German woman is a Russian soldier the Russian soldier wounded by a camera from the German woman and they didn't get together so I asked the Russian how much he wondered for how much he wants the pain I asked a woman how much she went for the camera I added 50 marks on it I exchanged it I took the 50 marks on the ran away give him the camera he gave her the money now I had 50 marks so I went to American soldier and about a pack of cigarettes just a failed and never forget it but a packaged Chesterfield for 50 marks and I put him in my package and I sold one cigarette after the arson then I had enough money to buy two packs and pretty soon I had enough money to buy a carton and so on and pretty soon I had a few little money in my possession so one evening we were in this place and we were talking together and one of my friends said Fritz let me see your hands take your shirt off take your shirt off let me see your body there you have two threats I said what that's highly contagious what you have that's a sickness we all can get it and I said please don't say anything don't say anything no no no no no they called people who were in charge they came over all right away in the hospital they took me in the hospital in Berlin and I really was broken out all over the skin you just could peel off over my hands in German you call it crits I don't know what the English word is foreign but it's highly contagious and your skin peels off and they're ever the closing is tight and your body that's where you get it so they put me in a dance top and that was black black oil and nothing was exposed in my face and I had a lady from morning till evening and finally I got rid of it in the evening I had to take bath and the morning over again finally I got rid of it I went back to the people I know we did a little bit more Alexanderplatz or a black market if you wonder called this and finally I had enough of this so I said well I have to go back where I was born I have to go back first to Cologne so I went over to the American sector in Berlin and I registered with American army and then I was interrogated for about a whole week from the Americans the same story where do you come from who was your father who was your mother did that camp are you in what did you do how come you're so late everybody is back already six eight months when that was in late in the fall of 1945 September October how come you're so late in day I was sent from one to another from one officer to another officer and finally I they kept me in this camp and they gave us food there was no shortage on anything and they said when your name appears on a big blackboard that's the day we take you over to the English sector now one day my name came up I was put on a big truck and never saw a practice big American soldier they drove through the Russian sector and into Berlin until I got to Hanover in Hanover and a fella and I we said well that's enough we they wanted to put us in a camp there and saying you stay a few days in the camp until you feel good and then you can go and I said no I don't want to go to camp I said come on let's go we speak the language they all speak German here so we vent ourselves our money was gone we spend it in the meantime so we went to the burgomaster in a small town there that's a I come from the concentration camp there Jewish people we need money and please give us money and he did he gave us money so then we went on the train station I wonder to go to Cologne the train was full of people and top hanging and decides in inside for foolish people all Germans so we vending I said up I'm the Jew I come from the concentration camp I said you get up I sit down boy and they all were afraid of us they all were very much afraid of us so then finally I came to Cologne and my friend was living there hunt spearmint Ivana I mentioned before from the campus Alice pelts we been together in the camp from Cologne and I went to the Jewish organization there in Cologne they were quite a few people back then already and I said where's Han spearman Oh Hans she is well-off he lives there and there and one of the nicest parts of the town he has a beautiful apartment you should see him so I made my bed a new Cologne and I made my Beijing to his apartment I came in no hunts nobody was home he was living on the first floor I said well he has to come sooner or later and I was sitting under steps there waiting for him to come about two three hours later he and another friend from the camp they came he looked he looked at me he start hollering I start crying he started crying he says you're dead everybody's saying you're dead you didn't come through you didn't make it through the camps and we hugged each other and he said come in he says how do you look he says where do you get them rotten clothes from all torn up he says go and take a bath I took a bath she had a beautiful apartment and he had them closet full of clothes he says pick out what you want pick out what you want at rest stop I says how do you get that the science is so fast Hawk he said that was easy when I came on in Cologne he says I've been here now but eight months I went to the bergamot stay in Cologne I said I come back from the camp when we went through the camp we had to leave everything in the apartment we couldn't take a sing out he said I'm on dirt bag I want you to give me a list from the SS people you have she said I've in de round not found somebody who've asked my size and my figure and I went in I took a policeman with me in SS out I says you remember I mean you took the Jews out I'm gonna kick you out don't you come back to this apartment if you come back here I'm gonna kill you you could do this at a time then he kicked them out and he had all his clothes and everything so I was with him for a few days finally I said I have to go to my hometown where I was born why well I wanted to see if my parents came back if anybody came back for my family and uncles cousins I lost lotta ants a lot of cousins to my age I and my parents and I was searching for them at a time then there was nobody there I came on on this little train station this is a train first of all from cologne event his car is a friend