oh survivor of the showing interview October 11 1994 this world ever more Survivor [renee] Firestone interviewer aside from Kin in the city of Beverly Hills the interview will be conducted in English Just leave it again movie possibilities for really fun, survivor the show interview October 11 1994 Survivor renee Firestone interviewer side from caen City of Beverly Hills the interview will be in English rene Where do you come from in Europe I? was born and raised in the Eastern part of Czechoslovakia [as] a matter of fact in a region which in the 20th century belonged to five different countries at my Birth it was czechoslovakia, and of course in 38 it became hungry it was a lovely town and I Never went back. It was it was [bush] [Holland] when it was czechoslovakia and became mad when it was hungry? and now it's sushi Karate belongs to the ukraine and What was your life like before the war I come from a very loving middle-class Jewish family My parents were not religious but I remember my Only grandfather I knew was grandfather Rosenfeld was died at the age of 96 in an accident and he Used to go to the temple every morning and every evening And I remember when I went to his house that he had a rack with these fancy pipes Long ones short ones as a child. I was always fascinated by that and I have fantastic memories about my grandfather. He was a real character He always at summertime board these starched white suits like he just came out of a box and when he saw the Grandchildren he reached in his pocket and started to crack and the paper that was in there, and we knew that there is candy and Used to [ask] [him] for the candy. My father was a Businessman and he had a Bedside business and a tailor shop. He was a very fine craftsman my mother when she [was] young When she before she got married [she] was already a businesswoman she and two other sisters went to Vienna and they had a millinery shop and then when my mother got married and she became a housewife [I] Have a brother who [is] four years older than myself and I had a sister who was five years younger than myself. My brother's name is Frank my sister's name [was] Clara and My daughter Clara is named after They were about 16. I think when the war began, I was 14 when when Czechoslovakia was split up, and we became hungry How did that affect the jews in your time? Why not [a] lot of jews in your film? Yes? it was a small town of about 30 to a thousand population, and maybe a third was Jewish you said you were not religious, but you were somehow involved in some Jewish affair as I understand you were a member of the MacCabi well after the Hungarians took over before that I belong to an organization called [sokol] which was also an athletic czech organization and of course when that disappeared after Hitler donated actually Our region from Hungry, then I joined a Jewish athletic organization called [Anarkali] So you were already involved you know that you were Jewish. Oh absolutely? But we kept hard anything there [was] no kosher in my so you went to a general public school And even though they're under the hungarians there was no discrimination there were no anti-Jewish laws Well for of course of course they began pretty early and you know sort of slowly systematically reduce to second-class citizens but For for a while we were still free we were still in our homes the family was together and then they started to take the men into forced labor camps and [so] my father was taken for a while He was later released and came back home and my brother was taken to Forced [labour] camp As soon as he graduated collosseum and after that He escaped later from the campus. This was in the early 1943. Yes Let me tell you that my brother was actually Taken [from] his classroom from his graduating class room with a few other Jewish boys They were taken out of the school and they disappeared [I] Remember that my parents were devastated the government didn't [Wanna] tell us where they were and My mother hired an attorney and the attorney Told my mother that the two of them there do everything possible to find out what happened to these boys They found out that they were taken to an another city called mortgage or Mukachevo, and they were taken in one of these to one of these castles that the hungarians used as the torture Place and they beat up and tortured these boys accusing them of dispersing Communist Propaganda Now my brother had never any political affiliation with anything So we knew that. It's just ahead you know He managed to escape he was finally my parents paid and released all the boys all and then they came back and They graduated enhancing that Were there any other specific anti-jewish laws that the jews have to wear a yellow star no later. Yes later we had to wear yellow Stars and We had a curfew My Father's business was taken away from him [I] Would like to turn your little incident about my father's business because at one point that was [a] man, Jewish family a shoemaker who had about nine children Came to my father and asked him to take his 13 year old boy as an apprentice in his business and my father Took pity on him and of course doheny, not only took him in as a an apprentice but he brought him into our house, and he grew up with us as a brother and At the end when [we] were taken to the brick Factory to the ghetto my father wrote a letter to him to send us some supplies and The answer was that he's not gonna risk his life for us now. This is a young man Who took over my Father's business? When they said that a jew can no longer own a business Then my father said [well]. He is this is a gentile son of mine I can trust him and he gave him the Business, and money he owned everything we owned at that point, and he wouldn't help us so these are some of the stories [about] our neighbor and friends and How they supported us when we were in Toronto And what happened after that you were deported? To Germany I am woman. Oh let me just ask you [this] all this time Mass extermination [was] going on mass murders of Jews in poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe were you aware of that. Yes? Let me tell you that in 1940 as early as in 1940 Those jews in my hometown and in our region Who couldn't prove that their ancestors were there? In 17 I don't remember exactly the date does were deported and they were just put over the Polish border and Some of them Came [back] and they were telling us about the murders and and what's going on in poland So we knew that in poland? They are shooting and burying jews in Mass graves, but we had absolutely no knowledge about the van circumference or about extermination camps being dead And when did the deportations began? Deportations began in 1944 actually in April was it done primarily by the hungarian police, or did the Germans take part we were taken to the border of Poland by the Hungarians and there the Germans took over and escorted us into Auschwitz by train by train So tell me how you arrived in Auschwitz. How did you were so the entire family was together? Let me tell you that we were Herded into cattle cars in my hometown yet, my brother was no longer with us here Hungarian for sleep, okay, but my parents and my sister and I Were in a cattle car where there were about 120 what about your grandfather? Who you mentioned earlier by the way my grandfather died I told you at the age of 96? Earlier so he was spared fortunately awareness, so the Ride to the Journey To Auschwitz was horrifying the Cattle car was packed there was hardly any breathing space and hardly any bleeding air because There was a bucket which was supposed to be on our sanitary Facility our bathroom kept Overflowing and I Don't have to tell you within a few hours i ahd sum in my mouth It just kept Overflowing that cattle cars were never opened To empty it or to get [a] fresh air into the car and so thus tangent and the Air was Unbreathable and we could actually hear people Suffocating in in the Caravan of course there was nothing we could do about it We had no food or water [given] to us and this journey lasted three [days] I also, [remember] during the night the train used to stop and The Nazis used to bang on the [walls] of the character telling us that if you are still hiding any Valuables or any Money we should give it up, or we'll be shot And why they were talking to us we could hear on the outside of shooting and screaming and we were convinced that they are searching and and killing these people [I] Very vividly remember this old woman who was sitting on the edge of the cattle car ripped open her Coat lining and Reached in there and removed a little gold locket and started to cry open this locket study started to cry bitterly and I being Young and still very [Optimistic] and romantic [I] was sort of fantasizing that maybe that's her wedding picture in the locket or Maybe her family her grandchildren who she left behind And we were going somewhere not knowing where for how long? The rumors were that we'll go to Germany to work and that if the family is healthy and strong [we'll] work the family [will] survive together so this woman and Must have been in her eighties Hardly believed that she will ever return and I thought myself how cruel that they won't left let her keep this little memoir and Then she closed the dis locket and through the cracks of the character and handed it to the nazis Yes, how old were you all the time I? was just 19 so this was the beginning of 1944 that's it and Then you arrived in others. Did you know what that place was or where it was? Sited me tell you the cattle cars opened, and I [believing] that we're going to germany to [work] Was very eager to get a good job? So that I can help out my [parents] and my own sister so that they don't have to work so hard I was a strong healthy athlete so I knew I can work and I was going to save them When I jumped off that camera car, and I burned [I] knew right away that We're dude all I could see for miles and miles were [bonfires] and You know so many feet there was always a tower. They wouldn't tower and when I looked up there I saw this nazi Soldier. We are the machine gun pointing it at us watching every move we were making Under loudspeakers the Nazis were telling us to leave all our belongings behind [you] [having] to deliver it [to] us to the camp [and] so I turned back to the cattle car and I called my sister Clara who came forth crying rubbing her [eyes] from the darkness into the light and I Grabbed her hand and I said to her you hold on to me. No matter what happens you and I must stay together and she started to cry and she said, but when you let's wait for mom [and] Dad and I turned back to the cattle car for mom and Dad they were gone and [it] was only then that I realized that Thousands people were falling out of the string and the Train had no end I couldn't see the end of it and There was tremendous Chaos Children looking for parents and mothers calling their children's names It was impossible to find to find anybody and so I kept reassuring my sister that wants me be getting we will be reunited with mother and father so don't worry about it and Of course we were caught in this human tide and just being pushed Towards the