Witness: Gena Turgel

you're watching shalom tv celebrating jewish culture in 1939 when the germans invaded poland they came very well prepared with a list of most affluent families jewish families and amongst them was our family and of course several days passed the group of nazis entered the home the demand didn't want to speak to my mother she spoke fluent german and they told her you've got a very nice home here but you won't be needing it for very long we command you by tomorrow 12 o'clock you have to deliver all the things which we see here if not one of your children going to be shot of course my mother said whatever you see here we will deliver as you command and off they went don't forget everything was requisitioned cars glories everything which was on wheels so we had a very difficult task how we going to get this stuff to the headquarters my mother was rather very bright she walked out several kilometers outside the city and she managed to obtain a horse with a wagon from a farmyard she came back and reloaded on all our belongings with the exception of furniture and we had to go several times backwards and forwards they even taken we had to deliver all our food which we prepared for the time of the war and so on large quantities and the last thing when she my mother came back she was in tears because whatever she worked for she saved for everything was gone but later months and years we learned of those positions had no meaning the starvation and the torture and the fear was horrendous a few days later another group of nazis entered the home and they demanded the keys of the business we had a textile business my mother says you never mentioned about the keys oh yes everything what you possess we want and so she quickly tried to decide but then she produced the keys of the business and my brother had was at home he was actually a student of dentistry and as the universities are closed every single schools and so on so he happened to be at home and they looked at him and they told him you're lucky today which we didn't like very much that thought that remark enough they went then we had to assemble outside the headquarters every day and work was allocated to us which we went accustomed to we had to unload call from the trucks huge lumps of coal place them in buckets and two buckets on each side of arms we had to carry them backwards and forwards but not just carry them and unknown them but also we will whipped but the evening when we returned home we were completely utterly exhausted and then all type of works they treated us in more sadistic terrible way i think animals are treated better than we were then they put us in a ghetto and certain amounts of people were only allowed to enter so they had to register people and those people which did not obtain a seal on their identity card so those people had to move out 35 kilometers outside krakow and amongst them was we did not get it so we in a way we were pleased because we're not so locked in yet the day came where people entered the ghetto and we had to move out from our homes into this part of borac it's outside krakow a little room there was one bed we used as a kitchen as a washroom and as a bedroom my mother and my two sisters we slept in one bed and then in the morning we had to go out again on foot to the city to the factory where we were helping to repair the uniforms which they came back from the front my sisters and the day came when the segregation of the man so my brother went and his best friend was a also a student of chemistry and they were very close and the other one also had this girlfriend and also had the ceremony as well as my brother and he's been sent away the following day his wife came over to my brother and she says to him villa could you please come and help me to move this wardrobe because it's rather very difficult for me to do so and of course he felt it's the wife of his best friend he's got to go and help her and she happened to live across the road so he went there and he stood on a table in order to clear the things from the table and they shot fired at him and as bad news travels very fast they reached us in the meantime he's been taken to the hospital so my mother my two sisters and myself we rushed to the hospital we weren't allowed to enter we had to wait for permission so we waited quite a while and all of a sudden a body been carried out covered in a black cloth and it was not large enough to cover the whole body and placed on actually in front of us like on my right side and i saw myself i looked at the spot and i thought why the place in this body in front of us and then i looked it again and i don't i recognize the defeat of my brothers you see we were nine children five brothers and four sisters he was the youngest of the brothers and i was the youngest of the sisters and we had so much in common we always joked together and he was my favorite brother so i notched my mother and i said mom this is velec his name was and she says oh no village is upstairs they're operating on him so i said no he is this is felix and then my sister comes or when my other one and they looked it and they recognized it was my brother it was quite a took a lot of persuasion until my mother realized this is her son and of course a proper barium wasn't allowed and he's been wheeled away and months later they told us just about where he was buried so it was a loss of him a few weeks later the segregation of women one of my brothers was married and he was seven in the polish army and he had the child