of mine to another town and I was there for a couple of days and then I took the train down to this small town Lavenham I got off the train station there were two people one woman and me who arrived at a train station this woman first the burgomaster schnell his wife and she couldn't believe it when she saw me she says God now to be that that she was a burka my sounded announces and for a moment she spoke to me and he says are you going to do anything against us as US no I said I won't forget what your husband did fast I says I says I protect you off he had so much trouble and so much bother because my husband passed Burgermeister and I said I know you didn't do anything which I know of I don't know but you did when I was in the camps I can't protect you against this so the people were very much surprised when I claim that I was 21 then and I was in this little town for a few days people invited me for dinners farmers and some of them came who didn't speak to me when the Hitler time-bar they came and wanted to shake my hand I refused I says don't you come close to me I says you didn't know me then and so from there I left for the next larger town which is called Park rights now that was about ten miles away so I went to the governor who governed several communities in Germany and he happened to know my grandparents crap his name was crap yes his name was crap he happened to know my grandparents who also got killed in the camps and he says well I'd be glad to help you what can I do for you as says first of all I haven't got no money Isis any money or that's no problem he called the secretary and he says out of the emergency pant give him some money and then I said well I have to do something I said I would like to work for them for you here if at all possible he says well what do you know I says well I know Carol I know me so he said well there is a job but the job is coming out to a German person who has this job but I think you get along listen but I'm gonna do with you there about 30 or 40 butchers in this district here and they all have to bring the rationing carts in and as many cards as they praying that's this much meat they're getting he says you would be responsible you go out with the policemen you go from community to community the promise have to bring their cattle and you pick out but you need and you take the cattle and get them to the butchers you can you have to judge how much they weigh pretty close and you give it to that oh I said that's a wonderful job yes so the fellow who had a job his name was Perry man he acquainted me with him this governor told him I says he is in charge and if he wants you to work with him you can do so now I didn't know too much I didn't know as much as I made off I did I needed this Perryman real bad so we went outside I said listen I says I'm not going to take your job away I says we work together Oh fine wonderful and we got along very good now I wasn't charged in and I keep the farmers to meet and finally I came to finally I came to a butcher he said you know you come over tonight for dinner all right I went to his house and he says you know you're doing it wrong if you give me a little bit more meat then I give the cards I'll give you some of the meat back you need meat dude you need a car you need clothes you need furniture you can get this with money only with meat so I got acquainted with him and I did a little bit of business with him and I was in Germany then until 1950 and in 1950 I decided to leave Germany and come to the United States so I left an August day it's 1950 did you have a sponsor yes I had a sponsoring family which was my anger who was living who was living in Seattle and he sponsored me and I went I registered to come here to the United States and Germany in in rust at Germany I had to go to the console the American Consul he said yeah everything is fine but I want to tell you a little bit about America classes okay in German he spoke he says in America people's gold with shine shoes they have clean clothes on clean fingernails comte nice that's a wonderful country especially where you go to the northwest that's even better okay I says I can adjust to this SSI I'm not a dirty person I said I have shine shoes and I have clean fingernails that's good he says are you willing to fight for the country if this country ever goes tomorrow said sure you swear to this yes so he said okay here are your papers you are free to go I came on in New York I left premier - August 1st 1950 I looked around I said goodbye Germany I never want to see you again I said to myself fritz forget about the times you had in the five years after our after the camp I was in Germany I really had a wonderful life I had I wanted to make up for things I lost I was young I I I really had anything the person could desire I says when I was on the ship I looked around I says forget everything you had assessed you come to America you're nobody you forget that you are in the camps don't feel sorry for yourself go to work and change your life I came on I was in New York City I never was so disappointed when I see the harbor then I came on in the harbor the dirt dip felts everything laying around on the street my aunt picked me up I was there for a few days I had an aunt there I says no I can't stay in this city people and people and people I says no I said I'm gonna keep on and I see my brother who lives in Chicago Chicago was worse there was so hot up there in August I couldn't stop drinking soda pop so I said no he said I got a job for you I got a job all lined up they pay you 2 dollars and 50 cents an hour which was good money then which was really good money I said no I can stay as I go to Seattle assistant if I don't like Seattle I said I'm gonna leave the United States I'm gonna go to Australia because I have a lot of prints in Australia now I came on in Seattle by train 8 o'clock in the morning man picked me up I never saw a city so beautiful in Sierra I really fall in love and it's train came in small houses nice yards flowers clean I've bent down yes levy I saw the water a big boat sitting in the water and I love fishing so I said that's that's for me this town is so I stayed