Camp When suddenly I found myself standing in front of this nazi officer a young man very handsome with a smiling face and A little whip in his hand pointing people to the right [and] [to] left It was then that I became became very fearful about Our future because they promised that we're going to stay together the families And all of a sudden I [realize] [that] They are [weeping] the families apart So what happened? Then my sister And I was pointed to the right by the way this man who separated us was of course none other than the infamous Dr. [ming] get it. How did you know this? We didn't know we didn't know it then I'll tell you later How I found out who he was I had no idea who he was and my sister hi were marching Towards the Camp and not knowing what's coming [and] suddenly my sister noticed that my mother is going to the other side and so she Wanted to run away from me, and I grabbed her and I said don't go anywhere You're gonna get lost you're not going to find mother and then you're not going to find me either so please don't go anywhere and we were taken into an underground dressing room and here surrounded by Nazi Soldiers and Vicious dogs that were growling and barking at us. We were told we should get undressed. We're gonna take a shower, [so] [we] were waiting [for] the soldiers to leave so we can get undressed and of course nobody moved so one of the soldiers walked over to one of these women and Hit her and said take it [off] And we realize [that] they are not leaving So we started to get undressed [and] again we were given orders to be very Careful how we fold our belongings remember exactly where meaning your clothing? because when you come out of the shower, you would have to hurry [up] and dress and be assigned to your work and still be Naive and stupid enough to believe that and I told my sister to make sure That she puts her stuff next to mine, so we don't get separated when we When we come out of the shower? Needless [to] say that the minute we've all been to the shower the doors were slammed behind us I'd be on [deans] little shower heads later We came out naked on the other side of the shower room and stood there Wet naked from mid-afternoon till about midnight. [I] Remember my sister, and I hugging each other for a lower-body wound we were freezing and then at midnight they took us into this barrack Where they shaved our heads our bodies. They sprayed us [with] DDT with pesticide and Then we walked through a door where two prisoners greeted us one gave us a recycled dress which we put on our naked bodies and Another prisoner had a bucket of yellow paint and a brush About four inches wide and painted a yellow streak from the top of our shaved head down through our bank This was the identification of being a Jewish prisoner And that's how we entered the [Camp's] and found [drew] naked back or on the ground address through the dress I remember the dress sticking it to my to my body And we had no underwear no stockings. No shoes no shoes or no shoes at that point Then I'm when we got into the camp we were introduced to this to this Overseer who was a couple you know all the overseers work? in the Camp and She told us to line up in Columns of four she Jewish children. She was a Jewish Slave young girl told us to line up that we will be assigned to our barracks and when we lined up for for this Counting it was say like God say labelled and being lined up to be counted and she I my sister started to cry and I decided to Find out where [our] parents are and when are we going to be the united? Were there any children that were younger than [your] sister my sister was the youngest? [joking] yes as a matter of fact. I don't know whether there was in that group any other Child that age were there any old people older than say 50 [or] 60 Yeah, of course not of course there were some mothers and daughters who passed through But those mothers were like my mother's age 40 42 not older than that and I asked this Kappa when are we going to be the [united] with our parents and She pointed [today] one of the chimneys [of] the crematoria which I didn't even see I'm there there And it was then that I [noticed] these four brick Chimneys Bellowing fire fire and soup and she said do you see this chimney? Yes she says there go your parents and then your [baby] [then] you'll go through the chimneys your very united and I turned to my fellow prisoners, and I said, what is she talking about? What does that mean [I]? mean even in my darkest Nightmare I could not have imagined the things that were going down But let me go back [for] a moment because you asked me about minger, and when did I find out about minger? then we came when we were permitted to walk into the barrack from standing outside after the shower one of my neighbors a young girl one of my neighbors tapped me on the shoulders and pointed to this nazi officer almost the same officer we met on the railroad station and He said she said to me He's asking for you, and I looked over there and this officer was waving to me Now you must understand we were totally naked [I] still had my hair my brown hair and I turned away Pretending that I didn't know this didn't see and this friend again said to me you better go over there. [I] Will never forget you know I come from a family where my father? I don't think ever saw me my slip Not naked and here. I'm standing how am I going to go over there, so I? Crossed my arms. I didn't know where to hide myself and When I went over there he was with another doctor. [I] think [his] name was that decline and They took me sort of away from the group and took me to our light which was in the ceiling and he took his red away, and put it under my chin lifted my hand with the weight and I heard them talking to each other and then he turned to me and he said why are [you] here? [don't] Mr.. Death. You spoke German [a] little bit yes, but I what I learned in school. We were we were bordering with Czechoslovakia, so we had to learn German in school and so I told him because I'm [yuda] and Looked at me, and then he asked me about my mother and my father birthday What religion were they and I kept saying Jewish Jewish Judah? How about your grandparents? He said I went through all four grandparents and I kept insisting they all were Jewish and He got [very] angry with me, and he looked at the dr.. Klein and he said to him. I remember the siz unlovely that is impossible and At that point. I turned back, and I saw my sister being already shaved so I was afraid that she's going to pass through and I'm gonna lose her so I just turned around and walked away and One of these couples came after me, and hit me on my back. I thought my back is going to break and [serve] [me] shot Graf in Polish and then in yiddish She kept saying to the girls that I'm lucky that I wasn't shocked that Anybody that walks away from Anger like that is usually shot so that was my first lucky day, I guess Dissing right did you finally get a chance to go to sleep it must have been up for a couple of days? For a long time we didn't sleep let me also turn that first night when we got into the barracks and We will put [up] into these three level bunks. I was on the top of one of the bunks there were 12 of us 6 facing One Direction 6 facing the other Direction and we Tried to rest at least we were exhausted. We were frightened. We didn't know what next day will bring and one of the Polish girls in the Barrack started to sing Yiddish [I] Didn't understand the which I didn't speak yiddish but just from the sound of this song [I] Knew what you are singing it was my first touch with my jewishness I Just somehow knew what she was saying [and] she was singing the song my addition moment And I remember we all cried through the whole night What was your personal advancement? next morning River and we woke up to the sound of the Couple banging on the bunks running up and down yelling off [Jane] get up get up heraus Everybody out quick Chanel was their favorite word Their own outdoors and again we had to line up to be counted It was dark does in the middle of the night 3 o'clock to 3 o'clock in the morning and We stood there till about the 10 o'clock in the morning. It was already the sun was coming up [brunell] you were telling us about your first morning after arriving in Auschwitz you were taken out you were counted You stood there until 10 [o'clock] in the morning. What happened that? well Of course we had no idea What comes we thought maybe they would let us go back to the barracks and maybe we can lie down? But of course that didn't happen We were dispersed first of all after each counting we were fed We cut we were counted twice a day we lined up in the morning and then lined up around three o'clock in the afternoon and If they found everybody if everybody was accounted for and then we were fed but the first time we Lined up. I remember they brought out three blankets and laid it out in front of our [lineup] And I was looking at those blankets. I didn't know what they meant and I could see the blankets moving So after we will disperse that we were permitted to move around I asked What would those blankets they brought out and then they took my again away? So they told me [that] there were [some] people who came in with diabetes And they took their insulin away from them and they were dying right [in] front of us, but they had to be accounted for So they dragged them out in the blankets and put him down in the lineup and then in the morning they brought these two big barrels of so-called food They called it air that. It was some kind of a liquid that looked like coffee or tea [tasted] [more] like [dishwater], but it was hot and we stood out there freezing half of the night and Then I [realised] that not everybody's gonna get some of them That the first prisoner was handed a bowl and she went to the barrel and she got some of this liquid then she came back and was going to share it with the five of us and In the beginning could be shared, but later on this time going on and we were starving Whoever was up front had some liquid by the time the ball reached the fourth and the fifth prisoner there was nothing and so from then on it became a fight every time we the diviner And who is going to stand up front? And I was going to be me in the back and Then later we found out that without any warning that the [Mangala] arrived after Lineup and was selecting for the gas Chambers So every morning and every afternoon you had to figure out where you want to stand You're going to fight your way to the front of the lineup because you're so hungry That you may not make [it] to the afternoon liner Or you will manage to survive till the afternoon then you really want to be in the back and hide from anger Then they hand out bread in the afternoon in the afternoon lineup they brought back these [barrows] [with] the similar Liquid they call it soup and We received a slice of bread And I remember on Sundays they gave us a they gave us a slice of either a slice of horse meat Salami, or they gave us a little bit of Margarine Margarine we had to hand out put your hands out like this they slept them the margarine there or occasionally they gave us a Spoonful of a marmalade