so he's been away and his wife lived in the same building as we were and in alphabetical order we had to stand up you see the huge place very large hole and in front there were about 35 nazis and we had to stand hundreds and hundreds of us my sister-in-law with that little boy stood in front of us and she's taking out some sweets and which she saved and she wanted to give to my nephew and he turned around to her mommy don't worry if the germans want to shoot me he will lay down and he will pretend that he is dead now can you imagine a child of three and a half years old to turn around to say that to his mother as we approach this panel of nazis they were told to go to the right my sister nor my nephew my mother my two sisters to the left and they were shouting at us quick we shall leave and hundreds of women in front of us we took quite a while to get out so as we were waiting i turned around and i've seen on that right side so many women and children and then been taken away that was the very first transport to auschwitz and the rest you can imagine go straight into the guest chambers so the news how to bring that to my brother which if ever he will come back from the army but as it happens some weeks later he escaped the segregated jewish soldiers from the polish soldiers christian soldiers and have taken him to the wood and my brother escaped and he came into the ghetto and to tell him about what happened to his wife and his child was a very difficult task for us and of course my mother was rather brave and she broke into him gently and he turned around he says he's not going to stay here he's going to the french resistance and he's going to fight the germans so he managed to obtain some christian papers he didn't look very much jewish he could easily escape and few of his friends he went down the sewers in the ghetto in order to get out and the nazis were waiting outside the other side and they shot him down there and so many others of his colleagues so when we learned about it how did we learned it because they found some clothes which belonged to him a waistcoat and we recognized that this was his that was a loss of him and to ensure that was rather very difficult to come in terms with those losses then they told us the gate of the camp is ready the concentration camp which is built on the actually the schindler's list was filmed on that camp my very first concentration came plush roof so they told us that we are only allowed to take with us about 75 kilometers and we have to move out so we've taken those belongings they've taken us to that huge barrack we weren't allowed to go on buses or trams or trains nothing we had to wear star of david and we had to just everything on foot and we were accompanied by station dogs and ukraines and nazis so we got into that camp huge banks where huge barrack there were strong mattresses and a blanket so my mother and few friends and my two sisters we kept very close we found a place on a bank in the morning we had to stand five o'clock in the morning had to stand to attention to be counted in case someone has escaped and then they told us we have to march out to that huge square they called it appel platz men separate and women separate regardless they were married so we went out there and then we had to wait for commander gert to appear actually the schindler's list portrayed them rather very slim but he was a man of enormous height and very heavily built and he walked like an elephant always accompanied by station dogs and sometimes galloped on a on a horse a whip in one hand and a gun in the other they used to come over to our side to women's side looked around several lashes across our faces then he walked over to the men's side and he looked you would not shave today shot him down you look too stupid shot him down you look too clever shot him down in the morning like that he could have shot 15 to 70 men and that occurred very very often and we were praying what's going to happen next and then we had to go on foot again to work into the city to this factory and this was everyday casualties in the meantime so many transports again and taken in into the mountain and being shot there there segregate him some of them they were used for them you see they were used to be able to work so they kept them alive for a little while and the others they just machine gun them then there we were able to to bring a bit of food we managed to obtain by the polish people we bought the exchange of a ring or chain or or something or watch for a loaf of bread and sometimes for a bit of soup and we brought it in to the camp sometimes we researched so we lost everything and it was this soup the the ration in the barrack was very very terrible the soup made out more water sago and then a slice of bread in the morning so on one day they told us you know the barracks the factory is going to be built in a camp and no one will be able to get out with the exception of one group which my sister miriam she have had a boyfriend and the rabbi performed the ceremony he was older than he was an architect he started a building in the center of the city and he had to finish it so he and he had 55 men working for him and she was acting as his secretary so they were allowed to go out to work and we were locked in in the camp the factories so every day they have brought us some food sometimes they've been searched to be confiscated but sometimes they manage to bring in and we shared with those which they did not have enough food and each one of those men had their own