there and I got married that's three wonderful children when did you get married I said married in 1952 January the 10th to twister chip what was her name then and you have a wonderful life and yes three wonderful children and I have five grandchildren now and what and what do you do for a living I'm in the meat wholesale business I have been for the last 20 years and it's very successful i supply restaurants and hotels and institutions I have about 30 people working for me what's the name of your company the company's name is meat distributors and it's located in Kirkland what are your children's names my children the oldest one is Erna named after my mother the second one is Vivian and the third one is Susan five grandchildren have you have you told your family have you told your children about your ex much those are not very much informed right you seem to be quite successful and before you said that you didn't have a very extensive education in Europe can you tell us a little bit about and you're very active in the Jewish community as well here love Linda right before the event into the camp I mentioned I've been to Hara Hara is where they prepare you but not alone for Israel deeper prepare your whole life I learned more in this one year I was up there I learned to speak correctly I learned to write I didn't I was very bad in crime I learned about quite a few things how many people were with you and what organization sponsored it that was the Maccabees was the name of the sponson debar about a hundred people in this camp all right and this is my star do could any people join that's that the Hofstra program the Lydia and then preparation programs yes yes and did any of those people some of those people went to to Israel and then I was in Israel a few years back I tried to look some of my I didn't find anyone if you is is there anything that you've forgotten to speak about that you would like to bring up now well there's quite a few things you know I could be sitting here for hours and hours and really incidents which happened to me but in general I went through the time in the camp and the time I was in Germany I would say on a broad basis if you could leave a message for future generations about your experience in your life what would it be what would it be just be good to your fellow man don't let him go hungry that's one thing and I can't stand it today I very active in giving I'm a great tipper to people who are hungry and I think if I see somebody on the street who's hungry that's very sad thank you very much mr. Cohn honor yes I can't talk I can't see the picture you see ya it's much wait he has to qu you in the picture you're seeing here is the house I was born in it was a quite large house you see first our dark reno my father and then me sitting on a stone my mother in my product and riding on top Adair : d are born that means krauser is cigar and tobacco and cigarettes from eMCON that's what my mother this business was and you see there Maggie advertising under door death and a big draw and when was this picture taken or this picture was taken in the early series I would say 90 and this is Stan the picture you're seeing here is the village the small farming community la Bernheim and the river you see is called in our River and in the circle that is the house next to the church the people who lived in this town they were 99% of Christian Lutheran the church is a Lutheran Church and your house was our house boss where the circle is right next to the church across from the church this picture here is the modern Cologne Cologne the way it is today that was rebuilt it was totally bombed out for the Allied process and this is the Rhine River and the purchase who go over the river and in the middle of the picture you see the famous stone dome from cologne which is a very famous and this is me in my younger yes I wish I would look like this today what year was this taken this picture was taken about 40 years ago how old were you oh I think I was in my 20s late 20s and this is a picture which was taken in there again ghetto in the radar ghetto you see the woman in the middle she is seeding and I don't know the people's name I don't know who they are that must have been taken 1942 and how did you get this picture this picture of us given to me for now later when I came to Germany from a soldier who in Riga he had this picture and this was from what get out that was fun to read I did oh here's a closer look Fonda this woman who's eating so far I'm sure it was no stool or t-bone steak you said there was a story that you wanted to tell us yeah I should come back to a story which happened in the camps in one of the camps I was you know whenever the people who are in charge police or whatever in one camp indica transferred to another camp they were nothing they were ordinary prisoners and if you hit on corners if you made enemies in one of the camps you really got paid back in a nurse attempt and historicals like this I saw this with my own eyes the fella who was in charge of the police in this camp he came to nose attempt people had it in for him in this camp facilities the toilet there were no toilet facilities there was a room gave us a people duck a hole in the ground I would say about 10 15 feet deep and about 20 feet across and about 30 feet long and then devour to bat force on top and that's where you were sitting and you had to do here a toilet business Dan so one day this fella who was a policeman he was sitting there another person that came by and trusted in the shop and he fall over right into the hole and he never was seen again and that was the way of paying back if you made enemies was that what camp and which camp that was in in a camp called a kaiser vault by kaiser watch this yeah that was the camera only was in this camp for one and two or two days and I did not talk much about this camp but I should tell this story and I always tried not to make an enemy you you could not afford it thank you

Channel: Holocaust Center for Humanity

Views: 28,401

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Id: JK1NChfrTcg

Length: 123min 52sec (7432 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 28 2018