which later we found out was made of sugar beets something black like like Molasses and I Will never forget the first day when they gave [us] the smell And they slapped it into our hand my little sister Clara went like this throw it away and she wiped her hand and shivered She never touched it never touched her soup. She couldn't drink out of that Bowl that [four] people already Handled and so she was starving. She didn't even she ate was the slice of bread that really see What about so what about giving herself clean laundry nothing and probably? That was the worst and of course later on because of that we were filled with [lice] but water was a We had no access to water only when we went to a barrack called the latrine barrack Where we could not go individually we were taken collectively Usually the couple and some nazi soldiers again with the dogs Taking us into the latrine barracks Where we had to choose whether we want to fight our way to the water? There was water spots in that [place]. All you have to fight your way to the bathroom and The reason was that this wasn't happening every [day] sometimes two three days. You didn't go to the bathroom so when you got into this Latrine better you had to Decide what you want you want to rinse your dress out? Where you want to wash [your] face I'm going to have a drink of water or you want to go to the bathroom and [do] [not] [see] soldiers standing around laughing at us and making fun of the Women sitting on on the bathrooms or standing naked washing themselves [I] only know that this humiliation Remained with me forever. I I am embarrassed when I see somebody and Embarrassed I feel for them This is the kind of humiliation that destroys Your [humaneness] it is you just feel totally naked totally vulnerable you know Every time you went in there you knew that they have the power to do anything. They want to do with you How did some of the people handle the fact of not being able to go to the bathroom [at] set months every two three days? After all equal usually have to go more often than that well you know there's very parents wasn't there punishment for them If they found you not inside the parent But maybe somebody did it behind the barracks or you could walk out of the door if we were outside? All day, [I] see [to] run outside all day We were permitted to go to the barrack only in the after the afternoon [sail] out there and to be Settling down for the night, but we were in the dust in the dirt in the snow in the rain We were all the time outdoors But you didn't go to work no Our shoots birkenau really was not a labor camp Work Camp it was strictly an extermination camp, and we knew that that's what we are there for and we accepted it Did they take you to a glossing? station in between I went through once delousing and that was because I was Selected out by Mengele to be taken to another camp next to the sea lager where I was The be lager was emptied the week before I'd like to [tell] [you] about that because the B lager at that time was occupied by midgets Non-Jewish [midgets] Where they brought in the whole families parents children the [grain] parents? And we were so jealous that they were permitted to stay with their parents, and we were separated not knowing where our Families were and one night as we were walking into our barrack to settle down We were told that no matter what we hear we may not come out or look out and that night in the middle of the night we could hear screaming and shooting and we could understand that there is an action going on in the camp next to us and [next] morning when we woke up we found all these midgets life piled up like logs In front of their barracks it was around september at the height of the final Solution at the height of the exterminations and The crematory as were burning 24 hours a day and apparently There was not room in the comet Oriya for these people so they gassed them overnight, and then they were sitting there for about three days until they were finally slowly taken into the crematory and disposed of and So a few a week later. I was selected for my camp going into the Earth again It was then that I was separated from my sister planner and when [mangere] Pointed me to go to the other side I Tried to run back [to] my sister because I knew she was weak. She was very skinny [I] knew she will not take a chance so I went back to her and Mengele caught me and Handed me to the [couple] and the couple beat me and pushing you back to the other side and We were circulated But we arranged to meet at the wires Through the wires every morning at a certain place so that we can wave to each other and tell each other that we are still Alive, and we're still okay and on young people in 1944 We were worried before yom kippur that something is going to happen because the nazis always had something in store for for us during holidays or on Shabbat and I came to do wires and my sister didn't show and I thought maybe she was just upset because of the holiday and I Thought maybe the following morning, and she didn't show them either And then she didn't come to the day I knew that something happened to her After the war I found out that there were big selections in the [seelig] and she wasn't good after we cured under And what happened to you after that you were now in a different camp which was no longer selection camp you still Was no different? It was just getting getting busier because the last Groups of hungarians were brought in at that time and the Greeks Salonika was emptied and [Davison] Anakin Jews were brought in Some Italian jews were brought in and some dutch jews were brought in after us and those were the last Transports, and it was getting very busy in Auschwitz so Then a few months later. We heard that they're going to evacuate Let me just tell you [that] in september Before my sister died yet? There were Americans flying overhead We saw this little silver dots in this glittering in the sunshine and everybody had the Americans the Americans and the sirens were going and The Germans went into the bunkers, and we stayed outdoors and we were hoping [that] they are Gonna Just bombed the whole place to pieces including us. We didn't care But they didn't they flew over how Schlitz, Birkenau and then we heard bounding there was there about eight kilometers from us and Factory Ig farben, Auschwitz and I presumed that's what they were bombing. It was artificial rubber factory Yeah There was a docent of the wiesenthal center was one of the privates And they were under express orders not to bomb isis. I know I know and Even if they didn't bomb our chutes if they would have just bombed the riddled before it reached, Auschwitz Thousands and thousands of Jews and others could [have] been seen You know probably my biggest shock was really when I after the war when I found out that there's so many non-Jews would also Did you know how the world was going at that point? No we didn't but we maybe we knew that the [Americans] were in the war because of the pains And I don't know how those who told us that those were American friends how they knew but there was an underground in Auschwitz so apparently Did you have any contact with non Jewish prisoners? [I] had contacts later with one polish political prisoner who [was] a doctor in a camping reba [I] Think it was in 1944 that one of the crematoria was warned about the [underground] in Auschwitz were you there? Yeah, that was [just] before they took us away What happened with her and repercussion to you not to [me]? We be underground of [course] one of the women who brought in who smuggled in the dynamite was [hung] with few other people as a matter of fact You know Freddy diamond. Yeah? His brother was hung, and he watched it but but to us it was we just knew that there was an explosion and we Bombed and then they decided to [evacuate] you yes Then you know that this was because the russians were coming closer. We were hoping we really didn't have exact knowledge of it, but We realized that something must be going on during the war in in the political war and So they told us that they're gonna liquidate the camp, and I was sent on a death March Were you evacuated again by train was it just as bad as the first train let me tell you That was the that was the time when [we] were delayed again we were taken back into the showers The truth is [that] we did not know [that] there is a difference between the showers and the gas chambers and every time they took us in there We didn't know what's going to happen to us and so we we feared that we are going to be finished It was pouring rain that day I see water and so they took us we took this shower, and then they hold it us [outside] naked and We stood there from morning up here Till about four o'clock in the afternoon in that [icy] rain and That's when the second miracle happened the night before I was burning up with favor I was I used to have tonsillitis very often as a child and that night. I became very ill and There was a mother and a daughter by the name of Farkas They were from hungry. I didn't know what happened to them after [noon] and Mrs.. [farkas] the mother in the morning saw that I can't stand on my [feet] So she stole [somewhere] a blanket. [I] don't know where and how and she Wrapped me in this blanket, and she dragged me out for tale of death Which she had not done [it]. I would have been finished at noon she dragged me out and and I went through the shower and and the icy water and Then I went on this death March I about 60 kilometers where we were hope I can put into cattle cars and in the scatter car my prisoner Friends Surrounded me and and hugged me for body warmth, and I arrived to the next camp to leave [oh] totally recovered the Icy water brought my temperature down and It was just a miracle, but you would not recommend this for people today. [I] don't think so I don't think that that's the [way] [to] cure so true So then what happened he arrived in Libra was it very far Li Bao, Well I Don't even know. It wasn't very far because the libra was in upper Silesia But I know that the journey [lasted] again three days. I don't know What was this three day journey that they invented that everything lasted three days? Was just as brutal as the first year well. I I was out of it [I] You know I was sick, and I had temperature and I really was worried that I'm not going to make it When we arrived [and] I realize that I can walk I can stand up I can walk they unloaded us at the railroad station, and we walked through this little town, but they never saw a jew before and We later were assigned to work at a crap factory How many were there? in this group there was about 200 of us and I I [remember] that the foreman who Took a liking to me afterwards Told me that the population in that town was talking [about] the jews being brought To the factory and they said oh now we know how the jews look Without shaved heads in this rag that we were wearing They thought that that's how jews that's the jews are and then some somebody asked he said [somebody's] and where are the homes so It is not a myth That that's what people Thought of of [jules], and this was a factory [that] the law [-] the crew, tadaka newsmaker there were four Factories one was producing ammunition One was producing boxes for the ammunition We did snake at this no chains for tanks and we're working together with Civilian laborers and slave laborers [which] [slayed] the Ukrainian slave laborers, and there was next door to [us] a French political Prison male prison and those french boys were also working in in our factories So you did have contact with people who were not in the camp right and a friendship Friendship prisoners Somehow knew what was going on. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a radio or something and listening to the BBC Knowing what was going on in the war, so we had some news That that the war is going bad [for] Hitler this was the end of [4544] beginning of 40 that's right That's right. Did they do anything nice for you for Christmas? No, I don't remember Doing anything nice for us for Christmas, but I remember in the height of the winter they caught some Dutch girls Hiding in the factory not working and We had a commando [veteran] who was I? Don't know five feet - she was a very short hideous woman who was mean And the prisoner or no no no in German he says And she tied these [three] women out Outside and she pulled wall around them and let them freeze that's right so Nobody said what - damn [that] at least not visibly What happened that? Here you are at the beginning of 45 this is after the normandy invasion the allies are [roll] are Rolling across Europe the soviets are advancing into Germany What was happening? Well in the last days before liberation During the night we heard bombing and [living] outdoors [and] we saw the stalin candles these were flares which the Russians dropped in Midair with a Parachute and they were just hanging there in the air lady lighting the whole Area and we heard the bounding and again we were hoping that they [will] [bomb] our Factories because we did not know that that's the end really we just knew that the russians are close and that they are pounding around us, and this was going on for a few nights and then the last night and next morning we were not called for sale appear to be counted and We were afraid to walk out because we thought that maybe the nazis are waiting [for] us with machine guns we were Convinced that they will not let us go, but in the last moment. They were just my percent And so we stayed indoors until later in the afternoon somebody said well I'm going out I'm going [to] see what's going [down] and we watched through the window as she walked into the middle of the plots sale at their plants and She raised her both hands and she said [we're] free apparently the French prisoners next door Took a stovepipe and tied a white shirt on it, and we're marching around their prison camp screaming so we can hear it [nazi] Kaput Nazi control, and so we went outdoors and We realized that the nazis were gone. They escaped during the night But we still didn't know what really was happening So we were worried that they may come back if you know our boys going back and forth Later in the afternoon a Cossack on a horseback a russian officer rode him He looked at [us] and yet. We [you] gray Jewish and We didn't know [whether] we [should] say yes or no We didn't know [mother] that was dangerous or [not] and finally one girl said Dada we agree this officer jumped off the horse and came over and started to cry [and] How doesn't kiss doesn't Kept yelling yato J give away Yes, and then he kept saying something. This is what they did to my people and Stayed with us in the afternoon he left for [my] blood in a horse which the French soldiers shut in funerals and Made a goulash I [loved] it they emptied the kitchen pantry and Goddess potatoes, and that was the first meat meal with meat and potatoes that we had and Then he posted a garden from our camp and he told us not [to] leave He said that the soldiers are loading and raping and we should not leave the camp That he's going to consider this Off-limits, and he will be back when they are they passed through Liebe Came back a few days [later], and he told us [diffic] [and] now leave and then we [were] on our own Realizing that now we have to reenter that word that didn't want us, and there was no effort [made] But the soviets to give help to some kind of organization food Matt wellings Nothing, and it was very dangerous You know I went up to the cook to the commander [t'lorra] to this officer later and asked him to Give us a few bicycles that maybe we can Start out on a bicycle at least we found out that we [are] very close to the czechoslovakian border And I thought once we are back in czechoslovakia. [I] speak the language and The people I knew the czech people and that it's going to start changing for us so he gave us three bicycles with the bhoomesh Cos with the papers to tell us that the bicycles are ours and As we rode out for about six kilometers a group of Russian [Soldiers] stopped us and I very You took the Bashkai and show them and they smiled at us and they said [they'd] have [a] shot, okay? And took the Bai suppressed And we've had one half foot walking They didn't try to rape you [no], they didn't apparently they must mean. I mean the way we looked stare with the shaved heads in this rag I don't think they were to design because you know of course that the russians went through German everything everybody Absolutely later on it was very dangerous for a young woman to be alone or even [a] few women walking anyplace or being raped the Russian [Andand] Russians and Again, I was very lucky because I had some very close calls So there we were in a way to [drink] [the] slovakian [yes], we arrived we crossed the border and we arrived to a small town. I don't even remember the name of the town and I walked into a restaurant and The resta matter looked at us and as noon check Well, where do we come from how many were there? Okay, you crossed into czechoslovakia after having your bicycles taken away [for] the Russian Soldiers and there you are [in] a restaurant in Czechoslovakia, how many of you were you there were three of us? [oh]? the ones that started out on the bicycles and I walked over to the restaurateur, and I told him that I'm from Czechoslovakia and that we are just coming out of the [conciliation] kill not that he didn't know with our shaved heads and The way we will dress the course he knew We're still wearing the dresses with the yellow streak in the [pan] granted yellow streaks stay down [forever] That's why I got [rid] of the dress. I wish today. I didn't could have started the new trend in Fashion, right? anyway This man was [very] kind he asked me. Where are we going to sleep? and I said to him that we still don't know and he said where I should come back around five o'clock he closes the Restaurant at five o'clock first he fed us by doing and then he told us to come back at five o'clock And that he will let us sleep in the boots [at] the restaurant even a casino Which we did and that [was] our first night in real freedom and in following day he gave us breakfast and we were on our way and we kept marching and later on of Course We found out that there [is] hardly any civilian Transportation that everything was occupied by the military and So we were living dangerously? As the Russian soldiers to pick us up on their trucks and take us wherever they went we didn't care We didn't know where we're going we were just hoping that maybe we'll run into some Prisoners who are coming? and That was really what we were doing wandering around Europe So what happened that how far? Did you go? Where did you end up we wound up the first time in Bernal? bring and We found out that The red Cross has a place where we can sleep if we want to when they feed us? Until then we were sleeping in Parks Or in bonds what I will be found on the road and we begged for food people recognize who we were and were Fairly kind to us and some were more human than others and In [broome] the red cross also gave us a few crumbs, so we had a little bit of pocket money From there we went to Slovakia to Bratislava there also the red cross took care [of] us for a few days and Then somebody told us that they heard that in budapest There is a school where people Registered those who come back from the war and so we decided to go to Budapest didn't matter where we go Something [very] interesting happened, and this also relates to how the russians behaved in Europe we begged ourselves and a train and the conductor was very kind to us and Permitted us to sit on top of the coal So we were watching what was going on on the train? the trains were packed with Russian Soldiers but some of the girls coming out of the American front the American DP. Camps, or from the American Zone they had big bags of Stuff that the Americans gave them they were all dressed in American uniforms they had boots on and they had these big bag with Cigarettes and chocolate and stuff and they said they're eating in [front] of us and we had nothing we had absolutely nothing Never offered us anything and That night we were sitting at that of the [cold] of course not sleeping very Excited about are we going to find anybody in budapest or not? And in the middle of the night we noticed that these big sacks on which these girls were sitting I'm getting lower and lower and lower Towards the morning we saw that they were Sitting really on the floor We also noticed that some russian soldiers were on the outside of the train walking through the [train] We didn't know what they were doing But in the morning we found out that they were loading these sex [that] [they] that these girls said they cut every window open on the [sack] and Removed everything there was in it these girls next morning had nothing It was sort of bittersweet. I mean really didn't need [to] be mean but But they were not very nice what happened [in] budapest We arrived early in the morning and at the railroad station there were Some of the jews who were in hiding in budapest waiting for these trains They organized and they were waiting every train [that] came in to watch the American Troy Had nothing to do with it. No at that time at least we didn't have anything to do with them And so he's very individual Was on later later in Czechoslovakia and Roma is very active I don't know what happened in hungry because we were living there too long So I Recognized one of the boys from my hometown And he needed me recognized me and embraced and he was happy [to] see somebody from [her] from his old and coming home And he took us into the school and the walls of the school were covered with paper And [they're] automatically everybody signed him, so I went through The names hoping to find somebody from the family at least a relative and uncle and cousin Nothing found absolutely nothing was getting late was it late in the afternoon, I Started to cry and he kept reassuring me tomorrow. We'll come back Don't worry, you'll find somebody and as I walked out the door I pushed the door open and the door didn't keep somebody was behind that door [and] So I stepped back to let the person Come in and my brother was standing there. I found out that he escaped from the labor Camp and became a partisan freedom fighter