families or relatives so they used to share with them which was a great help one day my sister comes over she says you know i'm so upset that you're so locked away here and i think i have got a job for you which i'll be able to let you know tomorrow so i was really very happy that i'd be able to go out and help to bring some more food in because you see the most important commodity was the food the bread everything what you were doing everything was focused on that because the starvation was so horrendous so did tomorrow come and i walked over to the window she used to come about seven o'clock in the evening and that happened on this 14th of september 1939 1942 begun and um she walked over to the window and she was waiting away so i was waiting and i haven't seen anyone coming and all of a sudden i heard some shots and said your power just throw me away from the window and i shook my head and i said to myself what is it and i walked towards the window and i had more shots and more and then silence so i was rather disappointed she hasn't come yet but i thought there must be transports because that was their usual procedure the transport they arrive in the night or during the day they used to segregate them and shot him there and there so i walked over to my mother and i said you know there must be a delay that's why she didn't come yet because it must have been a transfer and with walking working and so on then all of a sudden a group of girls came in and they were shushing with other girls in the corners and as i approached them they stopped talking then another group of girls came in and um and then i approached them and that said so i said please could you tell me what happened outside what is it no no nothing nothing but i said look what have what are those shots would you please tell me what happened they said yes there were 55 men and one girl they had to undress and dig their own grave and then i realized that was my sister amongst them and to tell that news to my mother was rather very difficult we then we had to carry wood for the bodies to be banned because the germans didn't want to leave any trace so can you imagine for a mother to know that this is her child and she's carrying the wood for their bodies to be burned and as for myself she always used to sleep on my left side of my arm and from that night onwards until today i always feel such a chill like something torn away from me so it was very very upsetting how to cope with that it was we the stairs we shared that night we could have filled buckets fall off my other sister helen was working in schindler's factory on a night shift in june the day she was kidnapped on the way to her living quarters and taken into the hospital for experiments they injected her with petrol and to her blood it seems unbelievable to you but that was true and the nest which i knew very well when i wanted to see her i wasn't allowed and slowly slowly she i lost her as well so i was left with my mother which whatever food i could obtain i was i gave it to her because i felt as long as she's not starving that was sufficient for me sometimes i was hungry but they thought that she is filled it was sufficient content wherever i could and always she gave me a lot of courage to go on actually i lived only for it sometimes i thought oh maybe i'd show myself against the wise because it was enough but then i thought how could i who will look after my mother so because of that i stayed on and look after her and wherever i could i always we used wisdom march and the nazis used to watch us if she if people were just walking very slowly or downwards they used to shot them down there so i used to grab my mother's arm i said come and walk straight let's walk because they're watching us then one day they told us that we have to leave the this came pleasure and we weren't allowed to take anything with us on foot as we stood and we marched for days and days excuse me june the night i used to requisition a village and we slept outside and stables wherever in one village in the in that courtyard there were logs you know the farmers you know they store him for the winter and it was rather very high you know and the roof above and um so my mother said you know what there is no other way if you will climb up and you put your feet towards my mouth and i put my feet to your mouth so we keep ourselves warm and so we did climb up and for a while it was warm and then we fall asleep from exhaustion in the middle of the night i woke up i was like a lump of ice i just could not move my lips my arms my legs i could not move and slowly slowly i was just maneuvering just trying to move and i lift up one leg towards the ground this snow above my knee because falling that night then the other then i shook my mother and she did not respond and i was rather in a panic and and i shook in and rubbed her feet and then her face and then and gradually she has woken up the pulse was going so it's only this and i slowly i lifted downwards and at that point i felt you know it would be so much better if they shoot us because the frost and the hunger and the fear and they told you it was too too much to take in so i've seen the light farther away i said to my mother let's walk towards there and really truly i was hoped don't forget there were guards all around and i was really hoping they would shoot us but we walked and walked and we reached that heart and they didn't shoot us whether maybe they were asleep or whatever we opened this door that was a farmer's house and we've seen so many