intro Slovakia in Slovakia in the Tatra Mountains He they were He wasn't with a ski troop and there were some jews hiding in those mountains. So they were supplying them And we started to talk [the] probably the most interesting story that I I found Actually appalling was that he told me that [when] he was with the part with making partisans That the slovak Partisans were so anti-semitic That the Jewish boys were afraid to reveal that they were Jewish So when I asked my brother, how many jews were in your unit? He said we don't know it was an unspoken Word we knew of each other those who were Jewish But it was never revered because he said they would have me shot [in] the back So that was pretty upsetting after all that That even those who? hated the Germans hated us alone and Then we we went to a town called [kosh]. [it's] [a] when my brother's girlfriend was and the two of them Stayed in [Kosice] while I went back to [Russia] road to my hometown Was your brother's girlfriend one he had acquired during the war was that from before Where was she the way she was hiding in budapest? with the gentile papers and Of course something my brother was in labour camp [they] at content, but after that they didn't she also became very ill during hiding time and as a matter of fact it if only called the first time when I went back home she came with me and I remember the Russian commander was in our home, and I walked in and I told him [that] [I'm] the kazakh and That I own Home and they said oh, that's alright pick a room they would let me stay in a room if I want to stay and Then I realized that that's not the way. I would live life. I'm not going to be there and also our housekeeper out housekeeper lived upstairs in her own apartment [and] She pretended that she was delighted that we came back of course I'm sure she was worried that I'm going to ask back for the things that she probably took from our home which I had no intentions doing I didn't want anything from there and She asked me. What should she make for us to eat and [I] said to her take two dozen eggs and make dumplings out of them And then they two more dozen eggs, and beat it like scrambled eggs over it and my sister-in-law and now she's my [sister-in-law] my Brother's girlfriend the two of us sat down and ate the dumplings with the scrambled eggs which was a big pot and then we went back and And you only took a few mementos [I]? Took [our] little package where I found as I said before my father's gold watch in my brother's bar Mitzva watch and My coat bracelet that my father for my 18th birthday then I Went back and we found out Accidentally that my father somebody [so] my father in terezin start in a hospital so we decided to go back to Prague and go to Paris II We needed We found out that that there may be a chance that it's him And so my husband was looked and my brother was looking for a truck that if we find him, we should be able to bring him from tourism to prague to a hospital and Again accidentally we run into my husband bernard who was in the first [labour] camp with my brother earlier and they embraced and very pleased to see each other and my my husband he had access to an owner truck and they went to theresienstadt and Went into [our] room where my father's name was on the door and My brother went from bed to bed searching [for] my father and couldn't find him and then he came back again looked at the list and sure [enough] my Father's name was there so he went back again and again He couldn't find him and as he was walking out somebody called his name. [he] [turned] back and He said he faced this skeleton [woman] Who was dying of Tuberculosis? They brought them to prague we took them to a very famous Tobacco Sanatorium called Kurt and a few months later my father died Before he died. He told us a very interesting story. Here's my brother whether on a certain date whether he escaped from the labor camp [I] mean he my brother told him that he escaped my father said was it on [Such-And-such] day And my brother said yeah, how do you know? My father said that he marked that date for himself because that night he dreamed that he was in the woods and His black horse was [running] My brother's hand was very dark and beautiful like eyes, and he says I grabbed this horse and the horse [Wickard] himself out of my way and Ran And when I woke up next morning, he said I [never] [saw] [this] Sorry after my father passed away we both decided that we don't want to stay in Europe and in the meantime bernard my husband kept coming is attained after that and When my father died he told me that he promised my father that he's going to take care [of] me So he has to marry me So we got married and a year later my Sister-in-law had her first child and Then the following year, I had a child And then he decided it was a very frog Bernard my husband had papers to come to the United [States] because he lived in Prague in 1939 as a student and he had a student visa to come to the United states to her sister and He was caught in Holland by the Nazis But he estado and was brought back and went through the whole concentration camp experience and So the American government acknowledged his papers and so we will put on the quota But my brother couldn't So my brother went to france and in France the Hagana got hold of him and They went to palestine which is now the state of Israel And even though they were lucky to find each other We were again separated for 15 years 15 years and Before that when I finally was able to obtain Papers everyday, that's for them then they came out [here] and now like any fortunately They are together Where did you go in the state? in America, Woody, I arrived to Allentown, Pennsylvania It's it's very interesting. I want you to know [that] I'm going Next week to Prague To my father's grave side where I'm going to meet my brother Who is going to be coming back from Israel where he's visiting now? and I'm gonna go from prague to is around so we will meet in the middle and this is the first time that we're going to be back together and Visit my father's grave site on which by the way before [we] left. We engraved my mother's and my sister's name Since they didn't have a grain And I came to Allentown, Pennsylvania [on] the 31st of October 1948 and It will be on 31st of October that I'm going to be returning this time from Israel And it was not planned. [I] just when I saw saw it on paper. I realized And I remember my brother-in-law waited for us at the airport and I Arrived I came with [my] daughter who was then 11 months old my husband stayed back. He Got his visa of it later, and he wanted to go to England where he was a young brother in an orphanage And he was taken by the you the way to [an] orphanage in England after the war and the plane landed in In New York and Laguardia. We are after the laguardia airport and Everybody was getting off the plane and the Captain came over to me and he said You can't get off you have to wait And I said why I said they're going to keep me here What's the problem? I thought maybe something with the child? [they're] [not] they are going to send me back I was terribly frightened when everybody was off the plane Then he said well we can go now he took the child from me and walked me to the door of the Stairs of the steps of the Plane handed me the child and he said now you can walk down It does there's some Cameras were taking my picture, and that's the picture I have Under Mental, I will show you later when I arrived my brother-in-law apparently arranged it some newspapers, but then I was one of the first and refugees coming to Pennsylvania to Allentown There was a big article about us the interesting thing was that finally my brother was waiting for me at the airport and drove us to a Mountain and When I arrived to his home He had two children one was 10 years old one was 8 years old Michael and Susan and they were dressed in costumes and I said to my brother-in-law. Why are these children dressed in costumes [it] is not for him and He said no, it's Halloween and I said, what is halloween so this time when I come back I Know how dit me. Did you speak English when I spoke a little bit English and My sister-in-law had a room arranged for us And for every bit a crib for the baby. She was by the way My sister-in-law my husband's have system who arranged for us to come to this country? Was not just a sister-in-law Or a sister she if I had my mother there waiting for me, she couldn't have been better kinder To me my sister Fanny And we still are very very close and her children I'm very close [to] us And I remember my sister-in-law wanted me to take a bath and just go to bed and [the] baby should be in bed and the two little Children peeked through the door and they I waved to them to come in and They didn't and then I said come on in and when they heard me say in English come on in they jumped on my bed, and they said you speak English and I said little and Then they asked me who did you vote for I? Said what is vote? It was I think a day after or before that true one was not anything president truman was voted into office So I remember these little incidents very Fondly And how was life after that well [barnard] arrived Christmas Night with the queen mary we went to New York to wait for him Why didn't you come together? We couldn't we couldn't come together because it wasn't so simple you know czechoslovakia by then was already under Communist regime and it was just not possible for both of us to come at the same time and On top of which he wanted to go to england to visit this younger brother before he leaves Europe We didn't know when he's going to be able to go back and see him or whether he's going to be able to come here and we waited for the Queen Mary and Everybody was brought down by stretchers. It was a terrible winter and stormy Sea I understand all over here and my husband walked down eight pounds heavier than I left him He's an on the boat. He was the only one weight and he gained a lot of weight and a few weeks later I in the meantime. I was in touch with my aunt here in California [de] my father's sister here who came before long before the war and I was in touch with her and she insisted that he come to Los angeles and so again The Joint helped us to come out here by train and I arrived on April 15 1949 it was 115 degrees it was a very hot day and I looked at the palm trees, and I said to my husband. I will never leave this town again. I love the scientist and you were in business here, I Yes, I opened my own business very early. I didn't want to work for anybody Did your husband work with you in this business? No my husband was a schoolteacher in Europe, but he learned the trade here and We were in business for 37 years I Had my own factory I was I became a well-known name [in] the industry and I lived a very glamorous life as a fashion designer Until one day. I had a phone call from the Simon wiesenthal center asking me would I come to tell my story? And I left that rabbi cooper and I said come on after all these years Why should I now start talking about those terrible? days those terrible weeks and years and he proceeded to tell [me] that that night ag cemetery was desecrated in the Valley and and Temper Was Spray-Painted with swastikas and when I heard the words, Elastica, I went crazy And I hung up on him. I said I had to think about it and That night. I was back in Camp all night in my nightmare Next morning. I woke up and I called him back, and I said I'm ready to talk [I] Want you to understand it when we came here and I? Started my business, and I realized that I have to really concentrate on a family That we were a very unique little Little group of people from the age of 15 [to] the age of 40, maybe That we had no children and no elders That we have to recreate the new nation So that's what we concentrated on and that's what I did and I Didn't talk about the holocaust not even to my own child Until she came later and asked me And then of course she got very much involved in the subject and when she was I think 19 years old or so she organized the [first] second generation group in And this is your only daughter clark. This is my only daughter. She has a daughter Johanna which was done after my mother and she's now in Israel at Bar-Ilan University becoming religious Which I never dreamed will happen, but we are delighted about it and myself Got involved at the time with the Simon wiesenthal center and I became a public speaker for the Simon wiesenthal center soon after that I had a Conflict with the furnishing industry and me talking about the holocaust and I quit my business and when you say with the fashion You mentioned that you were successful in the fashion industry when you became active in the Simon wiesenthal center and became public speaker on The holocaust and then you said that you broke away from the fashion industry with your business because they were not happy about your speaking on the holocaust I Wonder I had a conflict with it [oh], I had a conflict with it, and I had to be all the time on In the fashion industry and I did fashion shows and it just I don't know it just became trivia and And I had a hard time putting myself into one from one mode to live to the other and So I sold my business for a while. I was teaching a Fashion class at UcLa and then when RAbbi Cooper asked me to Come to the Simon wiesenthal center. He and I were the Outreach program and I realized that it's quite important that we should tell our children about the whole cast It was then when they first began we first began to hear about revisionists in [the] later Neo-Nazis and Aryan nations and all these Anti holocaust groups these groups that deny not only say that that you [know] the Jews are lying, but that the whole cast of course never happened And I realized that maybe that's more important at this [time] of my life then being [crimeless] well I Know that you have touched and changed literally thousands. Maybe tens of thousands of lives you [were] going to so many schools every school year and This of course this interview is being done for the archives for the future generations Are there is there any message anything you would like to say to those who might be watching these states? 20 30 50 years from [now] when I speak the children First of all I tell them that [I] learned one very important lesson From the whole cast and that was that I will never judge people collectively That I learned that each individual human being has [to] be Judged by his own merit. Who he is what he does how he acts [I]? Also, tell children that they have the power to change the world That we each and every one of us by our actions and how we live our lives Are changing the world for better or [for] the worse? and I hope that my children Their [follow] [up] will not forget Where they come from I want to leave this legacy to them I? Want them [to] learn from our past, and I hope that it will never happen again We are leaving behind the 20th Century which was probably the most violent brutal centuries in the history of Mankind And I pray and hope that the 21st century will [be] better Not for my sake. I certainly worry not. I will not be here anymore but for My children's Grandchildren sake and for humanity [in] General I hope that the world Come to their senses and that there won't be another Bosnia or another Africa Or any of the genocides that occurred in my lifetime? your story is certainly a testament to the brutality that human beings are capable of And you mentioned some of the individual cases where friends or supposed friends betrayed you or didn't help you And the help you didn't get in so many instances Yet at the same time you mentioned that your sister-in-law was hidden by gentiles and Saved that way because she was not hidden by gentiles She was hiding with gentile papers She was in hiding on her own She went through terrible times both. I have another sister [email] also [was] hiding in budapest, and they they were Terrified every moment when they are going to be captured because they were they were stopping people on the street with identifications and If they didn't believe [that] your papers were authentic you were finished in budapest was and men had it even worse because they if they if they felt that the man is not that his papers are Fake they just made them take of their pens the Jewish men who were circumcised and they immediately? Took them in Europe most men are not circumcised with their Christians for it. That's right. They weren't I don't know today At that time they weren't Well, I sometimes tell the groups that I speak before that I have never met a single survivor who doesn't know At least one maybe several people who were saved by gentiles with that hold true for you Well, I happen to Be fortunate enough to meet here in Los angeles a man by the name of John Wagner. [I] don't know whether you knew He was a dutchman who? organized an Escape route from Holland through friends into Spain and into switzerland he and his sister as a matter of fact and his sister was captured by the Gestapo and died in a concentration camp and John Escaped and then he was captured again and escaped and heat has a very interesting story and I tell it to the children. He said that his father was a dutch minister who He used to listen to on Sundays and that his father used to end his sermon by saying if you save a life it is as if you save the whole nation and he says I didn't know what my father meant and Then he told them our story Which says that a little boy was playing to God? - please look at this word and and and saved the people because they are killing each other they are hating each other and the boy said please God send someone to help us and God answered. I did I send you He says when I first heard what was happening to the Jewish people. He says I immediately understood What I had to do and he says then it was no doubt in [my] mind that I must help Because that simple I also met a woman by the name of Irene updike From poland who [hid] I think 13 jews in the NaZi headquarters where she was made I? Mean there are amazing stories The unfortunate thing is that there were very few of those the Schindler's? Wallenberg's unfortunately very few and I often Wondered and I heard reb I hire one day saying this and I thought about it that when they call the man say conference to arrange for this final solution If there would have [been] some schindler's or some [random] words among those nazis How would have been? The whole caster recorded what would have been the difference I? Think you have some pictures, but yes look at I said my thing that this is the right time to do so okay So why don't why don't we do that? [renee] you mentioned bernard your husband quite a few times and I wonder if you'd like to actually introduce him to us well, this is the young man, I married and his name is Bernard Firestone as you know and We've been married I think 48 or 49 years fighting loving We took the whole game at the double [Gamut] Would you like to add anything to that bernard? Yeah, my [mini] fighting Well, I'm glad to see this [all] that happened has not deprived you of a sense of humor I'm so glad to see that you'd still laugh a lot. You're a happy [person] You're enjoying life and most important thing you have made life so much better for seventy thousand people. Thank you. Thank you That's the advice. I give usually young couples if they fart long enough. They will stay married on dinner, right? Thank you sign any thing other than fighting that you might add to What makes a marriage last as long as yours did? Well, we've been working together for many years [you're] quite devoted to children And we share two dogs. We we have You've just lived a normal family life we work together [we're] in the same business and then We do the same thing all the time And also we have spoken quite a great deal about the family of laws that people you have known and some of the pictures Vietnam and the Family our child And our vendor absolutely And I think that it would be very nice you could control some of the people Think you're some of the people that you have and I just want you to know [that] my granddaughter adores her, grandpa Well is that so unusual well? I don't know it's not that you hide your doesn't my granddaughter adores her, grandpa [I] hope so, so there you are Thank you. Now. Let us see some of those pictures and [this] picture is under switchers my father Maurice [weinfeld] at the picture was taken I think in 1918 or 1919 he was in the austro-Hungarian, Army and I am not sure, but I think it was taken in own world Which it was [assuredly] [chancellor] [t] And this picture was taken in [ushuaia] czechoslovakia. I think around 1932 Under Picture is my mother and in the middle Johanna [Weinfeld] Maiden name Rosenfeld and the right Side is my father Maurice winfield and I am on the left side [renee] Firestone now This picture is really a treasure for me [I]? Recovered it just recently It's a picture of me at the age of Maybe 12 We are used to Dance on all kinds of Social dinners and charity Events So it's hard [for] me to believe that that's me it was done in [Hashanah] Czechoslovakia Just before the [hungarians] took over Probably [around] the same year 3234 me this picture was taken about the same time [when] [into] 1834 between that time of my little sister [Clara] [ventured] [in] English horn czechoslovakia Probably performing the same time I was performing this is again my Sister Clara And this picture was taken at the River Rouge of my hometown which Holland which was named after that river and This picture was [taken] shortly before they took us away from home. She was 14 years old and She died in Auschwitz 1938 for me By the way, [I] made a mistake on the previous picture of my sister. It was taken probably 1944 just before they took us to Ken and this is my brother Frank Valentin, [L]. Changed his name from [Weinfeld] and This picture I think was taken in Israel he went to use [iran] when I [came] to the United States I have no idea where or what year? He still looks [very] young This is me the picture was taken right after the war probably in Prague czechoslovakia This is new hair after my shaved head. This was the first thing that grew out and I don't know why but when I look at this picture My eyes are crying Maybe it's just my fantasy I was taken 45 I was here 