of our people were on the floor on the stairs everywhere sleeping they were cleverer than we were and the farmer's wife came out and she took us into her room and she put us in front of her oven which gave out a tremendous heat i never forget it was such a round one and it was so much glue from the heat it was wonderful and she pulled off her boots they were full of water and our socks and she brought some dry socks for us to put on and gave us some hot coffee and some bread and it was a wonderful gesture and i tell you until today i always feel i would love to go back to say thank you but i can't possibly find way about it was so shows that it was a human gesture and early hours again they were shouting at us the nazis quick we have too much we marched again to villages to cities and we found ourselves in auschwitz in auschwitz we were segregated by dr mengele as you may be read about him he was the one who tortured and experimented on people and we were segregated to a shower so many women and my mother and myself and we walked down and some steps and we got into that place stone floors openings in the ceiling we were shivering we had to leave our clothes behind and then no soap was given to us and we were waiting waiting trembling was bitter cold and all of a sudden doors opened on my left and walked in a woman which i've recognized she was the clerk working in a previous camp i stood on my toes and i thought oh i would like to for to speak to her and and it's so many women in front it was difficult and i stood and she's oh she says and she noticed me she stretched her arms and she said you are here and then she rushed out and i was rather disappointed i wasn't able to speak to her but then water came through and we shouted ourselves and we drank it because we were so thirsty and we came out of there when the water stopped the women embraced us who worked there and they shouted you are wonderful you are alive we thought we never see you again you came out of the fire i looked around i said what are you talking about and i was you know embracing us they were so happy to see us i said what are you talking about they say don't you know where you've been i said no where you were in a guest chamber when i heard that i completely utterly lost my voice nothing nothing came through no saliva nothing and i tell you until took a few minutes until i start speaking and at that point i felt must be power of a powers that god must have saved my life and so many others were with i get emotional we just understand the possibles so of course our clothes been taken away so each one of those women brought a blanket and a tunic and for us to put on and we walked out to on foot again to birkenau which is the annex of auschwitz and we got in there there were huge albums not on there were banks but no strong mattresses and no blankets so we found about this barrack and the bank with so many friends we kept together my mother and we fall asleep as a matter of fact one of those products i've recently taken some students to auschwitz to visit our streets you know the universities and so on i always take him there so it's amazing with my grandson and i this barack still is in existence as i showed them that and i showed them this is the bank sorry where i slept actually i've got a photo of my grandson taken and i always appointed out another college where my other grandson goes to emmanuel college and that was the universe at least university the previous one and i pointed out to him as well so it's it's there we did not stay there long we marched again on foot through germany and we were still thursday absolutely you can't possibly imagine we weren't so hungry but we were so dry and we were begging for some water the german people used to come out with buckets of water but they poured out in front of us in order not to give it to us so today when you ask that older generation german generation don't you know there were concentration camps and how people were starving they said no they don't know but they knew very well because they knew what state we were and how much we were gasping for a glass of water so i always thought myself is that the human gesture is that our people could go to its lowest and not show any mercy and see how people were starving marching and so many hundreds of people were shot into the gutter one can't possibly imagine in the hundreds we found ourselves in less low a city in germany there were open trunks waiting and we were so relieved because our legs could not carry us any longer and so we climbed up and wherever i could i always pushed my mother because the germans did not have patience you know if someone couldn't climb or or run they should so i always pushed my mother first and wherever whatever we could do and then those people who did not climb up they've been left behind the only food was the snow from my shoulders and they wheeled us again backwards and forwards for days and days then we found ourselves in buchenwald and bocavalt was the concentration camp mainly from polish christian descent and um we were shouted by the nazis again out out and they gave up their own soup in order to give it to us and i tell you that soup tasted so delicious and i'm quite a good cook but i can't possibly produce a soup of the tasters taste at that time so then trying trains arrived sealed trains and out the nazis are jumped out and they're shouting at us that we have to jump up to those and so many to one compartment one can't possibly imagine we were in one position the knees