20 21. I'm not sure this is my husband and I the Picture was taken in Prague. It really is not our wedding picture, but since we don't have a wedding picture This is what feminism is a substitute. It was the picture was taken in Nineteen probably 47 This picture was taken while I was coming down from the plane with my daughter Clara who was 11 months old at the time? the picture was [taken] in 1948 October 31st in [Like] Under Laguardia airport We arrived in New York and then [Mandu], Pennsylvania This is my daughter Clara. She was named after my little sister who died in Auschwitz [the] [picture] was taken in Los Angeles I'm not sure, but I am in late 70s or early 80s. I'm Not sure This is my granddaughter Johanna Spector the picture was taken. I think two years ago in 1992 in Los Angeles This is a family picture that somebody sent me from South America. Where it survived how it survived? I don't know the picture was taken in 1932 on the left side [that] no girl is me next to me is my mother and then my father and Next to it is my my father sister Berta Yacouba which was her name and my uncle and Joseph [Jakub] Ovitch, and the Bride is their daughter her name was Julia and she was my first cousin and the groom was also my first cousin and His name was Dr. Fred vine Ferrand next to him is his mother I Don't know her Name because she was remarried, and I don't remember her name and next is her second husband The two people on the end. I don't know They were some second answer honkers I'm not going to describe all people, but they were all Related either cousins or aunts and uncles in the front row the children are His name was Tibia kovac. He was the Bride's brother By the way you did an interview with his brother ferry who is on the other frank who's on the other end Did you do that interview? The two girls on the two sides I don't know and in the middle is my little sister corner those were cousins and relatives the [picture] by the way the wedding was English [followed] in Czechoslovakia Wilkin are harsh words. This is a January 26 terminus Don't sigh [Configure] [within] a [five] [star] 1995 My name is renee Firestone when I was brought in Years ago, my [name] is renee wife and I was brought my parents Pouring out of the cattle car I can see parents Parents looking for their children [ah] it is still in my ears. [I] hear I hear This mother yelling. I'm gonna. Where are you? Turn back to the Cabin. I caught my sister I took her on the cattle car I mean seconds. I my parents [were] gone Separated onwards collapse [our] life is changed Forever, Dr.. Mengele [and] wanted people to go to the right? I remember my sister and I were going to the right and [as] we were coming into the can to this gate and one point my sister noticed that my mother is on her side and she kept laughter I would let her and then she does disappear and It is hard to comprehend the thousands of people that were pouring out of these cattle cars I Can't even describe the scene it is impossible to describe the scene Under loudspeakers the Nazis were telling us to leave our belongings behind they will deliver it Into the Camp of course [we] had no idea what the camp meant? We didn't know who my [galley] was who was pointing us one direction in the other? And we left the little belongings that we still kept from home We left it on the radio station right here and then my sister and I Was walking through this gate? We had no Inkling for his evading us we had no idea What this place was where [this] place was we didn't know even what country we are in We went all the way to the end We walked through all [of] it to the end. There is a bathhouse there That's where we got undressed they told us to leave all our belongings Again in the dressing room so the last piece of clothing of my our bodies We walk into a room which was the shower room? We never came back into the dressing room naked in [women] Windy cold weather like this We walked out naked on the other side of the bathhouse [and] we stood there from about mid-afternoon till till approximately midnight It is indescribable the pain the fear the hunger You know today. I'm here exactly [fifty] years We are going to commemorate today the liberation of this camp [I] I just I just can't believe I cannot believe that I'm still alive that [I] lived it true that It was possible to live something so diabolical True I Hope that the world will see what is going. What was wrong? [gone] here, and will comprehend what it really means to humanity to remember What is going on? What was going [on] here? my mother by the time my sister and I came out of the shower out of the bath house and Went into another barrack where they shaved our heads and and gave us a piece of rag to wear By the time we went back into the camp my mother was reduced to ashes My father disappeared [my] whole world my whole life was ending From the bath house they brought us back to this camp here. This was C rocket This was the hungarian woman's loggin If you want to follow me, I take you to the barracks where I was in This is lager B2C This was the hungarian women's camp I stayed in this barrack was better twenty-eight You must understand that all these wires were charged with High-voltage electricity That if you just [ran] [leave] these wires you were killed Death was around every corner No matter how you try to save yourself [it] was impossible. Only God could save you here I? Remember [when] I was in this camp. I was still with my little sister We were somewhere in the middle of the block In a bank where there were 12 of us squeezed in we could hardly fit in with In our sleeps we always had nightmares, [but] when we woke up the nightmare the reality was worse than the nightmare now that I look around and I see how huge This camp is I just can't comprehend it because when I was here Millions of people were here this wasn't a based empty space like this There was no grass Mud, or snow or or drives? ground dry frozen ground We were always sitting in the mud This wind that you feel here Well to save ourselves from this wind Wearing this one piece of clothing that we had on we had to sit around the Edges of the barracks You know sitting on the edge of the barracks protecting ourselves With the with the [wards] of the barracks because we were always outdoors We came we could come into the barracks only to sleep then there was a small cubicle like this probably this was it which was the Couple's bed a [couple's] room She slept here she had she had a cut in it and In the middle here where the chimneys there was a there was a brick Chimney like Walking through the whole barrack Which of course never had any heat in it? Then six months later. I was separated from my sister, and I was taken into the next camp Which used to be the czech lager which was Murdered overnight the whole lager there were parents with children living there, and the whole Camp was Eliminated one day. I see these pigeons here now. Let me tell you there were no pigeons here Nothing lived here. There was there were no birds Not even a rat could survive here this is a place [of] this was Lucifer's [Inferno], the [chimneys] of the counter crematoria were visible from [him] on our [sides] They were bellowing [byron] soup 24 hours a day and we knew that it was out brothers and sisters that were being burned The trains were coming in [twenty] [four] hours a day three [four] trains a day and the prisoners are walking through this gate to go to the bathhouse [and] [as] they were passing by Used to beg them throw your bread you won't have to you won't be able [to] keep it any wages Why don't you throw it to us? We are hungry and they [didn't] know what we were talking about They thought we were crazy Why should they throw out their food away to them for also to us? You know tomorrow? we will commemorate the day when this cease to be the [place] of suffering and murder and unsPeakable horror to thousands and thousands of my fellow Jews I Can't believe I [just] can't believe it if these wires if these bricks could talk the stories they could tell the suffering - starvation and the beatings and [the] punishment If there is such a thing as a soul. I hope that my mother and my sister can hear me now it is their Martyrdom that helped me do now To try to have nerds to try to tell the [world] what happened here And I want them to hear me say [that] I will never forget them And probably soon we will be together again Yeah I'm sorry I Don't remember did I tell you that these wires were charged with High-voltage electricity? You couldn't come this close to it because it just immediately [you] were just drawn to the electricity you're finished people came to these wires when they could not bear anymore the suffering and the hunger and the starvation every Morning. You could see [people] hanging from these wires Committing suicide ending ending their lives I'm looking at these today And it's hard to believe it's hard to believe in these polls could tell the stories The things that happened here It couldn't be true. We keep saying to ourselves it couldn't be true Yet, we all are marked. We all have the numbers on our arms Which tells us [that] yes, yes, we were here. We were here and now I can touch these wires and Well, I learned something here, but I wonder whether the word learned anything The way you look around the world today. You wonder What did we learn [from] the holocaust? What did we learn from this place? Why don't people learn to live in? Peace [with] each other. Why don't they learn to respect one another? It's unbelievable Unbelievable that [we] still [can] get along you still can't live with each other Look at this place. [look] [at] the size of it Can you imagine can you imagine? the millions that perished here It's hard for me to remember. It's hard for me to comprehend what I experienced here. I Only hope [that] will never happen To any people anywhere in the world, that's all I hope for and that's all I pray for Before me before the train arrived here Alone Further back the Train Stopped and Everybody was curious Where we are nobody knew what country what town? so one of the boys me up on his shoulders and Asked me [to] look out and tell them if I can see anything [and] I remember I saw that we are on a railroad station there was a train standing there another train full of people like us and then all of a [sudden], I saw the sign and the sign said Krakow and Without me even thinking before you'd even hit my brain [but] what that meant [I] yelled back to the to the cattle cars. We are in Krakow And I remember that out of that silence all of a sudden like a beehive everybody started to talk everybody Panicked we all of a sudden realized that we have somewhere in poland and We knew that poland? Is the bad place to be? because we already heard rumors that in poland the nazis were killing the Jews I remember the train starting to move again and [and] the silence returned and then the Silence was the same again broken with the screeching whistle of the [Train] and from Cracow all the way here The whistle never stopped of course later we found out that that was the signal for the nazis to prepare The the selection place because they have a transport is coming these transports were coming in all [the] [time] and And that whistle of the train is still in my ears That's why when I look around again, and I and I see how quiet this place is and how serene it looks It certainly didn't look like this van I Think this is crematoria number five I think that my mother was killed here, and most probably my little sister also It is pretty hard to visualize what this place looked like before Somewhere under here. There was a gas chamber and maybe it's [here] [is] where the elevator brought up their bodies, and then they were disposed [of] in their ovens I Don't know what I can say about it. I how I can even speak about it It is so frightening It's just something Beyond the human understanding People come here. I see and they light candles I've seen a few candles around here and somebody left every with Jewish [Colour] Rubens Probably someone whose parents also [close] to [you] How can anybody believe this that this happened? But we must show [it] and we must remember it And we must show [it] to the world I'm going to come back here [also], and I'm going to light the candle You know I can't even can't even imagine what this place was like. I really read Dr. Mises book and he writes about this place And and it's just unbelievable [how] many people were murdered here Look at this probably here. Probably here it was of course the nazis have blew it up before they left because they Didn't want the world to know what this place was on a down Some of this stuff. Can you imagine with this this could speak if this could tear the stories? [if] [the] souls could speak here I can't I can't speak I can't Can describe it I can't describe what I think either [I]? I don't know whether I don't feel Fear more than anything else Fearful future generations I pray to God nothing like this will ever be built again look at the size of unspeakable here I can do only one [thing] straight for my mother, so for my sister's so Hope [that] they are resting in peace Because I am not If you follow me, we're going to go to the [crypts] now. I'm going to show you something else really [and] this is the bad house in these big ovens they were Disinfecting [the] clothes not our clothes because we never changed clothes [here] But when they kill the people and they strip them and of course that is infected their clothes Or if prisoners from the camera Carol or I had to go away This is where they brought to designate the clothes by the way I want you to know that this place was filled with lies Our clothes was always filming [lies] and we had no way of clean So you can imagine that you can imagine that the Nazis were terribly scared of typhus which was rented here, and that's why This is where they brought all our belongings once we move on This also is a place of corn on the two sides there are two shower rooms where the prisoners were brought and took a shower And then met then we naked river Disposal and on the side of the bathhouse there is a space when we go out I will show you which Was a barrack at one time and then we went in there, and they shaved our heads and they sprayed us [with] DDT and and then finally they gave us a piece of rain which was doesn't [record] here and that's how we entered The Camp itself we no longer look like human beings. We no longer felt like human beings it's How can I describe how can I? Show you what it looked like thousands of women with the shaved heads we look like Comic strips I Remember I couldn't find my sister once we get out of here I couldn't find my sister who recognized took me a few hours before I knocking [I] Wonder what are these scratches on the wall? Who knows who knows what's here? [I] I remember that we we went into an underground dressing girls dressing room from the outside and Somehow I don't remember where We were coming up to the shower room [I] see something here That goes deep but that's just another let's see. What's happening here Yeah, it's hard for me to recreate You know in my mind how the exactly world but somewhere outside there should be an underground passage into addressing me and From their dressing room once we left all [our] belongings They told us to be very neat [and] to fold our belongings and neatly and leave it [in] a pile So that when we come back we can remember exactly Where our clothing is? Needless to say we walk into the shower and everything was taken away And we walked out totally and stark naked It's just hard to remove them. It's hard to believe [that] it happened also, somewhere here, [I] Don't know maybe it was in this corridor. I don't remember that the [minute] I walked in and took me out of the line and He was with another man another doctor and they took the other Life somewhere in one of those rooms. I know a member ritual and Questioned me and asked me why I'm here Well first of all I didn't know who angle it was second of all I had no idea Where I am and why I'm here, so I said I'm a jew that's wrong You know it's very hard for me to recreate exactly what this place was This must have in the oven when whether you're hearing Those barrels where the steam was coming from I don't know but every look every Every look here every corner is so scary. It's There is death around here everywhere. That's all you feel you just feel death present And you keep [asking] yourself. How many died here? How many? Prisoners [work] at this oven, and how many of them were? Destroyed afterwards I Just [I] [just] can't describe how I feel I can describe how I I'm trying to Understand make some sense of this But it just doesn't make any sense No matter no matter How hard you try it just doesn't make [any] sense? And these are these bears where the clothing was disinfected I? told you the clothes that were that came off and Dead bodies, especially Or if you [changed] from one camp to another you came [in] [to] the [bathhouse] again they reshaped your head and does infected you and Your clothing. I remember just before we left and our shoes We stood out there naked waiting for our clothes to me and finished so we [can] Get on out that much But just as I said before just every corner here You can sense You can sense death you can send destruction Evil just an evil place that and this is where some [of] the people were unloaded when the Crematoriums were overloaded and people had to wait to be a guest they came through that road and they were dispelled and They were spread around here Women old women children were sitting around waiting To decide what's going to happen to them and many times? when The crematory as well as I said overloaded any during the final solution. It was almost all the time then they Then they dug these pits there is one over there also. I see and I think that's the children spit I'm not sure and they were burning people in these pits These pits were prepared in such a way [that] it drained the the fat from the people [that] were burning and it collected the fat in a place and then they they doused The new people with that fact so that the pit should be burning Well through the whole time You know when I see these things now and and I try to remember these things only then can I understand how Devilish this whole place was how premeditated pre-Planned every every corner every step that the prisoners made was was a Pre-planned they knew exactly what's going to happen to us. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable [and] we were so naive or stupid that we just walked right into it Of course what human mind could have imagined. What was going on here no normal human mind can understand that of imagining I Still cannot stir [cannot] building still cannot believe what I have seen here And look at it. It's so peaceful so quiet The other day and they were to deal war roaming around this place There was nothing alive here nothing Everything was dead even [those] of us who stayed [in] the camps were already dead And when you renew that we are dead we knew that there is no way we [are] going to survive It is really only by a miracle that that it happened that our I'm here only by the grace of God You know it's so funny [I] I've been talking to children in schools about my experiences for 20 years Now that I'm standing here the words just don't come Because there are no words for [this] Whatever. I say is so meaningless so trivial You can't you can't really describe this? Forgive me. I just wish nothing I can say about this place [I] understand it some Russian Soldiers prisoners of War are buried in Jews and non-Jews and that's what represents the crosses and and the stars of David I'm what I see these guard houses We were watched from those towers every moment every move. We made we couldn't speak to each other every human being who's arrived here was on his own and Every life was in danger every moment of the stay here nobody believed that we ever will leave this place [it] just We just couldn't believe it [because] we saw what was going on here the Chimneys were burning 24 hours a day and The fire was Bellowing [guard] you could see it. [you] could smell it it permeated this whole territory You know people in the city say that they didn't know what was going on. It's impossible [it's] impossible the smell permeated this place in such a way that it ate itself The smell ate itself into our flesh for years. I could smell it on myself there's just no way they didn't know no way and What should we say about those who claim that it never happened? How can we convince people? Look around [how] can [we] convince people that? There was a pain a place that resembled only hell Well, I hope that the word receipt while it is still here Because we are not going to be here much longer and Once we the survivors are gone I'm afraid the world will completely forget [I] Hope I hope not but unfortunately that's what I feel It is half. What is already destroyed? How much longer that? [the] whole place is going to be cleared and who knows Some apartment houses will be built over this place Where we left our loved ones? where there are no graves [for] that There's a little river not far from here called Vista and The Ashes were disposed in that river And I understand that even today at summer time when the river is flowing you can see bones and teeth and the surface How can we tell these people who say never haven't come here and look at [what] and see what's going on? See see what it looks like you see when you look around you see nothing here, but when I look around I [see] the thousands of flighting human beings sitting waving Please don't ever forget it I'm asking you you are still young you would be here for a while, please don't let the world forget that's the plaque in memory of Edith stein She was and one who was brought here because she was Jewish she she had a Jewish Grandparent or maybe even a parent. I'm not sure But some part of her was Jewish so she was brought to Auschwitz as a jew and killed here And that's that's the flag that probably the camera like nuns Put up for I I think That she became a saint I'm not sure there was a I remember controversy about whether she should or should not be made into a stain, [but] I don't know what actually happened, but That's her name Edith stein