were towards our chins and we were like that you could not move left or right the scream distinction that the cry was impossible to describe and then we fall asleep we must have slept for days from exhaustion and suddenly the train stopped and the unlocking the locks i can still hear today we greeted by the nazis it was in the middle of the woods the only reflection was the snow and the shout in it as a rouse rose out march much and we marched for hours and when you reached belson concentration camp belzong concentration camp was known to us the code the german called finnish dung slag finishing camp from there there is no escape we were told to get into that huge barracks huge ones there were openings for windows but no glass in them no banks no straw mattresses no blankets just bare floors we found the corner my mother and some of the girls we kept together and we fall asleep from exhaustion in the early hours of the morning i woke up and so many people died that night and can't possibly imagine and i stood up and i looked out and i've seen walking skeletons in every sense of the world you could not distinguish there were men or women there were heaps of bodies outside each bullet mountains you can say you it's impossible how much one would like to portray it's for and it's no you can't comprehend it was terrible and i said to myself i'm not going to die like that and i woke up my mother and i said i'll soon be back and such upset your power just got into me and i trod out and so many peeps through the people even were dead already and i rushed out and i was aiming for a hospital you see my ambition always was to study in a medical field so i thought i aim for the hospital so i smuggled myself from one buttock to another and asked where is the hospital and don't forget there were guards all around they had to be very careful and eventually i reached the hospital and i got there and i said can you use any help they said yes so i was always thinking of i saw my mother but she wouldn't be able to do the work so friends so i asked can you use some more so yes you can bring one more friend and then i had to memorize where that my barack was and so i smuggled myself back to the barrack and i was so pleased that i would be able to go to work so we tossed who is coming with me so we got a ration of our bread which was as large as that and and a um a bit of soup which we had which was like water and then we had that soup in the bag and then we marched out to work i was very lucky before because there was no guards there on the gate between the hospital and the barracks so as we were approaching this this guard this post there was irma crazer she was the one who was in charge of all this as women she was she was the beast of all the concentration camps and she says halt yoda stop jew what have you got there i had a little bag with the zip on top and underneath that lining i had a picture of my sister which was shot in the plush roof and i treasured that and i thought so she snatched that bag and she tore out the lining you see she thought that i've got some treasures there she was rather disappointed she didn't realize that we gave up all our possessions in the previous camps they came in with with suitcases into the barrack and they told us we had to throw in everything with glitters even a spoon of fork all our jewelry everything we had to throw in my mother's sewn in some jewellery in our shoulder pads and so we thought maybe we safe but it wasn't they told us one day we had to leave our barrack naked and they've torn all our clothes to pieces and searching for for their belong for our belongings for treasures so she was rather disappointed she didn't find anything so she looked at that picture and she tore it to tiny bits and gave me several lashes across my face she says now you can go to work you see i didn't care so much about the ration of my bread and the in the bag but the picture meant so much to me so i went into the hospital and working like i would have been a qualified nurse but i must tell you whatever i've been doing it wasn't only me but i felt there was something with me something really helped me to go on like such a power and it was amazing how we coped with the patients and the injections i was doing in the center and then also in the evening there were two slices of bread left over and a bit of soup but we did ourselves we've taken it back to the barrack and we shared with others so every day i was very fortunate i was able to bring some food and some medications to the other people you see the type was epidemic dysentery all diseases were very rife and the people were dying like flies in their hundreds reports used to come in 500 people died 300 we said 10 got only 300. it was very very one can't visualize whatever how much i portray you you have to magnify really whatever you hear from me one day i had to sterilize the instruments and the table was under the window and the windows the leads to the outskirts of the camp and um you see all the time while you were working and all the time while you went a camp you had to act dumb you don't see anything you don't hear anything you have to focus everything you have to work this is your job and you've got to concentrate on that so as i was sterilizing the instruments i was i lift up my head and i've seen tanks passing by and loads of tanks and and was a star and i couldn't distinguish what nationality they were but i thought they must be you know the requisition because it was their usual way and then walked in the wife of the commandant kramer of belson joseph kramer was the commandant of belson concentration gap and she walked in with dr klein and he was not the one who experimented on people and they were conversing in german which i understood and i'm just concentrate on my work and she turned around to him she says you know they went to my husband went to meet him and they should be very shortly here and then they walked over to the window and they were looking and then walked in a couple a german descent she was in charge of polish prisoners and she wanted to be nice to mrs kramer so you know schmooze up to her so she said put on her hips her hands on her hips and she says i never thought that the british troops will enter the german soil so to my mind came in a boy while we were queuing for the soup in buchwald this polish boy walked by and he whispered in polish the voice coming to an end heads up i didn't take much notice then because i thought maybe he wants to give us some more courage to go on so i've put it the two together and i said maybe this is it it happened everything very quickly the gates opened and tanks and jeeps and loudspeakers voice came through we british we came to liberate you in all languages the nazis the germans got nothing more to say to you be happy so of course the tears of joy pour down my cheeks but i will quickly wipe them away because i could have been shot if the germans saw it and then some officers british officers came to the foot of the hospital and i gave them to wash some waters and wash their hands full of muds and and they were still escorted by the germans and the germans were still armed which i could not understand why they have not yet been disarmed but that wasn't for very long the british intelligence call that the same day they've been told they've told the germans they have to assemble outside their headquarters and they've been then taken prison and they just armed them and amongst them there were some jewish soldiers and then also the same time about an hour later two hours later two officers came into the hospital and i would happen to be in a different ward and the nurse who was published she couldn't understand any other languages she called me out she says there are two british offices and i don't understand what they want so i came out and i so they asked me do i speak english i said i'm afraid or not but do you speak any other languages they had to speak french and and german so this is oh we asked the questions you know said your tone but in the joking i suppose so um we confessed in german so they asked me why i look so clean and the people are so terrible states and so on so i told them that i'm here ness and i've got facilities to wash where there was no water and the people it was they were dying like flies i tell you it's i must emphasize all the time because it was impossible to describe and so i told him we need medication and people dying and so on and i've taken them around the hospital and there were so many uniforms left by the germans they've changed into civilian clothes and they escaped to the woods and in the woods there were the dutch resistance waiting and so some of them the germans been strung up there and there and some of them they managed to escape to where now and again they're in the world somewhere been arrested but a lot of them escaped and then if they installed water and it was wonderful the british troops the way they brought in the food and the red cross and also where some americans canadians came in afterwards several weeks later and it was really a great help and you know slowly to civilization then you see in order to get rid of the this um this epidemic they had to bend the wooden barracks so one day they told us that we're going to move into brick barracks and all those wooden ones be burned down because they're full of insect so they gave they told us we're moving out of the the wooden barracks and to the brick barracks where they were previously occupied by the russian prisoners and as the war came to to end they've been sent back and so we towards civilization and um it was wonderful because you know it's a different different life approaching but in the meantime one of while i was we were still trying to save people's lives uh one of those two officers was rather very very interested and used to come in with his translator happen to be a woman and i shall tell him what medications we need and so on he happened to be jewish and so every day i had to report what we need and this and that and one day he stand around he says you we've been observing you my commander obviously you've been working day and night and you were invited to the office's mess for for dinner and i was rather astonished because i thought well i lived such a sheltered life was a young girl when the war broke out and i just couldn't i was terrified a stranger so i asked my mother image was taken ill as well and i injected this three times a day in order not to have guilty conscience that i haven't done enough and i use in my own common sense but she did recap recovered slowly so i ask her what you think should i go to that then so she says well maybe you take your friend with you which i did and we had to be disinfected because no civilians were allowed to leave the camp and um then the troops the british when they arrived in the warning they had to be disinfected and in the evening when they left not to carry the epidemic out of the camp so we had this treatment we got into this office this mess was several kilometers outside the camp and we opened the door to this and i've seen beautifully decorated tables with white tablecloths and flowers which i haven't seen for so many years six years so i turned round to the sergeant norman i said do you expect any special visitors what am i doing here and i just stepped back so he says you had a special visit this is our engagement party i said pardon i said maybe anti-influence of drinks so we walked in and this commander officer comes over he offers me a drink and congratulating me and then all his colleagues come over and so many of them and congratulated me and i looked around and i saw myself they must be crazy because i don't know the man but he was a man he made up his mind when he first saw me when he entered belson into the camp into this hospital that this is the girl he's going to marry never mind me what i thought but he made up his mind he was a very determined and very stubborn and very determined that this is going to be the way he wants so as i mentioned i didn't want to spoil the evening and so i thought i let them get away with it afterwards after dinner they've taken us back to our barrack off they went and followed in day he is coming over again with this woman translator he walks over you want to give me a kiss and i pushed him away because i thought i may have a baby and i was so terrified so he says what's the matter you are my fiance i said look you don't know me and i don't know you you were born in england i was born in poland we come from different way of life and living culture but he it did not take financial determination again and he types out the official paper that i'm engaged a british sergeant i have to wait for his return to get married and he also left a ring with me why did he do that because his unit had to move on further into germany searching for other nazis so to assure himself that i will be there for him that's why he's done that and of course he went and i was left with this paper and that ring which i completely ignored with the influx of people from all over europe from other camps they're all searching for the loved ones some of them they were lucky some of them not the searching for their mothers or fathers or brothers or sisters sons husbands and so it was so much to do and people were seeking help medical help and people were dying and dying it was terrible as i mentioned we moved into the brick parks and for several weeks after towards shall we say september of all of a sudden my mother called me up i shared the room with two girls my mother and i and my mother called me out i was outside the building and i thought oh in the tone she just have to come home quickly i thought maybe she had their relapse you see but i rushed up and i've opened the door and um from behind the curtains which we used as a washroom because we did not have yet to lecture of the of a bathroom walked out norman in his uniform and he raised his hand he says sorry i couldn't come sooner because he had to go back to england his mother had a heart attack but now she is better and he's got only two hours leave and he especially came to see me to establish a day of our marriage and please don't say no and of course he's again his persuasion his determination rose again and explained it to me and this and that and i gave him and we established a day after marriage for the seventh of october and norman's friend brought in a british parachute and my dress was made at a british parachute which is now in the imperium museum on the show by request and it's amazing because her majesty queen opened this exhibition women and war and my dress was exhibited and i was introduced to her that i was the one who wore that dress and she says oh yes you dress brought one day for finished to the whole exhibition and it was one different and it was such a wonderful achievement in a way and then as a british subject i wasn't allowed to stay in germany so no one was given compassion leave to take me to england and my very first step was where my in-laws lived northwest london and the reporters got hold of me and i shall write stories and it was emotional strain was contradictable i adopted three ambitions to learn the way of british life and to learn the english language and to write about my memoirs in case i forget but how can one forget those atrocities so i've written pages and pages so i've written this book i light a candle for the people who haven't got a clue what went on and for generations to come i should never never allow to have him again i have received mb my majesty the queen for the work which i do i lecture at universities colleges schools learn teaching given lessons about the holocaust they should never be forgotten and they should never forget and teach their own children and children to come and of course it's very rewarding for me because enormous amount of letters i've got boxes full of letters from the children how much i hope them and how much they appreciate their life now the feedback is tremendous which is gives me a lot of comfort and i feel it is my duty as long as i can to broaden the people's horizon and to learn about it and the holocaust day should be always observed so as long as i can and i do hope they will like to candle long after me you

Channel: JBS

Views: 17,347

Keywords: gena turgel, turgel, holocaust, auschwitz, wwii, death camp, witness, shalomtv, shalom, tv, jewish, television, cable, network, jew

Id: oqPnqnVOoT8

Length: 62min 50sec (3770 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 18 2011